Glossary
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The bow of a ship is the front of the vessel.

On the P.S. Lady Sherbrooke the bow is round and extremely strong. This was probably required since the docking, or landing, of the boat was done bow first. In fact the vessel was probably landed with the bow ramming the quay or dock instead of approaching it smoothly as a boat would today.

Because of the ten meter width of the P.S. Lady Sherbrooke, and its shallow draft, the bow was designed to be very round. This is similar to the bow found on river barges. The top part of the bow would have been decorated with a carved figurehead. Unfortunately this has yet to be found.

All of the various components of the bow are in hardwood, mostly oak. The stempost, which is the large curved beam that projects from the keel, is in tamarack. The four breast hooks that acted as reinforcements to the stempost are in white oak. It was in the crack of one of the breast hooks that a Spanish silver coin dating from 1726 was discovered.