raft

A sort of float formed by an assemblage of casks, planks, or pieces of timber, fastened together with swifters and raft-dogs side by side, as well as tier upon tier. The timber and plank with which merchant ships are laden in the different ports of the Baltic, are attached together in this manner, in order to float them off to the shipping; but the rafts of North America are the most gigantic in the world. Also, a kind of floating bridge of easy construction for the passage of rivers by troops, &c.