Figure 17. — Deck of a North Carolina sharpie schooner showing U-shaped 

 main hatcli typical of sharpies used in the Carolina Sounds. 



"Albemarle Sound boat" or "Croatan boat," had 

 been developed in the vicinity of Roanoke Island for 

 the local shad fishery. Although it was seaworthy and 

 fast under sail, this boat was not particularly well 

 suited for the oyster fishery because of its high free- 

 board and lack of working deck for longing. 



Because the oyster grounds in the Carolina Sounds 

 were some distance from the market ports, boats 

 larger than the standard 34- to 36-foot New Haven 

 sharpie were desirable; and by 1881 the Carolina 

 Sounds sharpie had begun to develop characteristics 

 of its own. These large sharpies could be decked and, 

 when necessary, fitted with a cabin. In all other 

 respects the North Carolina sharpie closely resembled 

 the New Haven boat. Some of the Carolina boats 

 were square-sterned, but, as at New Haven, the 

 round stern apparently was more popular. 



Most Carolina sharpies were from 40 to 45 feet long. 

 Some had a cramped forecastle under the foredeck, 

 others had a cuddy or trunk cabin aft, and a few had 

 trunk cabins forward and aft. Figure 6 is a drawing 

 of a rigged model that was built to test the design 

 before the construction of a full-sized boat was at- 



tempted.'" The 1884 North Carolina sharpie shown 

 in this plan has two small cuddies; it also has the 

 U-shaped main hatch typical of the Carolina sharpie. 

 It appears that the clubs shown at the ends of the 

 sprits were very often used on the Carolina sharpies, 

 but they were rarely used on the New Haven tongers 

 except when the craft were rigged for racing. The 

 Carolina Sounds sharpie shown under sail in figure 

 8 is from 42 to 45 feet long and has no cuddy. 



The Carolina Sounds sharpies retained the excellent 

 sailing qualities of the New Haven type and were well 

 finished. The two-sail, two-mast New Haven rig was 

 popular with tongers, but the schooner-rigged sharpie 

 that soon developed (figs. 9, 11-18) was preferred for 

 dredging. It was thought that a schooner rig allowed 

 more adjustment of sail area and thus would give 

 better handling of the boat under all weather condi- 



1" In building shoal draft sailing vessels, this practice was 

 usually possible and often proved helpful. In the National 

 Watercraft Collection at the United States National Museum 

 there is a rigged model of a Piscataqua gundalow that was 

 buih for testing under sail before construction of the full-scale 

 vessel. 



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BULLETIN 228: CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE MUSEUM OF HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY 



