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Show Record life preservers. I do not recall grounding on the rapids, but on one or two occasions we grounded on rock ledges a short distance above the rapids. We were probably aground several times a day on sand bars. Lewis R. Freeman was a boatman on that ex- 2490 pedition. Usually it did not take more than five minutes to get 2491 off these bars. We reached Lee's Ferry on September 16. Just 2492 after we crossed the state line we got stuck on a sand bar. The personnel of our party was largely composed of government engineers 2494 There were six men altogether in our party. There were six men in one boat and the others were distributed among the remaining boats. We also carried supplies and bedding. In the one boat with six passengers we also had somewhere between five hundred and a thousand pounds of supplies and equipment, and thus loaded the boat had a draft of nine or ten inches. Franklin Thomas testified on cross examination as follows: 2495 On our journey we made frequent stops to examine dam sites. I have no recollection of any occasion when both boats were stuck on the same sand bar or at the same place. Half of the time the 2496 parties were traveling within half a mile of each other. We saw no sand waves. I would say that on this trip one or the other of the boats would get stuck on an average of twice in a half day, dependent upon the distance we traveled, and this estimate is 2497 based upon continuous traveling for half a day. When one of two boats lashed together in tandem fashion got stuck, both of those boats would be help up. I should think that traveling tandem fashion in the manner we did would only increase the difficulty of navigation in getting the boats clear and because of the additional weight in handling. With reference to the number of times during that entire eight day journey when any boatman stopped into the river to help get a boat off a bar " I can only say I have one distinct recollection of the first morning. I have several times noted in my diary". Before I took the witness stand I looked over my diary. I would say that I saw a boatman in the water 330 |