Scow is another nautical word born in America; its parents were the Dutch schouw, a large flat-bottomed pole boat or river boat, and a mispronunciation, which turned schous into scow. Usually serving as a ferryboat or lighter in the beginning, the scow first entered the language in the mid-seventeenth century and is first recorded in 1660: “The Governor hath given me Orders . . . to provyde a scow to help ye souldiers in their provision of fire wood.” To scow meant to cross a river by scow and America has since known cattle, dumping, ferry, mud, oyster, snag, sand, steam, stone-trading, and garbage scows.