On a wet winter night, anyone who sat in the bottom of a Durham boat or ferry would have been sitting in ice water. There are accounts of other Delaware crossings in 1776 in which the men were ordered to jump up and down in several inches of watery slush to clear the ice from the boats and to keep from freezing. The legions of American debunkers who have made a mockery of George Washington for “standing up in the boat” might try sitting down in such conditions.
