The Migrations of an American Boat Type — John Shaqi
The Migrations of an American Boat TypeChapelle, Howard Irving
History
The Migrations of an American Boat Type
Chapelle, Howard Irving
Sharpies (Sailboats)
The Carolina Sounds area was the last place in which the sharpie was
extensively employed. However, in 1876 the sharpie was introduced into
Florida by the late R. M. Munroe when he took to Biscayne Bay a sharpie
yacht that had been built for him by Brown of Tottenville, Staten
Island. Afterwards various types of modified sharpies were introduced in
Florida. On the Gulf Coast at Tampa two-masted sharpies and sharpie
schooners were used to carry fish to market, but they had only very
faint resemblance to the original New Haven boat.
[Illustration: FIGURE 19.--Sharpie yacht _Pelican_ built in 1885 for
Florida waters. She was a successful shoal-draft sailing cruiser. (Photo
courtesy Wirth Munroe.)]
The sharpie also appeared in the Great Lakes area, but here its
development seems to have been entirely independent of the New Haven
type. It is possible that the Great Lakes sharpie devolved from the
common flatiron skiff.
The sharpie yacht was introduced on Lake Champlain in the late 1870's by
Rev. W. H. H. Murray, who wrote for _Forest and Stream_ under the pen
name of "Adirondack Murray." The hull of the Champlain sharpie retained
most of the characteristics of the New Haven hull, but the Champlain
boats were fitted with a wide variety of rigs, some highly experimental.
A few commercial sharpies were built at Burlington, Vermont, for hauling
produce on the lake, but most of the sharpies built there were yachts.
Double-Ended Sharpies
The use of the principles of flatiron skiff design in sharp-stern, or
"double-ended," boats has been common. On the Chesapeake Bay a number of
small, double-ended sailing skiffs, usually fitted with a centerboard
and a single leg-of-mutton sail, were in use in the 1880's. It is
doubtful, however, that these skiffs had any real relationship to the
New Haven sharpie. They may have developed from the "three-plank"
canoe[11] used on the Bay in colonial times.
[11] A primitive craft made of three wide planks, one of which formed
the entire bottom.
The "cabin skiff," a double-ended, half-decked, trunk-cabin boat with a
long head and a cuddy forward, was also in use on the Bay in the 1880's.
This boat, which was rigged like a bugeye, had a bottom of planks that
were over 3 inches thick, laid fore-and-aft, and edge-bolted. The
entire bottom was made on two blocks or "sleepers" placed near the ends.
The sides were bevelled, and heavy stones were placed amidships to give
a slight fore-and-aft camber to the bottom. The sides, washboards, and
end decks were then built, the stones removed, and the centerboard case
fitted. In spite of its slightly cambered flat bottom, this boat, though
truly a flatiron skiff in midsection form, had no real relation to the
New Haven sharpie; it probably owed its origin to the Chesapeake log
canoe, for which it was an inexpensive substitute.
[Illustration: FIGURE 20.--Florida sharpie yacht of about 1890.]
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