Some Notes On Shipbuilding and Shipping In Colonial Virginia By CERINDA W. EVANS Librarian Emeritus, The Mariners Museum Newport News, Virginia Virginia 350th Anniversary Celebration Corporation Williamsburg, Virginia 1957 COPYRIGHT©, 1957 BY THE MARINERS MUSEUM, NEWPORT NEWS, VIRGINIA Jamestown 350th Anniversary Historical Booklet, Number 22 AS CONCERNING SHIPS It is that which everyone knoweth and can say They are our Weapons They are our Armaments They are our Strength They are our Pleasures They are our Defence They are our Profit The Subject by them is made rich The Kingdom through them, strong The Prince in them is mighty In a word: By them in a manner we live The Kingdom is, the King reigneth. (From _The Trades Increase_, London, 1615) SHIPBUILDING AND SHIPPING THE DUGOUT CANOE Various types of watercraft used in Colonial Virginia have been mentioned in the records. The dugout canoe of the Indians was found by the settlers upon arrival, and was one of the chief means of transportation until the colony was firmly established. It is of great importance in the history of transportation from its use in pre-history to its use in the world today. From the dugout have come the piragua, Rose's tobacco boat, and the Chesapeake Bay canoe and bugeye as we see them today. The first boats in use by the colony in addition to the Indian canoe were ships' boats--barges, long-boats, and others. A shallop brought over in sections was fitted together and used in the first explorations. As the years went by, however, "almost every planter, great and small, had a boat of one kind or another. Canoes, bateaux, punts, piraguas, shallops, flats, pinnaces, sloops, appear with monotonous regularity in the seventeenth and eighteenth century records of Virginia and Maryland." Little is known about the construction of boats in the colony except the log canoe. A long and thick tree was chosen according to the size of the boat desired, and a fire made on the ground around its base. The fire was kept burning until the tree had fallen. Then burning off the top and boughs, the trunk was raised upon poles laid over crosswise on forked posts so as to work at a comfortable height. The bark was removed with shells; gum and rosin spread on the upper side to the length desired and set on fire. By alternately burning and scraping, the log was hollowed out to the desired depth and width. The ends were scraped off and rounded for smooth navigating.