My House Boat “The Conch Shell” 
THE ORIGINAL GUNDELOW 
fleet in the Colonial harbor ot Portsmouth. 
These little-known but celebrated “gunde- 
lows,” a corruption of the Venetian “ gon¬ 
dola,” have ever been a picturesque feature of 
this charming salt river. For more than two 
centuries, before the railroads invaded her 
banks, these clumsy birds have carried on 
their backs the famous Dover River bricks 
that are moulded and baked along the river 
banks for a stretch of more than fifteen 
miles. They are very shallow, flat-bottomed 
boats, with huge lateen sails, long-handled 
tillers and lee-boards like ear-flaps. They 
skim about over these clayey, slippery flats 
when the water is quite shallow and sit calmly 
upright when the tide recedes. 
Now the days of the gundelow are over, the 
hoot of the conch shell is seldom heard; the 
white-pointed sails gliding between the green 
banks of this inland river are quite rare. 
The memory of this picturesque fleet is al¬ 
ways a delight to recall, and the satisfaction 
of purchasing one of these old hulks with 
all its furnishings, even the conch shell of a 
hundred years of use, from which my boat 
derived its name, is an interesting outset for 
floating home. 
Every part of this graceful hulk is most 
beautifully adapted to my needs. It is built 
of solid planking, with a flush deck, two 
hatches for storage below, a windlass, anchor 
and endless chain, and a very good pump 
to keep the hull free from bilge water. 
The gundelow is sweet and clean, for it is 
soiled only by the pink brick dust from the 
last cargo. The old sail that I have striped 
with crimson paint, makes a splendid awn¬ 
ing. A little caulking on the bottom of 
the hull, the old cabin cleared away and 
floored over and we are ready to lay out the 
rooms. No new floor is needed, as the deck 
is in good condition for bed rooms and saloon, 
with a rug or two placed over the roughest 
parts. My boat-builder and I scoured through 
all the old building materials of the several 
local dealers and secured eight-panel doors, 
secondhand sashes, sheathing and frame work 
of a varied assortment. We then built a sill 
THE ROOF GARDEN OF “THE CONCH SHELL” 
