Selected Styles of Traditional St. Augustine Watercraft:

Dugout Canoe, prehistoric period through the 20th century

The dugout canoe or logboat is one of the simplest and earliest forms of watercraft used by humans. Dugouts were the primary boat used throughout the Americas before the arrival of Europeans, and played an essential role in Native American riverine trade networks spanning across the eastern half of the present U.S. The earliest archaeological examples of this type of watercraft in the New World come from DeLeon Springs, Florida, and two specimens have been dated to over 6,000 years ago. This type of vessel was hollowed out from a felled tree, using a tedious process of burning with fire and scraping the charred wood away with shells. After the introduction of European iron tools, construction was rendered much easier and faster. The size of a dugout was limited by the dimensions of available trees; Columbus witnessed 100' long canoes with dozens of paddlers in the Caribbean. Dugouts were also common throughout West Africa and enslaved Africans brought canoe-building traditions with them from the coasts and river deltas of their stolen homeland. The combination of Indian, African, and European boatbuilding skills resulted in an increasingly sophisticated dugout canoe. Metal tools were used to shape the outside of the log, flattening the bottom to decrease draft and weight and increase stability, and shaping the bow and stern ends to increase seaworthiness. Planks could be added along the upper sides of the dugout to increase freeboard and breadth, and the canoe could also be equipped with pole masts and leeboard in order to sail. Thus this native boat design was much used throughout the colonial and territorial periods by a culturally diverse population. Spanish documents from 1602 mentions locally-built small and medium-sized canoas owned by the government of St. Augustine, the latter used "as a sentinel off the bar." The term periagua or periager (from Spanish piragua derived from the Carib term for large canoe) came to be used by English colonists for large dugouts propelled by sail and oars which were often used as scout boats and during the attacks on St. Augustine from the Carolinas and Georgia in the 1700s. In St. Augustine dugouts continued to be used for transport, work, and racing through the 19th and into the 20th centuries, evidenced by a number of historic photographs and a surviving specimen (pictured above) once owned by the Alligator Farm and in 2009 transferred to LAMP for recording, conservation, and eventual display.

Spanish Chalupa, ca. 1565

The chalupa, known as "shallop" by English-speaking mariners, was a highly seaworthy open boat which could be rowed or equipped with sails. Colonial Spanish and Basque sailors, along with those from France and England, used these sturdy vessels throughout the New World, from the Caribbean to the North Atlantic. Unlike most 16th century boat types, we know about the form and function of chalupas from both archaeological and documentary evidence. The well-preserved remains of three chalupas were excavated and recorded by Parks Canada archaeologists from the site of a wrecked whaling galleon in Red Bay, Labrador. The best preserved (completely intact) of these was designed to be manned by a crew of seven and measured 8.03 m (26.3') long and 2.01 m (6.6') wide. An artistic reconstruction of this vessel, courtesy of Parks Canada, appears above. The Red Bay chalupas displayed a unique planking method, using carvel planks (edge to edge) below the waterline and clinker (overlapping edges) above. All three were of Basque design and were wrecked in 1565, the same year of St. Augustine's founding by Pedro Menéndez. His expedition, outfitted from Avilés on the Biscayan coast adjacent to Basque country, included three chalupas that were probably very similar to those discovered in Red Bay, along with Biscayan boatwrights versed in similar building traditions. Records recently discovered by LAMP researchers in Spanish archives indicate that chalupas continued to be used in St. Augustine through the following century. One of these documents includes a detailed description of a St. Augustine chalupa complete with a list of ancillary equipment. Combining archaeological and historical evidence, LAMP plans to build a replica of a chalupa dating to the period of St. Augustine's initial colonization in time for the city's 450th anniversary in 2015.

British Yawl, ca. 1760

This British yawl, dating to 1760, was a standard type used by the Royal Navy as a ship's boat. The vessel type originally came from Norway, where it was known as a "yole" and was clinker-planked (plank edges overlapping), double-ended, and highly seaworthy. The yawl spread through Ireland and England and in 1701 it was officially adopted by the British Navy. Naval yawls were the smallest class of boats on board a warship. The first Naval yawls were almost double-ended (unique among naval boats) and featured curved sternposts and small transoms. They continued to evolve over the course 18th century: planking transitioned from clinker to carvel, the sternpost was straightened, transoms were widened somewhat, and overall size increased to a standard 26' long and 6' 6" wide by 1800. The 1760 yawl whose lines are reproduced above is a transitional type, carvel-built and just over 14' long and 4' 6" wide. Yawls were highly regarded by naval officers, who frequently requested them in place of longboats. Usually outfitted with either four, six, or (as with this example) eight oars, yawls were sometimes rigged with two masts and either sprit, gunter, or lateen sails. Yawls similar to this one would have likely been common on the St. Augustine waterfront during the British period, 1763-1783, as boats for His Majesty's naval vessels and as tenders to service civilian ships and ferry passengers and cargo. LAMP has begun construction of a 14' yawl whose keel, stem, sternpost, and deadwood have been fashioned from St. Augustine-grown live oak. We are planning to present it to the replica Revolutionary War-era sailing ship Galveztown, which is at present being built by our shipbuilding partner Astilleros Nereo ("Nereo Shipyard") in Málaga, Spain, and is scheduled to be sailed across the Atlantic and make landfall at St. Augustine in 2011.

Flatboat, 16th through 20th centuries

A flatboat—sometimes called a scow or often simply a "flat"—is exactly what it sounds like: a flat-bottomed, barge-like hull built for maximum carrying capacity, stability, and shallow draft. Flats were the workhorses of the colonial and territorial periods, and would have been regular sights along the St. Augustine waterfront and the surrounding network of rivers, marshes, and tidal creeks. Typically a flatboat would be poled along the shallows or maneuvered by sweeps (oars) while drifting with tidal currents. While their shape made them unsuitable for offshore navigation, flats could be rigged with sails, such as a schooner rig, and sometimes were decked, which would increase their seaworthiness. Flats were commonly used on plantations as working vessels and to carry supplies and agricultural products to and from town or waiting ships in the harbor. The Spanish were the first to introduce this simple boat design to the area, as confirmed by a 1602 document referring to a government-owned barca chata (literally, "flat boat") in the town. In 2008 LAMP volunteer boatbuilders constructed a replica barca chata, pictured above during its initial sea trial. This vessel is relatively narrow and thus quite maneuverable, and two more were built in 2009-2010. This simple flatboat design would have been used here for centuries, as evidenced by an 1855 engraving which shows a very similar vessel with a load of logs at the town's waterfront near the present location of the Bridge of Lions. LAMP's first barca chata measures 14' in length and is 2' 9" wide. Flats were often built significantly wider in relation to their length, which would have increased both stability and cargo capacity.

Bateau or skiff, 16th through 20th centuries

The bateau or skiff was a more complex and seaworthy version of the flatboat, also flat-bottomed and hard-chined but with a pointed bow. The original French term referred to a double-ended boat, a type used in the 1560s French colonization attempt at Fort Caroline in present-day Jacksonville, though virtually all later versions featured a square transom stern. Both bateau and skiff came to be used as general terms for this class of shallow-drafted rowing or sailing boats which were common across the entire southeastern U.S. throughout the colonial and territorial periods, especially after the proliferation of sawmills, and into the early 20th century. These stable and capacious vessels were cheap and easy to build and were widely used as work boats, fishing and oystering vessels, ferries, and cargo haulers. The Bevin's skiff pictured above (length: 11' 8", width: 4' 6", max. capacity: 460 lbs) and constructed by LAMP boatbuilders, a modern interpretation of a traditional design, is a good example of this vessel type. Bateaux would have been made in a wide variety of sizes, though typically would measure between 14 and 16 feet long and 4 to 5 feet wide. A larger (up to 38' long) sailing variant of the bateau equipped with a centerboard was known as the sharpie, for its distinctive "sharp" or fine bow. Sharpies evolved in the 1840s from Connecticut oyster skiffs and were introduced to Florida by way of Key West in 1881 and St. Augustine in 1883. Surprisingly seaworthy, simple to build, handy under sail, and able to run the shallow inlets common to Florida, the type spread rapidly throughout the state, and were used for a range of activities from oystering to mail delivery to recreational racing. The fragmentary remains of a sharpie-type vessel were recovered by LAMP archaeologists from the banks of the Tolomato River north of St. Augustine, and are currently being preserved by our archaeological conservation staff. Equipped with a centerboard and displaying the flat bottom and hard-chine of this vessel class, it is believed to represent the remains of an oystering sloop dating to the 19th century.

Florida Skipjack, 1870s through 20th century

Florida Skipjacks were first built and used by commercial shad fishermen on the St. Johns River. These centerboard sailing vessels were characterized by a V-shaped, chine-built, sawn-frame hull with a sharp bow and with the chine rising very high on the stern. With their hull planks running lengthwise rather than side to side, and lacking the Baltimore clipper bow, they differed markedly in construction and shape from the more famous Chesapeake Skipjack. In addition to being speedy sailers, their longitudinal planking and full framing made for a strong hull, able to handle a heavy deck load even when run aground. By the 1880s Florida Skipjacks dominated the St. Johns shad fishery and had become the most common type of small sailing craft in Northeast Florida other than the bateau. In addition to their use as rugged working craft, skipjacks were prized as pleasure and racing yachts, and they are the most frequently seen type in historic photographs of the St. Augustine Yacht Club. While similar craft were known on Long Island Sound, and fishermen from that region participated seasonally in the St. Johns River shad fishery, it is not known if this type was introduced to Florida or if it was adopted by these Northern watermen and brought back with them to Connecticut. Florida Skipjacks lasted well into the 20th century, when many were converted to power boats. A typical skipjack, such as this one pictured sailing off St. Augustine's waterfront in the late 1800s, was gaff-rigged and might measure 18 to 20' long, 7 to 8' wide, and draw as little as 15" when fully loaded. Photograph courtesy of the St. Augustine Historical Society.

Greek-style Shrimp Trawler, ca. 1920s through 1980s

America's shrimping industry began at the turn of the century in Fernandina, where the highly effective "otter trawl" nets were first drawn by powered boats. By the 1920s, the center of this booming industry, lead by a few immigrant families including the Salvadors, Polis, and Versaggis, had shifted to St. Augustine, and the entire Northeast Florida region was supplying shrimp by the ton via iced railcar to the New York market. Also at this time a new style of shrimp boat appeared on these waters, built by Greek boatbuilders from the sponge fisheries of Tarpon Springs. The new Greek shrimp boats displayed a dramatic sheerline ending with a high bow with a sharp entrance, and a deckhouse located forward to facilitate the hauling of nets from the stern. Unlike previous shrimp boats with their V-shaped hull, the Greek style shrimper was rounded in cross-section. This hull shape resulted in a deep and slow roll at sea, the source of complaints from some seasick shrimpers used to a hard-chined vessel. The earliest shrimpers were small, mostly under 30' in length, though they grew in size over the decades, typically 40' by the 1930s, 50 to 60' in the 1940s and 70' in the 1950s. The Mollie and Me II, pictured above, was built by Greek boatbuilder Harry Xynides in either the late 1950s or early 1960s (photograph courtesy of the Xynides family). While the Greek-style trawler never completely replaced the V-hull shrimper, the type persisted for decades, in no small part due to the success of the Diesel Engine Sales Company (DESCO), founded in St. Augustine in 1943. By 1954 DESCO had built 500 shrimp boats, by 1971 a total of 1,700, and by 1981 a trawler was leaving the plant every four days. While the most prolific builder, DESCO was hardly the only manufacturer in St. Augustine, home also to St. Augustine Trawlers, Inc., along with several smaller yards owned by the Sarris, Nix, and Xynides families. The shrimp boat building decades were the heyday of wooden boat building in St. Augustine, one of the last remaining examples of this once vibrant industry in the United States.

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