Figure 14. — The entrance of a North CaroHna sharpie schooner and details 

 of her sharp lines and planking. Note scarphs in plank. 



were assembled and the planking and frames secured; 

 then the inner stem was built, and the sides nailed 

 to it, after which the bulkhead and a few rough tem- 

 porary molds were made and put in place and the 

 boat's sides bent to the desired curve in plain view. 

 For bending the sides a "Spanish windlass" of rope 

 or chain was used. The chine pieces were inserted 

 in notches in the molds inside the side planking and 

 fastened, then the keelson was made and placed in 

 notches in the molds and bulkhead along the center- 

 line. Next, the upper and lower stern frames were 

 made and secured, and the stern staved vertically. 

 Plank extensions of the keelson were fitted, the bottom 

 laid, and the boat turned over. Sometimes the case 

 was made and fitted with the keelson structure, but 

 sometimes this was not done until the deck and in- 

 board works were finished. 



The son of Lester Rowe, a noted sharpie builder at 

 New Haven, told me, in 1925, that it was not uncom- 

 mon for his father and two helpers to build a sharpie, 

 hull and spars, in 6 working days, and that one year 

 his father and two helpers built 31 sharpies. This 

 was at a time after power saws and planers had come 



into use, and the heavy cutting and finishing of timber 

 was done at a mill, from patterns. 



In spite of Barnegat Bay's extensive oyster beds and 

 its proximity to New Haven, the sharpie never became 

 popular in that region, where a small sailing scow 

 known as the "garvey" was already in favor. The 

 garvey was punt-shaped, with its bow narrower than 

 the stern; it had a sledlike profile with moderately 

 flaring sides and a half-deck; and it was rigged with 

 two spritsails, each with a moderate peak to the head 

 and the usual diagonal sprit.* The garvey was as fast 

 and as well suited to oyster tonging as the sharpie, if 

 not so handsome; also, it had an economic advantage 

 over the New Haven boat because it was a little 

 cheaper to build and could carry the same load on 



" The foremast of the garvey was the taller and carried the 

 larger sail. At one time garveys had leeboards, but by 1850 

 they commonly had centerboards and either a skeg aft with a 

 rudder outboard or an iron-stocked rudder, with the stock 

 passing through the stern overhang just foreward of the raking 

 transom. The garvey was commonly 24 to 26 feet long with a 

 beam on deck of 6 feet 4 inches to 6 feet 6 inches and a bottom 

 of 5 feet to 5 feet 3 inches. 



PAPER 25: THE MIGRATIONS OF AN AMERICAN BOAT TYPE 



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