Rafts
Rafts are made of wooden parts (round timber, boards or carpeted wood) bound together. The type of a raft made depends on the river's characteristics, type and shape of the wood and also local tradition of raft-making. Rafts were made in the shape of a rectangle or a trapezium and were moved by the water/river current itself and steered by an oar. Smaller, single rafts were about 20 meters long and were handled by two raftmen, the bigger rafts were about 70 meters long and were handled by four raftsmen (two in the front and two in the back). One single raft could have about 20 cubic meters of wood. The rafts that came from smaller rivers into larger ones were bound together into larger rafts. A raft called Mitrovcan was the largest and made out of and bound from twelve single rafts.
Raftsman master (krmaniž - steersman)
Raftsman master the most important man on the raft. On mitrovcan raft he steered in the front left row in front of the shanty (shanty was a space on the raft where raftmen slept and kept stored food) and he was also the cook on the raft for the crew that ate only on the raft. The second in importance on the mitrovcan raft was the front man in the right row that occasionally took place for the steersman and besides steering also helped with landing the raft. The back man on the left rowed and bound the raft when landing and also used to do dishes and other chores.
