^ ^ QURVIVING COLONIAL rCC- 



>»■ "''<:ls in America show 



that the vessels and boats 

 * * Ijiiik in the individual col- 



onies during the 16th and 

 4. ^ 1 7lh centuries were of the 



national types of their 

 * * mother countries. As 



* ♦ would be expected, the 



Spanish were the first to 

 establish extensive shipbuilding; operations in the New 

 World. By 1570 they had constructed dockyards m 

 Cuba, Puerto Rico, and Campeche which were al- 

 ready well known for their ability to turn out fast- 

 sailing ships of the frigata type; a long, low-waisted, 

 narrow galley-ship fitted to carry her guns on a single 

 deck and to row fast as well as to sail. Drake ob- 

 tained some of these ships in the 1580's and after- 

 ward reported that two of them ran from Cape Florida 

 to the Scilly islands in 23 days. The Spanish also 

 built galleons in the American colonies; these were 

 not all of the lofty sided type that were in the Armada, 

 for the American-built galleons were intended to sail 

 fast and were employed in carrying treasure to Spain. 

 They were larger than the frigatas and many carried 

 guns on two decks. 



Small craft built in the Spanish colonies included 

 many "brigantines" ; this name did not refer to a rig 

 as it did later; the Spanish "brigantines" were small 

 craft of the shallop or pinnace type, often without 

 decks and rigged with two lateen sails. They were 

 fast under sail and oars. A variety of small galleys 

 were also built in the Spanish American colonies to 

 guard the coast; these were of the Mediterranean type, 

 with one or two lateen sails. These reputedly well 

 built Spanish vessels were of cedar, mahogany, and 

 tropical hardwoods. Practically all the ship and boat 

 building in the Spanish colonies was by the govern- 

 ment or by government-sponsored expeditions, and 

 no attempt was made to establish private yards and 

 a colonial shipbuilding industry. 



Colonial Craft 



In the English colonies, ship and boat building did 

 not become particularly active industries until after 

 the middle of the 17th century, when the civil war in 

 England had interrupted trade with the mother 

 country. As a result, the colonies, forced to create a 

 seaboard trade of their own, set about exploiting sea 

 fisheries in order to produce trade goods, and this 



made boat building necessary as a supporting in- 

 dustry. English colonial ship and boat building were 

 under private ownership; the government made no 

 real attempt to establish naval dockyards. In the 

 17th and early 18th centuries the boats and ships 

 built in the English colonies were also all of national 

 types, except for canoes and boat-canoes; these were 

 dugouts that could be built by unskilled hands from 

 the large, easily worked timber available. 



At the end of the 17th century colonial-built craft 

 included such types as shallop, pinnace, sloop, ketch 

 or catch, pink, galley, and skiff. From English 

 somxes it is possible to obtain some idea of what these 

 types were, although type names of vessels and boats 

 were then rather loosely applied. 



A shallop thus might be anything from a small 

 open ship's boat fitted to row and perhaps to sail, to a 

 sizable decked coasting craft or fishing boat. Large 

 shallops sometimes had one mast fitted to carry a jib 

 and a gaff or sprit mainsail, but gradually the typical 

 shallop rig became a 2-masted one having two gaff 

 sails, the fore the smaller, and no jib. Most shallops 

 were square sterned; those having sharp sterns were 

 commonly called double shallops. The lateen rig, 

 it is believed, was also used in the shallops, but rarely 

 in boats working in unprotected waters. 



The pinnace was either a ship's boat, long and nar- 

 row and built to row fast, or a decked craft designed 

 to sail and row and often fitted with the 2-masted 

 shallop rig. The pinnaces were sometimes the Eng- 

 lish equivalent of the Spanish "brigantine." The 

 name pinnace was also applied to galley-ships in the 

 16th and early 17th centuries, but by the beginning 

 of the 18th century this application of the name 

 ceased. 



At the end of the 17th century colonial shipbuilders 

 were constructing for the North Atlantic run between 

 the New England colonies and England galley-ships 

 and galley-brigantine-rigged vessels both called "gal- 

 lies" or "galleys." These vessels were required in 

 the unprotected colonial trade, the British Navy then 

 being unable to furnish adequate cruisers for convoy 

 guards. These galleys were flush-decked ships armed 

 for war on one deck and with a rowing deck below; 

 they were sometimes called "runners." 



The pink was a sharp-sterned vessel with bulwarks 

 carried abaft the sternpost, rigged as a ship, brigan- 

 tine, or sloop. It was the forerunner of the later, 

 schooner rigged American pinky. 



The ketch was a square-sterned sailing vessel having 

 two masts; the type was used for trading and in the 



14 



