What would be a good design for a vessel that has to transverse the Great Lakes region, from Lake Superior to Lake Ontario, and do so fairly regularly?
Some Info
- Resources: a good amount of wood, lots of scrap metal and such that can be scavenged, same for scavenged plastics, a small amount of coal and natural gas
- Technology: renaissance or late medieval metalworking (so no mass production, everything by hand), at the most the inhabitants could manage a crude, crude steam engine, some knowledge of electricity (mostly in the form of lighting), guns are few and far being either pre-disaster relics or crude matchlocks
Skill: the inhabitants can handle fairly detailed construction, at a craftsmen level of ability (like building say a primitive grandfather clock)
Dangers
- Stormy weather typical of the Great Lakes
- Giant Lobsters that like to attack boats in shallow water attacking with their pinchers, they are small enough to crawl onboard (about the size of a great dane)
- Other raiding humans with about the same tech (they like to grapnel ships)
Serpents, giant snake/eel beasts about 60 ft long that like to coil around smaller vessels or leap out of the water to snatch the crew
Clarification
My problem is I need a ship capable of getting through these threats