the years 1820-55; being replaced in the 1850's by 

 fast schooners of the fisherman type. Pacific coast 

 sealing was carried on by old fishing schooners, ex- 

 yachts and, as sealing finally developed into illegal 

 poaching in Alaskan waters, any fast-sailing vessel. 

 The South Atlantic sealing ceased with the American 

 Civil War and Pacific-coast sealing finally died out 

 about 1910 as a commercial fishery. 



Oyster Boats 



At Cape Cod, on Long Island Sound, on the New 

 Jersey coast, and on Chesapeake Bay, a fine class of 

 centerboard schooner was produced by the oyster 

 fisheries. The Chesapeake Bay fishery was carried on 

 at first with shoal-draft keel schooners known as 

 pungies; the centerboard schooner and sloop appeared 

 on the Chesapeake about 1825. This area had been 

 noted since the middle of the 18th century for the 

 construction of fast-sailing craft, at first the so-called 

 Bermuda sloop model, and then the schooners of the 

 Virginia, or pilot-boat model. The Chesapeake Bay 

 schooner, which later became known as the Baltimore 

 clipper, and the pilot-boat types were long, low hulls 

 having a straight sheer, raking ends, a straight keel 

 with much drag, square stern, sharp entrance, a long 

 easy run, and a V-shaped midsection with a rising 

 straight floor, an easy bilge, and a shallow topside 

 with a slight tumble-home. After 1825 the amount 

 of rise in the floor steadily decreased; in the pungy it 

 became very moderate, and in the centerboard 

 schooner almost flat. However, the entrance and run 

 remained fine and well formed for speed, so that keel 

 or centerboard, the Chesapeake Bay schooners main- 

 tained a great reputation for swift sailing throughout 

 their existence. Chesapeake Bay schooners after 1848 

 became also characterized by exaggeratedly long and 

 pointed cutwaters; this soon became a traditional 

 finish in all the Bay sailing craft and probably in- 

 fluenced the design of the bow elsewhere. 



The New Jersey schooners were based upon those 

 of the Bay and it was not until after 1900 that they 

 departed much in appearance from the Chesapeake 

 Bay centerboard oyster schooner. In about 1910, stems 

 round in profile came into fashion in the Jersey 

 schooners. The Long Island Sound oyster schooners 

 were also like the Chesapeake Bay and Jersey center- 

 boarders and were basically on the same model, 

 though at times the oyster schooners at the western 

 end of Long Island Sound were much influenced by 

 contemporary schooner yachts, particularly in the 



1870's. The Cape Cod oyster schooners were 

 usually keel fishing schooners employed in summer 

 in the mackerel fishery. A number of centerboard 

 schooners were employed; at first these were obtained 

 from the Chesapeake but in the 1880's Cape owners 

 were having them built at Essex, Massachusetts, the 

 model being essentially that of the Long Island Sound 

 oyster schooners. 



Alongshore Fishing Craft 



The shore fisheries were carried on in small craft 

 ranging from rowboats to sloops and schooners up to 

 about 60 feet in length. There is little in the colonial 

 records to establish what these small craft were like 

 in hull and rig. Apparently, however, a large num- 

 ber of dugout log canoes were employed all along 

 the coast — a boat-canoe having a square stern with 

 small heart-shaped transom, a raking curved stem, a 

 straight keel, flat bottom, good sheer, with the mid- 

 section having flat floor, an almost angular bilge, and 

 slightly curved and flaring sides, and the entrance and 

 run short but easy. The last known use of the dugout 

 boat-canoe was on the Miramachi River, New Bruns- 

 \vick, Canada. The craft was fitted to row or sail. 



The colonial shallop has been discussed (p. 162). 

 Probably it was the most common small boat in the 

 colonial fisheries and was about the same as the 2- 

 masted boat of pre-Revolutionary years. It was not 

 until after the War of 1812, apparently, that Ameri- 

 can small fishing boats developed strong local char- 

 acteristics and became individual types. This may 

 not be true of all but appears to be true of the very 

 large majority. The double-ended lap-strake beach 

 boats, such as the Block Island boat and the Hampton 

 Beach, New Hampshire, Hampton boat, may be the 

 oldest American types. The range in types of small 

 American fishing boats has not been determined with 

 accuracy — it is believed there were about 200 indi- 

 vidual types under 60 feet in length, though probably 

 not this many were in existence at one time. 



In small American fishing boats the spritsail rig 

 was the commonest. Many of the very small boats 

 in the rowing-sailing class carried a single spritsail; a 

 few had jibs. Two-masted spritsail rigs were also 

 common; in some of the larger boats a jib was carried 

 and was commonly set flying. The foresail was larger 

 than the mainsail. At least two types of boat had 

 three masts and three spritsails. 



Gaff-sails were probably the next most popular sail 

 form and at times, particularly after 1850, the gaff"-sail 

 predominated. The colonial shallop rig — two gafi- 



176 



