Special types also appeared in some coastal and 

 river trades during the 19th century. On the lower 

 Mississippi sloop-rigged barges were used during the 

 first half of the century; eventually these were built 

 with leeboards or centerboards. A large variety of 

 sailing barges also appeared; some had complete 

 schooner rigs, but many carried the old shallop rig, 

 without bowsprit or headsail. Some of these were 

 actually canal-boat hulls fitted with masts that could 

 be lowered to pass under bridges. Masts fitted in 

 that way were employed at an early date, though not 

 always in coasters. Dtu-ing the War of 1 8 1 2 one pinky 

 schooner thus fitted, as a privateer was thereby 

 enabled to hide among the islands on the Maine coast, 

 her spars lowered, and to pounce on passing English or 

 Canadian vessels, either by using sweeps or by raising 

 her rig and sailing. 



Another curious type was the Fiscataqua River gun- 

 dalow (not to be confused with the 18th century 

 gundalo). used in that ri\er in New Hampshire. This 

 was a shallow, log-built barge with spoon-shaped ends, 

 fitted with a single triangular boomless sail laced to a 

 spar that could be lowered to pass under bridges. 

 This spar was hung on a stub mast by a short chain 

 halyard and as a result the rig has a superficial resem- 

 blance to the lateen rig. These vessels had a single 

 leeboard secured inside an iron rack to keep it from 

 breaking away from the hull at the pi\ ot on the off 

 tack. These boats, which sometimes ventured a short 



distance coastwise, were good sailers. The name 

 "gundalow" was also applied in New England to 

 various sailing scows having this rig or a simple 

 square sail on a piv^oted mast that could be lowered. 



There was a sharp increase in the use of vessels 

 having the form of a flat-bottomed, sharp-bowed .skifT 

 rigged as a sloop or schooner, or with square sails. 

 One of these, a gundalow used on the Kennebec River 

 in Maine, had a mast that lowered, and was rigged 

 with a square course and a topsail; the hull had one 

 leeboard and a low trunk cabin aft. 



Flat-bottomed skiff-shaped schooners, or sharpies, 

 were developed on the Great Lakes and along the 

 coasts of Georgia, the Carolinas, and Florida. Some 

 of these had the above-water appearance of regular 

 coasting schooners i)ut the underbody of a skiff or 

 sharpie. Sloops of the same form, used in the Caro- 

 linas and in Florida, were sometimes called "flatties," 

 and a rather distinctive type was used for a period on 

 the Chesapeake Bay as lighters to carry farm produce 

 to ports that could be served by schooners and steam- 

 ers. The log-bottom bugeye, an overgrown canoe, 

 also developed on the Bay, had two masts, of almost 

 equal height and standing with a sharp rake, fitted 

 with leg-of-mutton sails and a large jib; they were 

 employed in both fishing and freighting. Small sailing 

 craft lasted in the coastal trade, until the introduction 

 of gasoline cnaincs early in the 2rith century. 



Catalog of the Collection — iS/lerchant Sail 



MERCHANT SHIP, 1818 

 Builder's Half-Model, usnm 76123 



Aniens 



The ship-rigged wooden merchant vessel Altiais was 

 built on this half-model at Castine, Maine, in 1818 for 

 the general ocean-freighting trade. She represented 

 a class of such vessels that were developed in New- 

 England after the War of 1812 for the foreign trade. 

 Though considered a large merchant vessel at the time 

 of her launching, ships of the size of the Atticus were 

 soon very common in the American trade with Euro- 

 pean and Mediterranean ports. 



The half-model represents a burdensome vessel hav- 

 ing a long body and full ends, moderate sheer, straight 

 keel with verv little or no drag, upright stem rabbet 



curved at forefoot, upright post, round tuck, and upper- 

 and-lower-transom square stern. The entrance is 

 short, bluff, and nearly round at the rail. The run 

 is rather long but quite full. The midsection is well 

 forward and is formed with slightly rising straight 

 floor carried well out, well rounded bilge, rather 

 straight and upright topside, and slight tumble-home. 

 She had deep bulwarks and in proportion to her 

 length was rather wide for ships of her type. 



The half-model scales 132 feet moulded length at 

 rail, 33 feet 4 inches moulded beam, and 16 feet 8 

 inches moulded dejnh; it represents a ship of about 

 298 tons, old measurement. Scale of model is % inch 

 to the foot. 



Given by James B. Clrawford. 



55. 



