Canallers spent much of their lives afloat, set apart from the world of permanent homes and unchanging scenery, with a workplace bounded by the edges of the boat but ranging over 185 miles. Their jargon was semi-nautical: one moved toward the stern, but looked through a window, not a porthole. Before all the boats were supplied by the Canal Towage Co., owners gave them names like A. Lincoln, Scow Uncle Sam, and Jenny Lind. Canalling moved at only 2-3 mph, but it was demanding work that one canaller compared to farm labor, generally beginning at daybreak with only 4 or 5 hours of rest. A full crew had five members: two steersmen, one of whom was the captain, two mule drivers and tenders, and a cook. If a family was large enough, or if the owner could afford hired hands, the boat could run around the clock with two crews taking 6-hour tricks along with the mule teams. Boats operated from March to December in all kinds of weather. Many canallers remembered boat life fondly. Children began helping at 6 or 7, advancing from mule driver to steersman, and boys who stayed on the canal often inherited their fathers' boats and became captains. Whole families, sometimes quite large, lived in the 12x12-foot cabin. Food was simple but abundant, including ham, potatoes, bread, turtle soup, Boatman's Bean Soup, eggs, chicken, and fish. Small children played on the cabin roof, tethered for safety, while older children could dive from the roof into a 185-mile swimming hole. Mules were well suited to canal work as quick learners, steady and sure-footed, and many could be left untended for miles at a stretch. Some even knew when their 6-hour trick was over, pulling up and waiting to be relieved. Most were kept fat, clean, and brushed, wore sweat nets to keep off flies, and were usually guided without a whip, as a firm "Come Up!" was enough. By the canal's most prosperous period in the 1870s, virtually all boats were built in Cumberland and were more or less uniform at 90-95 feet long, 14½ feet wide, and drawing 4½ feet when loaded, the largest size the locks could accept. Several small boatyards built these oak-bottomed, pine-sided boats, which could be expected to last 25 or more years.