Sail Plan of Piscataqua River 

 gundalow Fanny M., showing rig- 

 ging details. Drawn, under super- 

 vision of the builder of the gunda- 

 low, by the Historic American 

 Merchant Marine Survey. 

 (HAMMS 2-171-B.) 



returning to the coast with manufactured goods, farm 

 produce, and timber. Sometimes gundalows ven- 

 tured along the coast to York, Maine, but usually 

 confined themselves to the river trade. 



The model is correct as to hull form and to hull 

 and sail proportions but does not show details accu- 

 rately. Drawings of the Fanny M. made from this 

 model and measurements of the full-sized gundalow 

 are in the Historic American Mercliant Marine Survey ma- 

 terial (see bibliography) and show this gundalow in 

 great detail. 



The model represents a shoal, ffat-bottomed, scow- 

 like hull ha\ing ends much like the tip of a teaspoon, 

 a slight sheer, slightly rounded bilges, and a flaring 

 topside. A single leeboard on the port side only is 

 held to the side by an iron staple or rod. There is a 

 false cutwater at the bow. Tlic hull is decked, with 

 mast well forward, and a small hatch just abaft. The 

 high, removable side boards on the cargo deck amid- 

 ships are not shown on the model, which shows aft on 

 this space a small hatch the full-sized gundalow did 

 not have. Near the stern is a small trunk cabin with 

 a large iron mainsheet horse astraddle it. At the 

 extreme stern is a steering wheel and tiller, the rudder 

 post coming up through the stern overhang inboard 



the rail. The greatest beam of the hull is abreast the 

 mast: the sides from this point to the trunk are nearly 

 straight in plan, but with decreasing beam. On a 

 skeg at the stern a nearly rectangular rudder is hung. 



The rig is characteristic of the Piscataqua gundalow. 

 The mast is very short; its height being determined 

 by the lowest bridge clearance which, for many years, 

 was that of the long wooden bridge at the mouth of 

 Great Bay now replaced by the modern "General 

 Sulli\an Bridge." From the stub mast was slung by 

 a chain halyard a long yard with a triangular sail, 

 loose footed and fitted with both brail lines and reef 

 points. To the yard head extended a single vang; 

 the mainsheet was of peculiar lead. A heel tackle 

 topped the yard so that it stood almost vertically. In 

 some gundalows the heel of the yard was counter- 

 weighted to aid in raising the spar and sail after 

 passing under a bridge. It is common to consider 

 the gundalow sail as a lateen but it had so little sail 

 fonvard of the stub mast that it cannot be properly 

 so classed. The plan of the Fanny M. shows this more 

 correctly than the model. 



The cargo deck of large guticlalows like the Fanny 

 M. were covered with an asphalt surface to protect 

 the wooden deck. The gundalows of the largest class 



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