TheO 



PEOPLE & 



PLACES 



f the Periauger 



By Ryan Reynolds 



I ven in Bath, the oldest city in North 



Carolina, residents and tourists may have 

 done double takes when they saw a colonial- 

 style boat sail into the town harbor. 



They weren't imagining it, though. The boat 

 was the Periauger, a replica of a small cargo vessel 

 t frequently cruised Carolina waterways during 



the 1 8th century. 



But the 30-foot vessel, equipped with two " ~~ \ 

 masts for sails and up to eight sweeps for rowing, 

 wasn't in Bath to deliver goods. It was heading toward 

 Hertford to complete its Odyssey — a three-week trip up North 



UILDING HISTORY 



Much like ah architect who depends on blueprints, a boat 

 builder may rely upon some sort of written plan when building 



■ £ 



• a ship. But when the Perquimans County 

 gjgS"' Restoration Association (PCRA), the 



N.C. Maritime Museum and the East 



Carolina University Maritime Studies 

 program decided to create the Periauger 



replica, they didn't have that luxury. 



e project partners had been 



inspired by a reference to such a vessel in 

 the 1751 inventory of Abraham Sanders, who built the' 



Carolina's inner coast that was planned and commanded byjohn Ernst Newbold-White House in 1 730. To fund the dream, the PCRA raised 



of Hertford, a volunteer in the project since 2002T^ 5 



The vessel's real odyssey began almost fouryears ago, when the 

 principal movers behind the project started the planning. 



more than $100,000 in private donations and a grant from the N.C. 



Department of Transportation. 



Continued 



COASTWATCH 27 



