To tow with a “cordelle.”
1826. In two instances the boatmen on the tops of the cliffs, when cordelling the boat directly at the base of these rocks, disengaged snakes from their retreats, and they fell from an immense elevation on the deck of our boat.—T. Flint, ‘Recollections,’ p. 96.
1838. The men of the Hudson’s Bay Company cordelled several bateau down this rapid—part of the men going in the boats, and part on the shore cordelling.—Samuel Parker, ‘Tour,’ p. 145. (N.E.D.) (Italics in the original.)
1842. They [the falls] are ascended by cordeling, and it is frequently necessary to work for hours in the water among the rocks, in order to get up one boat loadk, an exercise any thing but agreeable when the mercury is nearly down to zero.—Gustavus Hines, ‘Oregon,’ pp. 121–2 (1851).
1844. [They] employed only twenty cordelled boats, carrying one hundred tons each.—Mr. Bowlin of Missouri, House of Repr., Jan. 16: Cong. Globe, p. 75, App.
