The current exhibit at the North Carolina Maritime Museum is an excellent history of North Carolina Boatbuilding.
The first of North Carolina's historic watercraft were dugout canoes built by the Indians. Settlers made dugouts but used boatbuilding tools. Woods used for boat building included cypress, white cedar, white oak, and heart pine. Examples are shown here and can be touched.
Dugout canoe: This canoe is a replica of a canoe made from a cypress log on Crusoe Island near Lake Waccamaw, NC.
From sloops to steamships to sharpies: The models represent the sloops of the 1700s, steamships of the mid-1800s, and the sharpies of the late 1800s and early 1900s used in North Carolina's rivers, sounds, and coastal waters for trade and transportation.
Flat-bottom skiff: This boat was rowed or poled in the shallow rivers and sounds of coastal North Carolina in the late 1800s and early 1900s. A skiff is still a popular means of transportation for fishing or short distance travel in the creeks and estuaries. You may touch this full-sized boat.
Spritsail skiff: This full-sized sailing skiff, built in 1910, was restored by the museum in the 1970s. Without paint, it is easier to see the traditional juniper (Atlantic white cedar) planking, oak frames, and other construction details. This boat type is pictured in the museum logo. You can feel the old wood gunwales, stern, and rudder.
Three basic types of North Carolina traditional small boats are flat-bottom, V-bottom, and round-bottom. Models of these hull shapes are mounted here where you can feel the differences.
• The flat bottom is more useful in the shallowest waters.
• The V-bottom or "deadrise" is better than the flat bottom in deeper water where there is more exposure to heavy weather and seas.
• Round bottom hulls are the ultimate in seaworthiness and comfort, but become very expensive to build because they require more time, skill, and specialized materials than the other types.
The spritsail rig for sailing is typical for all three types. The basic rig consists of a mainsail, which is supported by the sprit (pronounced "spreet"), and a foresail or jib. There is no boom to get in the way of a working fisherman and the whole sailing rig stores easily against the mast. A unique feature of the sprit rig in North Carolina is its ability to carry a topsail, independent of the main rig, which can be used when working in light winds, near a tree-lined shore, or while racing.
The shad boat model represents North Carolina's State Boat. Developed in North Carolina, the boat was a sturdy craft designed for practicality and dependability in the state's northern sounds
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