“The Door Thereof when It Was Shut Was Tight Like Unto a Dish”

Alan C. Miner

According to Randall Spackman, each vessel had a "door" (Ether 2:17) which, "when it was shut, was tight like unto a dish." The Jaredites would have required some means of putting their provisions into the barges; so, at least one opening of some kind may be assumed. That this opening was merely a hatch is unlikely. Pictures and models of ancient barges nearly always show a deck house of some type. Furthermore, a flush-decked vessel with one or more hatches would provide no protected area from which the helmsman could steer the vessel during storm conditions. There was such an area because the brother of Jared complained about it: "O Lord, in them there is no light; whither shall we steer?" (Ether 2:19) That is, with the door closed and without a window or opening in this protected area, the helmsman either could not tell where to steer or could not steer at all. Thus it seems that there must have been some form of deck house with a door, but no windows, covering at least part of the stern of the vessel. Of course, there may have been several additional hatches through which the Jaredites loaded their provisions and animals. [Randall P. Spackman, The Jaredite Journey to America, p. 86, unpublished]

Step by Step Through the Book of Mormon: A Cultural Commentary

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