You Don’t Steal a Boat from Theodore Roosevelt

roosevelt-boat-factsIn 1886, Roosevelt and two friends purchased a “clinker” boat to carry them across the frozen Missouri River. After coming back from a hunting expedition, they found the rope that was securing the boat had been cut and the boat itself was missing. This is probably when most people would notify the authorities…most people. However, Theodore didn’t take too kindly to the act of thievery, so he and his friends built a boat from scratch (in 3 days), tested its durability, and then set off to find the guilty culprits and retrieve their boat. After a few days of navigating the river, at times reaching 0 degrees Fahrenheit, they found the three thieves. What did they do? Well, Roosevelt and his buddies roughed-up and captured the men, and brought them back with them to be arrested. During the long trip back, apparently Roosevelt passed the time reading Dostoevsky’s Anna Karenina to his friends and captives. When they got back to dry land, Roosevelt arrested the three men himself because he was the Deputy Sheriff. The boys got off lucky since Roosevelt only arrested them, because the normal punishment back in those days was death by hanging.