MERCHANT MARINE SURVEY TAYLOR 597 



At one time more than 100 were in use carrying hay, grain, gravel, 

 and bricks about the bay and tributary rivers. They appear to have 

 been built by "rule of thumb" or the experience of one generation 

 of builders passed on to the next, and no plans have been found. 

 The last one was built in 1904, though one built as long ago as 1870 

 was made the subject of a survey. The drawings show shallow- 

 draft, scow-ended, flat-bottomed vessels of simple construction, well 

 suited for sailing in shoal waters and for beaching on an even keel 

 for loading where there were no wharf facilities. They ranged in 

 length from 60 to 90 feet, with 65 to 75 feet the most popular size. 

 None of the vessels surveyed was rigged for sail, but original sail- 

 makers' draughts supplied the details for the restoration of sail 

 plans. The schooner rig with main gaff topsail was the most popular, 

 though some were without topsails, some had fore and main gaff 

 topsails, and a few were sloop-rigged. Early photographs show the 

 scows carrying enormous deck loads of hay with the sails reefed high 

 to clear the load and the helmsman steering from a pulpit built up 

 10 or 15 feet above the deck. 



The same waters have produced many other distinctive types of 

 craft of which the oddest is, perhaps, the felucca. It is a small 

 lateen-rigged, double-ended, open boat formerly employed by the 

 Italian fishermen of San Francisco Bay. Unlike any other American 

 type, its sweeping, slanting spars were patterned on those of Medi- 

 terranean boats familiar to the Italians. Toward the end of the last 

 century scores of these fished in the Bay, but only one could be found 

 recently to survey for the purpose of preserving its design. An effect 

 of the survey of this particular boat was to focus attention upon it as 

 probably the last remaining one of its type with the happy result 

 that it was subsequently acquired by the Mariners' Museum for 

 preservation. 



Other interesting local craft, large and small, too numerous to 

 describe in detail, were surveyed and drawn up wherever the Survey 

 operated. Great Lakes schooners and steamers of many periods, a 

 collection of Mackinaw fishing boats, and a Wisconsin logging bateaux 

 indicate the variety of some 60 surveys produced by the Chicago 

 office. 



In Florida, surveys were made of the greatest variety ranging 

 from the sponge sloops of Greek influence to old sternwheel river 

 steamers. These last are represented by two steamers built in 1870 

 and 1898, the wrecks of which still remain. They were important 

 links in the transportation of travelers before the railroads ran along 

 both coasts and across the State. They typify the period when the 

 slowness and hardship of travel were compensated for by the leisure 

 to observe the details of the country. The steamers, for example, 

 were equipped with iron baskets to carry burning light wood to 



