25 feet, main-topmast 8 feet 6 inches total length 

 (with 2 feet of doublin!i), fore-boom 13 feet 6 inches, 

 foregaff 9 feet, main boom 18 feet, main gaff 10 feet, 

 jib club 3 feet 6 inches. The spars were very light. 

 Model is shown under full s:iil, with jib, foresail and 

 mainsail, and main gafi-topsail. 



There were no knightheads, in fact, in this model, 

 but the log rail is brought up sharply near the bow to 

 serve in their place. 



Given by U. S. Fish C^ommission. 



CHESAPEAKE BAY BUGEYE, 1885 

 Builder's Half-Model, usnm 76290 



Lillie Sterling 



The bugeye Lilhe Sterling of C'risfield, Maryland, 

 was built from this half-model at Pocomoke City, 

 Maryland, by E. James Tull in 1885, and the design 

 won an award for the builder at the World's Colum- 

 bian Exposition in 1893. The Sterling was built for 

 the Chesapeake Bay oyster fishery. The half-model 

 represents a small vessel of her type, by later standards, 

 but one popular in her period of build. She does not 

 have the overhanging stern platform, or "patent 

 stern," of the later bugeyes, nor does she have 

 the "drake's tail" or "pink'' enclosing the rudderpost 

 head that also marked later bugeyes. 



As a development of the older log canoe of this 

 area the bugeye difTered from the various classes 

 of these canoes only in being completely decked, 

 a characteristic that appears to have determined 



whether or not a vessel was a bugeye. Canoes larger 

 than the Sterling were often built; these were called 

 "brogans," "standing-rig canoes," and "coastin' 

 canoes." When so called they had large cockpits 

 with only short decks at the ends, a small cuddy well 

 forward, and narrow side decks. 



The Sterling was not log-built, but framed and 

 planked in the conventional manner, a style of con- 

 struction slowly becoming common in bugeyes when 

 the Sterling was designed. However, log-bottom 

 bugeyes, with the logs forming the whole bottom to 

 just above the turn of the bilge, and with plank-and- 

 frame topsides, remained popular until recent times 

 because of the great durability of the log construction. 



Small bugeyes of the class of the Lillie Sterling, 

 which is also represented by a rigged model in the 

 Watercraft Collection, had a small trunk cabin; in 

 the Sterling this was well aft but in many the trunk was 

 forward, just abaft the foremast. A large cargo hatch 

 was placed between the masts and sometimes a small 

 hatch was placed \vell forward. In the Sterling there 

 is a small hatch abaft the mainmast against the fore- 

 end of the trunk cabin. The early bugeyes steered 

 with a tiller and the mainsheet set up to the rudder- 

 head. Some small bugeyes had a small cockpit, 

 or a "standing room" or hatch for the helmsman 

 during heavy weather. A larger hatch was some- 

 times fitted amidships in which stood the crew oper- 

 ating the dredge winches; this standing room was 

 in addition to a cargo hatch; sometimes the standing 

 room deck, or sole, was self-bailing. 



Stufr' fliicK)*' Off. *» y ^^ 



Lines of the Sm.m.l Ches.'\pe.\ke B.av Bugeye, Lillie Sterling, built at Pocomoke City, Maryland, in 1885. I he 

 lines were taken off builder's half-model USNM 76290, the deck arrangement and spar dimensions are from 

 rigged model USNM 76256. 



274 



