Measured Perspective Drawing oi- a Chebacco Boat, 1795-1805, showing form and arrangement of hull 

 Drawn bv the late Georsre C. Wales. 



crab by passing it through a small hole, made in the 

 crab for the purpose, and splicing it in place; the free 

 end was made up in a large eye-splice. This cable 

 was usually about 4 to 5 fathoms long and the eye- 

 splice was buoyed. In mooring, when the Chebacco 

 boat picked up the buoy, the large eye-splice was 

 dropped over the high stem-head of the boat, thus 

 securing her. In some boats a removable fid was 

 passed through the steinhead athwartships to prevent 

 the eye-splice from coming adrift, but in most boats 

 the stemhead was so high this was not necessary. 



Though the center of Chebacco boat construction 

 was at Cape Ann, copies of the type were built else- 

 where, on the "South Shore" of Massachusetts at 

 Hingham, Scituate, and Kingston as well as to the 

 eastward in Maine, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia. 

 The old sailing fishing boats of the northern end of 

 the Gaspe Peninsula, Quebec, were certainly de- 

 scendants and a form of Chebacco is said to have 

 existed there late into the last quarter of the 19th cen- 

 tury. The Cheljacco lost its popularity in Massachu- 

 setts at the end of the War of 1812 as the increase in 

 size of hull began to make the rig heavy to work; as 

 a result, in the inshore fisheries the schooner-rigged 



pink\ surplanted the pink-sterned Chebacco and the 

 square-stern schooner the dog body. 



It is not known when this type of schooner, later 

 known as the "pinky," originated. But the pink- 

 sterned hull with schooner rig appears to have been 

 used in the New England fishing fleet before the Rev- 

 olution. It is probable, however, that it existed 

 throughout the whole period of development of the 

 square-stern schooner. At the end of the War of 1812 

 the pinky had a period of popularity and a great 

 many were built. The pinkies were at their height 

 of popularity in New England between 1815 and 1840. 

 The invention of the mackerel jig in 1816 by Abraham 

 Lur\cy of Pigeon Cove, Cape Ann, made this fishery 

 popular and profitable. As the mackerel work to 

 windward, vessels in this fishery had to be weatherly. 

 The pinkies were notable for this quality and so a 

 great many were employed in this fishery, a fact that 

 led to their being called "jiggers." Pinkies were em- 

 ployed in all New England offshore fisheries except 

 the Grand Banks, in the period 1815-35. 



The Chebacco boats and pinkies had open fire- 

 [ilaces in the cuddy forward and life aboard them was 

 often hard. The fare mav be imagined bv a list 



165 



