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Figure 2. — A New Haven sharpie and dugouts on the Quinnipiac River, 

 New Haven, Connecticut, about the turn of the century. 



much weight, the heel of her straight and upright 

 stem was aii inch or two above the water. The stern, 

 usually round, was planked with vertical staving that 

 produced a thin counter. The sheer was usually 

 marked and well proportioned. The New Haven 

 sharpie was a handsome and graceful craft, her 

 straight-line sections being hidden to some extent by 

 the flare of her sides and the longitudinal curves of 

 her hull. 



The structure of New Haven sharpies was strong 

 and rather heavy, consisting of white pine plank and 

 oak framing. The sides were commonly wide plank. 

 Each side had two or three strakes that were pieced 

 up at the ends to form the sheer. The sides of large 

 sharpies were commonly Iji inches thick before fin- 

 ishing, while those of the smaller sharpies were 1% 

 inches thick. The sharpie's bottom was planked 

 athwartships with planking of the same thickness as 

 the sides and of 6 to 8 inches in width. That part of 

 the bottom that cleared the water, at the bow and 

 under the stern, was often made of tongue-and-groove 



planking, or else the seams athwartship would be 

 splined. Inside the boat there was a keelson made 

 of three planks, in lamiiiation, standing on edge side 

 by side, sawn to the profile of the bottom, and running 

 about three-fourths to seven-eighths the length of the 

 boat. The middle one of these three planks was omit- 

 ted at the centerboard case to form a slot. Afore 

 and abaft the slot the keelson members were cross- 

 bolted and spiked. The ends of the keelson were 

 usually extended to the stem and to the stern by flat 

 planks that were scarphed into the bottom of the 

 built-up keelson. 



The chines of the sharpie were of oak planks that 

 were of about the same thickness as the side planks 

 and 4 to 7 inches deep when finished. The chine logs 

 were sawn to the profile of the bottom and sprung to 

 the sweep of the sides in plan view. The side frames 

 were mere cleats, 1}^ by 3 inches. In the 1880's these 

 cleats were shaped so that the inboard face was 2 

 inches wide and the outboard face 3 inches wide, but 

 later this shaping was generally omitted. 



PAPER 25: THE MIGRATIONS OF AN AMERICAN BOAT TYPE 



137 



