: Obviously a canoe makes a lousy submarine, they don't seem to make
: much progress ;)

: Bill H.

I found that by chance and it reminded me of one of the funniest stories of my childhood. Our neighbors across the way had a little pond and on the pond there was a john boat and a canoe. The john boat said prominently "UNSINKABLE" in big black letters. Well, being curious kids, we just had to test that. We took it out in the middle of the pond and swamped it. Sure enough, it filled full of water, but it didn't sink. Finally getting the boat back to shore we learned that it's not easy getting a boat full of water back ashore, but we bailed it out and got it back on dry ground.

Having tested the John Boat, we decided, "Hey, I wonder if this aluminum canoe is unsinkable too!" So in our youth and lack of wisdom, we paddled out and proceeded to dip the rails of the canoe, and I mean quicker than you could say "Oachita" (The brand name of the canoe which I still remember to this day), we were swimming, and the canoe was resting on the bottom of the pond. I have never quite seen something sink so fast.

We learened a lot about physics that day. We learned that an object filled with water is much heavier than one not filled with water. We also learned that the mud on the bottom of the pond is like glue and holds on to anything that happens to land in it with a vengeance.

We managed to dive down, walk the canoe, come up for air, dive down, walk it some more, come up for air... and so forth and so on. We finally got the canoe into the shallows, and after much effort finally got it dumped of water and back ashore.

We came home covered from head to toe in smelly backwater mud, and my mom had a caniption fit. She stripped me buck naked and whooped me with a belt. I'll never forget my friend standing at the end of the hall laughing. My mom looked at him and said "What are you laughing at? You're next." She proceeded to grab my friend, strip him, and whoop his butt too. That was the last time my friend ever came over to my house!!!

Funny thing, the canoe in that video is the same color as the old aluminum Ouachita that we nearly layed to rest years ago. I sure wish we had dive gear back then. It would have been much easier getting it ashore.