CHESAPEAKE BAY PUNGY SCHOONER, 1865 

 Rigged Model, usnm 76262 



W. F. McKewen 



The Chesapeake Bay pungy 11 '. F. McKewen, an ex- 

 ample of a type long popular on the Bay, was built 

 in 1865 for Crisfield, Maryland, owners for the 

 oyster fishery, being employed in oyster dredging and 

 transporting and in general freighting in the off-sea- 

 son. At one time there were a large number of 

 pungies on the Chesapeake but they were gradually 

 replaced with centerboard schooners and bugeyes, 

 and are now an extinct type of vessel on the Bay. 



The McKewen is a shoal-draught schooner having a 

 straight keel with some drag, a raking and strongly 

 curved stem rabbet, a long, heavy, and pointed head, 

 raking sternpost, round tuck, upper and lower tran- 

 soms, and moderate sheer. The entrance is sharp and 

 rather short, the run long and fine. The midsection 

 shows a moderately rising straight floor, a round, easy 

 bilge, and slic;htly flaring topside; the greatest iieam 

 is forward of midlength. 



The model shows the typical pungy rig: sharply rak- 

 ing masts, the fore without a topmast, a large jib with a 

 small club at its foot, foresail, mainsail, main gaff- 

 topsail, and fisherman staysail. A yawl boat is car- 

 ried on iron stern davits: also shown are a trunk cabin 

 with a hatch at its fore end, wooden pumps, manual 

 oyster-dredge winches, or "winders," rollers at rail, 

 hatch and rail-to-rail jib-horse, and an iron windlass 

 and heel bitt. 



These schooners usually had only a low log rail made 

 up of edge-bolted timber without stanchions; aft there 

 was sometimes a cap-and-turncd-stanchion mon- 

 key rail, occasionally carried well forward to the fore 

 rigging or knightheads. The knighthcads and hawse- 

 timbers stood well above the log rail and were very 

 prominent. The pungy was a modified Baltimore 

 clipper, of privateering and slaver fame, in which the 

 dead rise of the floors was decreased. The pungy hull 

 form is well illustrated by the half-model of the Mary 

 and Ellen (p. 199) and by half-model usnm 312331 

 (p. 193). The pungies were often employed in the 

 summer fruit trade between the Bahamas and the 

 Chesapeake and in general were noted for their 

 sailing qualities. Their draft eventually caused their 

 replacement with centerboard craft as the harl^ors 

 and creeks along the Chesapeake silted up. 



The McKewen was 68 feet at rail, 20 feet 9 inches 

 beam, 7 feet depth. Scale of model is \i inch to the 

 foot. 



Gi\en l)y U.S. Biu'cau of Fisheries. 



FISHING SCHOONER, 1866 

 Builder's Half-Model, usnm 74041 



Thomas E. Evans 



The market boat Thomas E. Evans, built at East 

 Boston in 1866 by Dennison J. Lawlor, was employed 



k 



Sail Plan for the Lizzie F. Choate, 

 a fishing schooner built at Ipswich, 

 Massachusetts. i866. From a copy 

 of the sailmaker's plan in the Wa- 

 tercraft Collection. The vessel is 

 also represented in the collection 

 by builder's half-model USNM 



l6oi 12. 



203 



