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Of Boats on the Collar
How It Was In One Newfoundland Fishing Community
Hilda Chaulk Murray
Forward By Otto Tucker
Page 41-43
From my research I learned that by 1818-1820 most of
the planters in the Elliston area, their families, servants, and
sharemen- more than two hundred souls in all- were supplied from the
Trinity- based firm of Slades from Poole, England. In the company’s
“letter books” ( i.e. books containing copies of all the firm’s
correspondence) references are made form time to time to “shallops.”
Sometimes, too, a “shalloway” is mentioned, and also a “half-shallops”
was used in the Trinity area. The later seems to have been “a boat
capable of carrying half the number of men a ‘shallop’ could.”2
William A. Baker in his book Sloops and Shallops
says:
One unsolved shallop mystery, however, is the “halfe
shallop” mentioned in two reports of Barthomew Gosnold’s exploring
voyage to New England in 1602; there seem to be no others. Gabirel
Archer and John Brereton each mention the hoisting out of “half of our
shallop” and indicate that it was a unit capable of carrying people
safely.
Historian Prowse maintains that:
The fishing boats in the cod and seal fishery were
formerly called shallops and shalloways, there words often occurring in
our history. The shallop was a large boat decked at both ends and open
in the center with moveable deck boards and pounds; there were cuddies
both fore and aft where the fishermen could sleep. There were never less
than three men in a shallop; their dimensions were 30 to 40 feet keel,
10 to 14 feet beam; many of the larger shallops had five men and could
carry 200 quintals of dry fish. The shalloways were open boats, what are
now called punts. The sails in common use until after 1780 were lug
sails. The sprit-sail boats were probably copied from Irish models like
the picture of the Wexford herring cot. There was no fire below the
deck; the cooking apparatus of the galley, was built of stone and was
generally in the forecastle.4
The first decked vessels for the seal fishery were
about the size of ordinary Western boats, forty to fifty feet keel, and
fourteen to fifteen feet beam. 6
Prowse’s description of the shallop does not indicate
precisely the shape of the boat. However, Baker in Sloops and Shallops
says this:
My “Notes on a Shallop” started that from Mainwaring
we find that “Form has something to do with defining a shallop although
it has not been possible to determine just how.” Based on the
description in the Instruction Nauthica and the pictorial evidence of
the 1616 Portuguese manuscript which has a drawing of a skiff – esquife-
there is now no question but that the form of the stern determined the
basic difference between a skiff and shallop. The former had a square
stern while the latter was a double-ender.7
Although the shallop had disappeared in the Elliston
area, perhaps by the mid-1800s, fishermen were still using a “shallop’s
tub” as a unit for measuring the quantity of fish in the mid-twentieth
century. Then, a “shallop’s tub” was a cut-down flour barrel-
three-quarters of a flour barrel, 112 pounds. Three “shallops tubs” of
green, ungutted fish equaled one quintal of dry fish. Very likely this
manner of measuring fish was a carryover from the days when the shallop
was the commonest fishing craft. There was still a “double-ender” boat
in the community in the 1940s.
From an article in National Geographic, July 1985, I
learned that the Basque whalers who frequented the southern Labrador
coast in the early sixteenth century used “chalupas.” Archaeologists
found:
….the beautifully preserved remains of a chalupa that
was beneath the hull of a sunken galleon at Red bay. The 26-foot-long
craft contained six thwarts for as many rowers, one more than the
standard New England whaleboat. Archeologist [Robert] Grenier believes
the extra man was needed for additional power to tow dead whales to
shore. 8
[ Unlike] New England boats [which] made fast to a
whale with a harpoon line [,] Basque crews attached a drogue to the end
of the line and threw it overboard when the whale was struck. Thereafter
hey had to follow the whale until it surfaced and could be lanced to
death. 9
Was the line coiled carefully in a “shallop’s tub”
when not in the use? Perhaps the size of the drogue would have prevented
such storage.
A painting accompanying this article on pages 44-45
shows a Basque crew in action. The bow and stern of the “chalupa” are
the same- it is a two-headed boat, with small “cuddies” at both ends. A
rowlock for the sculling oar is shown on the port side at the stern. The
steersman sculls in a standing position. There are six oarsmen.
Below a picture of a “Wexford Herring Cot” in his
History of Newfoundland, D.W. Prowse has this note:
It was form this handy little craft that out
fishermen got the idea of the boat now in such general use all over the
colony; it displaced the lug sails toward the end of the last century.
“The boat now in such general use all over the
colony” which Prowse mentions might be the “bully” or “bully boat” which
was in use in the Old Perlican area of Trinity Bay 140-150 years ago, 11
and in the Elliston area during approximately the same period.12
However, the name bully boat, a common fishing boat, seems to be
peculiar to Newfoundland. In British Fishing Boats and Costal Craft,
“bullies” are mentioned, but here the name is applied to coal-carrying
vessels.
The earliest type was a bluff, double-ended,
rudderless craft almost devoid of sheer- in fact, true flats- and during
the greater part of their long history were carvel-built.13
These boats were referred to as “keel men” and were
quite big, their principal dimensions being: Length 42 feet; Breadth 19
feet; Depth 6 feet. 14
Perhaps Newfoundland fishermen used the term “bully”
to mean “fine”, using the sixteenth- century meaning. Anyway, all
informants agreed it was a fine sailing boat- a “bully” boat.
Bullies or bully boats varied in size, ranging
between twenty feet to sixty feet keel. A typical Old Perlican bully was
an open boat, about forty feet long with a ten to twelve foot beam. In
the bow there was a “standing room.” From it a small door opened to a
forecastle, or “cuddy” where the men could sleep. A ballast locker, full
of rocks, was located between the “midship bend” and the “after hook.”
This was about two feet wide and stretched right across the boat. Here
the cooking was done. A bully’s canvas consisted of jib, mainsail, and
foresail. On the early bullies there was no main boom; 15 the only boom
was the gaff.16 The mainsail was attached to an outrigger at the stern.
In such a boat was not used just for fishing. In it, if necessary, cured
fish might be carried to St. John’s, the dry fish being placed in the
open part of the boat, covered with canvas to keep it dry. 17
Most of the bullies used in Elliston were twenty to
thirty feet long, and were not “doubled-ended.” They were distinguished
mainly by their rig- foresail, mainsail, and jib. In later years, there
was a boom at the bottom of the sails, but mostly the “sprit” or
“spread” was used. This spread stretched diagonally across the sail. A
strap went around the mast, and there was a piece nailed on the mast
with notches, and a “muzzle” around the mast which could push up to fit
in the notches. This kept the spread up and the sail tight. At the
bottom of the sail there was just a rope. Bigger boats had a boom hung
to a spar on the bottom, but they still used the spread, and a block and
tackle was used for raising the sail. Some of the bigger boats had
“gaff” sails, which were more easily managed than the “sprit” sails.
Although the motorboats of the 1930s and ‘40s
resembled the bullies in general, there were distinct differences.
Bullies were deeper in the “after end.” One informant stated:
A bully is turned in under all the way along. It is
planked right down to the keel, but it has all “hollying”- hollowing-
pitchers till you get right to the counter.18
Generally a bully had a square stern, that is,
straight down in a line with the end of the keel. Some might have a
“transom” stern, for the type of stern depended on the whim of the
builder. However, a motorboat always had a transom stern, and was
rounder where the bully was “hollying”; it had round pitchers instead of
hollow pitchers aft of the “after hook.”
Fishermen-builders from Old Perlican and Elliston
both stressed the hollying of the bully’s timbers; this was what made
the boat so stable.
Page 44
Large “decked boats” were used by fishermen in the
Elliston area during the “handlining” period. They did not use the term
“schooner” or “small schooner” as did the Old Perlican fishermen . The
decked boat varied in length from forty to sixty feet. They towed at
least two punts, and one might be carried on deck. In such a boat the
crew, usually five men, stayed out a longer time on the fishing grounds,
and could frequent those farther offshore, for example “ The Haypooks”
and “The Skerries,” which lay seven to nine miles off. Most of the
smaller boats went to the fishing grounds two to three miles off – “The
Storehouse,” “Lousy Shirt,” “The Flowers,” and “Chaulky Cliff.” Even
those who fished cross-handed could sail to those nearby grounds.
Certainly the size and number of boats available to a
particular fisherman or “skipper” was determined by how far he had
progressed up the “fisherman’s ladder.” Doubtless a prosperous planter
in the early days of settlement, employing a number of servants or “sharemen,”
would have at least one large boat so that his crew could fish the
grounds some seven to twelve miles offshore. Also he would have smaller
boats for the grounds nearer land, one to three miles off, and for
ferrying the crews from the collar. A “cross-handed” fisherman had only
one boat.
Bully boats were the preferred boats in Elliston
during the latter part of the nineteenth century and during the first
two decades of the twentieth, as a photograph of Elliston Collar taken
in 1920 indicates. Only a few motorboats are shown. However, a picture
taken of the same Collar in 1928 indicates that the sailing bully has
almost disappeared, replaced by the trap skiff or motorboat, reflecting
a change in fishing methods, requiring changes in the fishing boat.
An examination of the census returns for the period
1836-1945 shows that although both large and small fishing boats were
used in Elliston, it is the smaller boats that predominate during the
whole period. These fall into three distinct classes:
(i) The open fishing boat, 25’-30’ long, which would
be put “on the collar” at night.
(ii) The smaller, 20’ or under, which could be drawn
up on the shore at night.
(iii) The rodney, punt, or towboat, 12’-18’, which
would be “hauled up” each night.
Page 46
In spite of the predominance of the four to fifteen
quintal boats, there were a fair number of bigger boats that could carry
thirty quintals or more. In 1869 there were forty-five boats in the four
to fifteen quintals class, sixteen in the fifteen to thirty quintals
class, and two in the thirty plus quintals class. So, for 1869 the ratio
runs almost three to one in favour of the smaller craft. In 1874, there
were seventy-seven in the four to fifteen quintals class, thirteen in
the fifteen to thirty quintals class, and four in the thirty plus
quintals class.
By 1884 there were 102 in the smaller class, six in
the fifteen to thirty quintals group, one in the thirty plus quintals
class, and there were two vessels between twenty to sixty tons. By 1884,
then, the smaller boats certainly hold an overwhelming majority. From
1891 onward, boats are classed as being in the four to thirty quintals
class. All but two boats fall into this category henceforth. ( See table
at the end of Chapter 3.)
During the 1940s and ‘50s, the average motorboat
“loaded to the gunnels” probably carried around twelve to fifteen
quintals. Consequently, if a trap crew got a fifty quintal haul, they
had to make several trips to the trap to bring it all in. Usually when
such good fortune befell a trap crew, they have away loads of fish to
all hook-and-line fishermen in vicinity. They reciprocated by helping
the trap crew “put away” the fish later.
The “rodney”- smallest of the open boats, propelled
by two short oars or paddles and a sculling oar- was indispensable to
the trap fisherman, indeed any fisherman using a boat that was moored on
the “collar”. It ferried the men from stagehead or shore to the moored
boat and vice versa; it might be needed as a lifeboat should anything
happen to the larger boat; it increased the area that might be fished
over on the fishing “grounds”- a couple of men might move away from the
larger boat, leaving the others to fish where they had anchored; and it
was absolutely necessary to have a rodney while hauling a trap when a
tide was running. When crews were hook and line fishing, and the
preferred bait, caplin, could only be found in some narrow gulch or
shallow water just off the shore, they could cast their nets from the
rodney. And it was used for the herring catch in the early spring.
Herring nets were very similar to cod seines.
It is said that this important little boat was named
for one of the Newfoundland’s early governors, Admiral Rodney, who was
appointed in 1749.
Rodney shoed shrewd common sense, firmness, a great
regard for justice and fair play, and what is most remarkable in that
age, a kindly benevolent feeling for our hardy toilers of the sea, he
carefully protected them from their grasping employers.” 21
Edwin Baker of Elliston had this story of how the
rodney got its name:
Fishermen were using the small rowboat for getting
from shore to the Admiral’s ship. If they had complaints or disputes to
put before him they were said to be “gone a-rodneying.” And this term
stuck to the little boat. 22
Page 49
In Elliston by the 1920’s, upwardly mobile fishermen
had acquired traps, necessitating changes in the boats they used for
this type of fishing. Because of its function the trap boat or trap
skiff was an open boat with its lowest section being amidship. Built
first as a sailing boat, it carried one or two sails. The masts were
moveable, and each was secured by passing it through a semicircular hole
in a thwart- the circular hole for the masts was completed by an iron
band- and then fitting in into a hole its exact size and shape in the
“kelson” on the bottom of the boat. When they were not in use, the sails
were furled and laid to one side. Oars and the sculling oar were also
standard equipment in a trap boat. However, it was steered by a rudder
when under sail. Many trap boats, even when they were fitted with
engines, retained their sails, and the oars and sculling oar remained
essential equipment. Fishermen were not going to travel miles from shore
trusting to a marine engine only. I remember the masts, the oars, and
the sculling oar, in my father’s and uncle’s boat in the 1940s and ‘50s.
We must keep in mind the fact that the type of boat
used by a fishermen depended on the scale of his fishing operation. In
the same community it was possible to find seine boats, small, open
handline punts, trap skiffs, and decked or semi-decked bullies, in the
days before the marine “make-and-break” engine was introduced. However,
the marine engine did not herald a new-type boat. Often a fishing crew
used the boat they already had, and if changes necessary to accommodate
the engine, those were only made in the “after” part of the boat,
nowhere else. A motorboat needed a heavier sternpost to accommodate the
shaft from the engine, and a square stern had to be altered to a transom
stern because of the propellers.
Page 50
Acadia, Atlantic, and Palmer engines seem to have
been the most popular engine models in Elliston. They were six-or
eight-horsepower, gasoline-driven engines having no spark plugs, started
by throwing (i.e., turning) the heavy, iron flywheel in the front of the
engine. They made about five or six knots. Each boat’s engine was
distinct. On shore we could tell without seeing the boat which fishing
crews was coming in.
Although the community did not have the reputation
for boat building that Trinity and Catalina long held, there were
several recognized boat builders, as well as other fishermen who would
tackle a small boat for their own us. In 1884, the census returns for
the first time record the number of boats built in any particular
community. In that year sixteen boats were built in the Bird Island Cove
area. All this construction was not done by one or two builders.
Although two men were well-known for their ability in this field and
turned out large boats- small schooner class- at The Dock in Elliston
South and in Noder Cove, Elliston North, there had to be a dozen or more
men who could shape a boat to their own personal taste. From family
history I know my paternal grandfather Henry Chalk ( 1854-1904), built a
boat for himself in Muddy Brook around 1880, and my maternal great
uncles in The Cove- Bird Island Cove- also built boats. 2
All early boats built in the Elliston area were built
“mould”. Without doubt those who first built boats in the Elliston area,
in common with early local builders elsewhere in Newfoundland, copied
methods used by their forebearers in England. Perhaps, too, some of them
who had spent time in Trinity before moving on to Elliston may have
observed the methods followed by the Newhooks, master shipbuilders,
employed by the Lester and Lester-Garland firms in the late eighteenth
century and the early nineteenth century. 3
John Barrett told me that his ancestors, some of the
first craftsmen in Old Perlican, brought out their moulds with them when
they came from the Old Country around 1710. It is very likely that the
first builders in Elliston did likewise.
The method of building by mould, used in Elliston,
appears to be a form of “whole molding,” an obsolete method of design
used in the eighteenth century and earlier. 4
Page 51
Half-models were used in New England from early in
the nineteenth century. 5 But Basil Greenhill of Greenwich, England
wrote to tell me that:
Half-models were comparatively sophisticated and were
very little used in this country in small boat building. Nearly all open
fishing boats and vessels around the shores of the British Isles until
well into the twentieth century were built by the mould method, i.e., by
pre-erecting one or more moulds, setting up the lapstrake planking
around them and then inserting ribs afterwards. 6
Building by “model” does not seem to have been done
in Elliston until perhaps the second decade of the twentieth century.
This method, informants agreed, came from the boatbuilders in Catalina.
My chief informant in Little Catalina, Joseph Johnson, stated that they
never, to his knowledge, used the “mould” in Catalina. His grandfather
and uncle 7 were both well known builders, and they build “model.” He
believed that his ancestors brought the method of building by model with
them when they settled in the community, but he did not know where they
came from. They did not travel to mainland Canada or to the United
States to learn there. 8 During an interview in 1970, John Barrett
stated that Old Perlican builders learned about building by model form
the Catalina builders.
Page 51-53
Little Catalina builders had built by model as long
as my informants, all in their late seventies, could remember. Mr. A.
Hicks, a seventy-six-year-old fisherman from Catalina, presented me with
three old models that he found in the fish store he had purchased from a
Mr. Elliott. The latter had come to Catalina from Raleigh, a settlement
near the tip of Newfoundland’s Great Northern Peninsula. It is possible
that this man may have introduced one method of building by model to the
area. There was a difference in type in the models to the area. There
was a difference in type in the models from Little Catalina and Maberly,
and those from Catalina and one from Elliston. The model used in Maberly
and those obtained from Mr. A. Cullimore in Little Catalina were solid,
bearing the imprint of calipers or compasses. Those from Mr. Hicks,
Catalina, and the one given me by the youngest builder I interviewed
sixty-four-year old Thomas Porter of Elliston, are in horizontal layers.
Both types represent half boats. Although all informants maintained that
the method of building boats by model came from Catalina, Mr. Joseph
Johnson, my chief informant in Little Catalina, stated that the idea of
cutting up the model came from “Northern.”
Maxwell Collett, writing about the Harbour Buffett
motorboat in the Newfoundland Quarterly, August 1969, mentions that in
that community builders used both mould- three thin pieces of timber
used as a pattern by which to form the curves of the timbers- and model,
a form in miniature for imitation. The following definition of a model
is for the type made in layers: “ …model, made up of thin layers f
board, showed only one side of the boat from the center line outward to
the port or starboard side.” 9 So both methods of building were
practiced in that southern bay. And “sliced-up” models were not just
“northern.”
A boatbuilder often used the same model for several
boats. However, if he wished to make changes in shape or size for a new
boat, he would carve a new model. And if he were building a boat by
model for the first time, he would first need to make the model for his
guidance. Bobby Chaulk told me how he went about building his first
motorboat:
I was about thirty years old at the time. Another man
in the community, Tom Pearce, asked me about building him a boat, so I
took the job on. I made a model for the boat first of all and took it to
him to see if he liked the shape. Then we commenced work. First we had
to go “in the country” for the timbers. I began to build her in March.
She was about 31 feet long. When she was finished old Canon Bayley came
down to look at her. He sized her up and then he reported to Tom,
“You’ve got a proper lifeboat there.” He first trip after being launched
was “in the bay” ( i.e., Bonavista Bay) for “rinds.
This, his first boat, was a good one. I remember her
during the last days, a faded-blue, decked boat, gradually collapsing on
the shore. He built three other boats from this model: two for fishermen
from The Neck; one for a fisherman in Spillars Cove. These later boats
were a bit smaller and were open boats, as they were being used by trap
fishermen .
The materials needed for a boat built in the 1850’s
were the same as those needed in the 1950’s. Several different types of
wood were used: spruce for the timbers or ribs; fir for the plank; and
birch for the keel. The boat had a “grown frame,” not one whose timbers
were shaped by steam. This meant considerable time was spent searching
for naturally curved timbers; fifty were needed for the old boat in
Maberly, which has twenty-five “ribs.” However, suitable “timbers” could
be found nearer the settlement in the nineteenth century than they could
in the mid-twentieth. For the later boats they had to go then miles more
“in the country” to find suitable ones. Good, straight sticks were
needed for the planking, and they had to get the birch for the keel
“from the Bay” ( i.e., Bonavista Bay.) There were no stands of birch
around Elliston in the early twentieth century, but today there are lots
of birch trees growing by the side of the Elliston-Catalina Road.
All this material was brought home early enough so
that it could be suitably dry. A man who got his own materials from “the
country” had only himself to blame if it was not in the condition it
should be. Traditionally boats have been built in Elliston in the
springtime. Wood brought home in the fall was “squared up” ( i.e.,
prepared roughly) during the winter before construction got under way in
the spring.
There were no sawmills in Elliston, so in the early
days, the plank had to be sawed by hand with a “pit saw.” In the later
years the plank was sawed at a mill in Bonavista. Ernest Tilly recalled
in 1958 how a pit saw was used to saw plank when he was a boy in the
late nineteenth century, and how self-sufficient the boatbuilders were:
There was a sawpit along side of the stone. At one
side were several saw sticks all squared with the adze and ready.
It was quite a job to raise the stick to the top of
the frame. I wondered what they were going to do. I had noticed that Tom
had marked the sticks with red lines about an inch apart running the
whole length of the stick. He had a little pot with red ochre inside,
with a coil of string in it. The string had a nail on one end. He picked
up the pot, stuck the nail in the end of the stick, walked to the other
end, drew the line taut, gave it a quick snap, and a red line showed the
whole length. There were ten lines, all about an inch apart. These were
the sawpit, ten feet or more. Then they brought out the saw, ten feet
long and nigh a foot wide with great big teeth. John climbed up the
ladder to the top and stood on the stick which had been adzed nearly
square, so that he had a flat eight inches to stand on. Tom stood in
under. He passed up one end of the saw to John and put on a pair of
googles because of the sawdust. Now all was ready and the big saw began
to move up and down. It seemed but a little while when, instead of the
stick, there were ten, nine-inch-and-a-quarter planks. I thought it was
a wonderful and said so:
“You are building a boat. You go in and cut the
trees, bring them out, hew, work, and shape them over. You get raw
material in the woods and work it over with axes, adze, saw, auger,
plane, and hammer. All that you will buy is the iron work. But we could
make that too, if we had to,” Tom said. 10
Page 55
Although many men built their stages and winter
slides with just axe, hammer, saw, and perhaps a plane, boatbuilders and
carpenters had a variety of tools besides the four basic ones. In an old
box in Maberly, I discovered a variety of carpentry tools, and I
remember by Homer as one of the tools used by odysseus. It was an
essential tool for the boatbuilder.
The blade of the shipwright’s adze is longer and
rather flatter than that made for other trades. The handle which is
about 2’9” long is often given a double curve, so that its lower end is
brought forward to a point almost in line with the cutting edge of the
blade. The purpose of the double curve is not quite clear through
shipwrights assert that it would be impossible to control an adze with a
straight handle.
The shipwright’s adze is used for all kinds of
shaping and finishing including the trimming of curved framing and
planking. One method of working is to start a cut in one direction, and
then begin another cut in the opposite direction so that the cuts meet;
this avoids cutting too deed if the grain runs inward.
For general trimming work the end of the handle is
commonly held with one hand on the knee, while the adze is hinged back
and forth from that point, the curved handle lends itself to holding in
this way.
The “peg-poll” is used as a punch to “set” or drive
spikes and nails below the surface of the timber which is being trimmed.
For “shooting” (i.e., smoothing) plank they used long
wooden planes about three feet long and for other sections of the boat
they used smaller, special planes as shown on page 68. The auger they
used was one with a “windmill” bit. For taking measurements from the
model, they made use of homemade compasses or dividers, and they used
clamps to keep the plank in position on the timbers until they were
nailed securely. Here builders may have had to borrow to have enough.
Another important tool for a boatbuilder was the adjustable try square.
This permitted him to work with angles other than right angles.
Page 56-57
Caulking irons of different types were part of the
equipment of every boatbuilder. Some of these are shown on page 57.
These all-steel, chisel-like tools, usually about
6-7” long are mushroom-headed and their blades are mostly flared- a
shape known as fantail. Their edges are either sharp, blunt, or provided
with grooves known as creases. Driven by means of the “caulking mallet,”
they were used to force stranded oakum into seams between planks on the
deck and ship sides, to make the ship watertight. For this purpose the
sides of the plank are very slightly beveled to a distance of two-thirds
of their thickness thus presenting an open seam into which the oakum is
forced. The outside planks are caulked in this way only in carvel-built,
and not when clinker-built.
The steam is first opened, when necessary, with a
reaming iron and the threads of oakum are then driven in with a caulking
iron. The oakum is further compressed (hardened down) and sunk below the
surface with a marking iron. The seam is then filled (payed) with pitch.
Caulking was usually done from left to right,
hardening down ( with making iron) from right to left. Much experience
and skill was needed to judge how much oakum should be forced into a
seam; too little would not keep the water out, but too much could spring
the planks apart, or even shear off a bolt or trenail. 2
Page 61
How was the actual building done? How long did it
take to build a boat? These were two questions I asked the boatbuilders.
I was told that the building itself could be done in a month with help,
but of course preparatory work began long before building commenced. For
the keel they needed a long, straight birch stick; this had to be
brought from Bonavista Bay, because there were no stands of birch near
Elliston at that time. For the stem and the timbers, they searched for
suitably curved wood “in the country” about ten miles away from the
community. These pieces were naturally formed, not forced into shape. In
the woods they were always on the lookout for a tree that had naturally
bent to the desired curve, or had such a curved root. For a boat with
twenty-five sets of timbers, they needed to gather over twenty sticks
that could each yield a “frame,” more if the sticks were smaller. The
bow pitchers had only a slight curve and could be provided easily.
I learned that building by mould was a common method
in Elliston in the late 1800s, but by the 1920x most people built by
model. Whether a builder worked with a mould or a model, the main steps
in the construction were the same. The chief difference lay in the
method used to get the curve of the timbers. This greatly affected the
eventual shape of the boat.
Page 61-70
Building by model 1
For this description of how to build a motorboat
using a model I have blended the information supplied me chiefly by
Thomas Porter, Elliston, Joseph Johnson, Little Catalina, Cecil Johnson,
Little Catalina, and Bobby Chaulk and Noah Chaulk, Maberly. Sketches of
the different steps were also supplied by these builders from which
illustrations were drawn.
Thomas Porter pointed out that overwinter
preparation-squaring the rough, round sticks, and “ripping out” the
timber as close to the size as you could get- was essential before you
could use the model to “take off” each bend of timber.
(1) The first piece of wood laid down was the “keel”.
This was one straight piece which ran the full length of the boat. To it
all the “timbers” or “ribs” were fastened. It was placed across blocks
and jammed or wedged into position by triangular pieces of wood.
(2) Once the keel was laid, the builder decided
whether he fitted the “stern post” next. These were both “scarfed” to
the keel, that is, fitted together so that they appear to be one
continuous piece, and then screw-bolted in position through the “scarfing.”
(3) When the stem and stern were up plumb, a line was
put from stem to stern. The “deadwoods” were fitted, one forward to
secure the keel, and stem firmly together, and the other at the “after”
end, with a “sternpost knee” on top of it, to do the same thing for the
stern. The deadwoods were spiked on. This completed the “middle line”
construction.
(4) The wood- timber- used for the ribs was “ripped
out” as close as possible to the size wanted. Then, using model and/or
mould, the builder got the exact shape for the different ribs. Most
models seem to have been made on a scale of 1 inch equals 1 foot, so,
for a 25 foot boat, the builder would use a model 25 inches long.
Straight lines were drawn through the length of the model on both sides,
half-inch apart. Then lines were drawn lengthwise. These vertical lines
gave the position of the ribs and were spaced on the model to correspond
to the distance the ribs were to be apart in the boat. Any size boat up
to 35 feet had 10 inch centers. Since the builder worked with 1/12 inch
equals 1 inch, this meant the vertical lines would be 10/12 of an inch
apart on the model. The measurements were “taken off” on a table wider
and deeper than the boat was to be. On the table, lines were drawn 6
inches apart, the length of the table, the number of lines depending on
the depth of the boat. Then a line was drawn on the center of the table
across the lines drawn before, and a line was drawn down on each side of
the center line; the width between these two lines was the width of the
keel. “To take the boat off the model,” calipers were used on the timber
lines and the lines running through the model on both sides. The
distance the calipers were apart was measured in inches, the scale being
1/12” equals 1”. On both sides of the keel, the distance the calipers
were apart on the lengthwise lines was measured, and a nail driven in
the table. In the same way the calipers were used in the same timber
line until you got to the top line of the model. This gave the first set
of timbers. A batten was bent out to each nail and a line drawn along
the batten, which have the shape of the frame. Then a lead mould was
pressed to the nails in the table. This was placed on the rough timber,
and the frame was made the shape of the mould. All the frames could be
made using the same method.
In recent times lead was not the only material a
builder might use to get the form of the timber from the “laying off.”
He might use heavy cardboard or plywood instead. Percy Mitchell in A
Boatbuilder’s Story says only, … lines are drawn full size on a wooden
floor and moulds made of one-inch thick material.”
(5) The pattern having been made for a particular
timber, it is placed on the rough-hewn timber and the curve taken off
exactly to the shape of this pattern. Once each set of timbers or ribs
has been taken off, they are “locked together” by the “floor” “Battens”-
thin strips of wood- are put across to keep the “frame” together, and it
is numbered as it is on the model; also the center of each span is
marked.
(6) All the bends may be taken directly from the
model, or perhaps only ten or twelve, sufficient to shape the boat. The
“midship bend” is the first of these bends to be fastened in position,
followed by the “fore hook,” and then by the “after hook.” The other
timbers are then spaced accordingly, perhaps ten or twelve inches apart
in a motorboat.
(7) Each “frame” is leveled up to bring the mark on
the span directly under the line running from stem to stern- the “middle
line.”
(8) When 10 or 12 frames are nailed to the keel,
narrow battens are put on the outside of the frames on both sides from
stem to stern, eight battens on each side. These are spaced from the top
of the frame down to the keel. Most important is the “sheer batten, “
which is fitted to give a fair curve from the bow, dipping midships-
lowest part of motorboat- and rising again toward the stern. It is
determined by marking the desired height at the stem, the midship bend,
and the stern.
(9) Then the builder can get the shape of the timbers
yet to be installed by taking the lead mould, laying it inside the
battens, and pressing out to each batten. The lead mould would be used
in this way until all the frames were made and nailed in place. Of
course, all the frames might be taken directly from the table, if the
builder so desired. The twenty-six foot Maberly boat had twenty-five
sets of ribs/timbers/pitchers. Timbers used were approximately 2 ½” by 2
½” or 2” by 2”. Four inch, square top, galvanized nails were used to
fasten the timbers onto the keel.
(10) When all the bends have been taken off, the
“counter” is taken off from the model.
(11) The “apron”, or false stem- like the stem, a
naturally curved piece of wood- to which the planks are fastened is
screw-bolted to the stem. The bow of the Maberly boat, with the stem,
false stem, and deadwoods, had a depth of about 9 ½ inches of solid
wood- well-suited to take the pounding of the sea.
(12) The “grump post,” or “gump post,” a 4 inch
square post- seventeen inches behind the stem in our boat, and just
slightly lower- was installed in the early stages of construction, for
it was bolted to the keel. When I was a child, I was really taken with
that neat little storage area between the grump post and the stem. The
area between the grump post and the stem. The floor of that small
section was part of the deck of the “cuddy,” a covered storage area with
a small door which occupied about four and a half feet in the bow.
(13) Once the boat has been “timbered out” with the
“deadwoods” in position, the “risings” are put in. These two strips of
board inside the boat run parallel with the “sheer”, about a foot or
eleven inches below the tops of the timbers, and are nailed to each of
these.
(14) The thwarts ( pronounced “tauts”) are set on the
top side of the risings; sometimes a knee was used here as well, for
greater support to the thwart. Thwarts were located at the “fore hook.”
The “midship bend” and at the “after hook.” In addition to being seats
for rowing if necessary, or for sitting on , these thwarts had the added
value of holding the boat together and strengthening it.
Boats are described as being carvel-built or
clinker-built, depending on how the planking was done. Early boats in
Elliston may have been clinker-built, because this seems to suit the
mould method of construction better, but is probably depended on the use
the boat was being pout to. Planking begins at the bottom on a
clinker-built boat, and each plank overlaps the preceding one, like
clapboard on a house. The first clinker-built boat I ever saw was a dory
used in Bonne Bay, Newfoundland, in 1955..
All my informants, most in their late seventies to
early eighties in 1970, were familiar only with the carvel-built boat.
On the motorboats the edge of each plank fits against the other so that,
when the planking is completed, the exterior of the boat is quite
smooth.
Care must be taken with “planking,” as with all other
aspects of boatbuilding. The plank must follow the curve of the timbers
and not stick off from the frames at an angle. The outer edge of each
piece of plank is beveled slightly so as to give a seam for the “oakum”;
the inner edges have to fit as tightly as possible. A big seam in the
interior of the boat would be a sign of poor workmanship. To fit an
extremely difficult piece of plank, it might be necessary to treat it in
a lye bath. Each plank is held in place temporarily by clamps until it
is permanently nailed to the timbers. “Rabbeting” is used to fit a plank
at the tem, and the “garboard strake” is likewise fitted into a grove
along the entire length of the keel.
(15) Before planking is begun the builder takes a
strip of wood about 3”-3 ½” in width and about 3/8” thick. This is
called the “rule staff” and is the guide for planking. This rule staff
is bent around the boat just below the “sheer batten.” By using
compasses and rule staff, the builder gets the shape of each plank.
Starting from the top of the sheer batten and using compasses, he
measures at each timber and transfers the shape of the edge by means of
caulk marks to the rule staff. The rule staff is placed on the rough
plank, and again using compasses, the line of dots is transferred to the
rough plank. The dots are joined by a curved line, thus giving the shape
to saw by. The lower edge of the plank can be shaped by the same method.
(16) Planking, with boards of 1” or 7/8” thickness,
starts from the top of the boat. The top plank, or “sheer strake,” is
very important. Care must be taken to get a fair curve, to give the boat
a pleasing appearance. Other planks, their shape obtained as well by the
use of the rule staff and compasses, are then added to each side of the
boat, the battens being taken off as the planking progresses until the
“waterline” is reached. Then the boat is put on its side, and work
begins from the keel upward. The plank next to the keel is called the
“garboard strake”. Obviously this must fir as snugly as possible, which
is why the builder uses rabbeting. The planks on the Maberly boat varied
in width between 4 and 3 inches.
(17) Measurements on the rule staff are then taken
from the “garboard strake” upward, and the planks are put on, until the
width of one plank remains to be filled in. This plank is called the
“filler” or “fuller” strake. Here the rule staff is essential to a good
fit. For the upper edge of the filler strake, compass measurements on
the timber are placed on the rule staff from the lower edge of the plank
immediately above. For the lower edge of this filler strake, the
measurements are taken from the top edge of the plank immediately below.
This piece of plank is easily spotted, because it varies in width along
its length. The filler strake on the Maberly boat was one and a quarter
inches wide at the bow and three inches wide amidships.
(18) Once the planking has been completed, two strips
of wood- the “rubbers” or “scrubbers” or “welts,”- 3” wide by 3” thick
or 2” by 3”, and rounded on the outside are attached to the outside of
the top plank. They protect the top edge of the boat.
(19) The space in the bow between the stem and grump
post is decked over, covering the “breast hook.” On the Maberly boat the
breast hook was made up of three pieces of 2” thick wood, joined
securely together. One piece fitted against the “apron” and spanned the
distance between the sides of the bow, and the two angled pieces
extended along the sides. The breast hook was bolted in three
directions- through the stem and false stem, and from both sides of the
bow.
(20) The gunwales ( pronounced “gunnels”)encase the
timber heads and extended from the breast hook at the stem to the
“counter pitchers.” The top of the counter is rounded slightly to the
extent if the top o the sternpost.
(21) “Counter knees” or “stern hooks” are fitted at
the stern to join the gunwales to the “transom,” as a similar knee, the
breast hook, is fitted at the bow to join the gunwales and stem. Two
stern hooks are required to join the counter and the boat’s sides. On
the Maberly boat a 26 inch curved piece of wood was used. It tapered
from 6 inches on the side to 3 inches at center stern. A 16 inch wide
seat spanned the stern. Here the skipper- in my childhood my Uncle Walt-
sat holding the “tiller,” a wooden, slightly curved stick that fitted
into a hole in the top of the rudder post which was attached to an iron
post on the counter. Two could sit on that seat, and there was a small
storage area underneath.
(22) After the gunwales have been fitted, the “casing
board” or “safety board” is placed in position. This extends all the way
around the gunwales and is slightly higher than they are.
(23) In the bottom of the boat, the “kelson” or
“keelson,” a strip of timber 3” or 4” wide, is laid parallel to the keel
across the floors, being noticed to accommodate the timbers. It is
bolted to the keel so as to fasten the floor timbers. It is bolted to
the keel so as to fasten the floor timbers and the keel together. In the
days when trap boats were powered by sail, a hole was notched in the
kelson to hold the mast in position. The floor of the boat was given a
“ceiling,” that is, lumber was used to board the inside of the boat on
top of the timbers in the same way plank was used on the outside. This
boarding did not go all the way up the sides, only to the waterline. The
space or cavity formed between the ceiling and the outer planking was
covered in the wood- the “sperkings” or “sperkins”- between the timbers.
This prevented anything from getting down between the ceiling and the
outer planking.
(24) Another job was “shooting the boat,” that is,
the installation of a level platform between the fore hook and the
apron, as well as one between the after hook and the counter. The “fore
shoot” provided a floor for the cuddly in the bow, and a level area for
standing in the fore standing room. The “after shoot” provided a floor
for the area in the “after cuddy” and for the “after standing room” or
“cockpit.”
(25) The boat was divided into “rooms” or
compartments by “bulk headings”- strips of board fastened underneath the
thwarts, filling the space between the thwart and the ceiling of the
boat.
For trap fishing the bulk headings were removed. The
first room in the boat was the fore standing room, next to it was the
midships room, and finally the narrow room, the cockpit containing the
after cuddy. The dill or engine room was a little aft of midship and was
a bit narrow because most of the space was taken up with the engine
house itself. Here too was located a small, rectangular hatch in the
ceiling which gave access to the dill. Any water would collect in the
dill, for it was the lowest part of the boat. It would be bailed out
with a “piggin” or “spidgel.” There was a “bung hole” in the dill
passing through the garboard. This was useful for getting rid of any
water in the dill when the boat was hauled up on the shore. It was
closed with a wooden plus or “bung.”
(26) Before the “bedding” for the engine – heavy
blocks of wood which the engine rested- was installed, or the engine
house constructed, there were a few things on the outside of the boat
that had to be attended to. All seams had to be “caulked” (pronounced
“carked”). The planks had edges slightly beveled to provide a steam that
would better receive the “rolled” oakum. Using a “caulking iron” and a
“mallet,” the builder pounded the oakum into the seam. A special iron
with an offset top was used to caulk the garboard strake next to the
keel. To ensure the seam was waterproof, it was covered with pitch and
the excess pitch was scraped off. Then the boat was painted. It’s bottom
to the waterline was generally copper-painted. Above this point the
colour chosen depended on the individual who owned the boat, and, of
course, the availability of any given colour. White, blue, grey, and
green were popular colours. I do not recall anyone having painted his
motorboat a dark colour, but I believe Grandfather Tilly used a black
bully boat; perhaps it was tarred instead of painted. A boat’s interior
was generally painted a darker colour than the exterior. Popular colours
in Elliston were the darker shades of blue, green, and grey.
(27) There were a number of small jobs, that were
essential to the finishing up a boat. Rowlocks had to be installed on
the gunwales at the bow, midships, and after thwarts, as well as in the
counter. On the Maberly boat these were pieces of board, nine-inch-wide
tapering to one inch and one inch thick, nailed on top of the gunwales.
Two holes were bored and the gunwale for the “thole-pins.” These would
be used everywhere, except perhaps in the rowlock on the counter, if the
motorboat was being used as a trap boat. Thole pins were essential to
the trap hauling, serving as convenient places on which to hitch ropes
or “linnet.” The sculling oar in the stern might be used on a galvanized
rowlock, or there might be a hollow in the top of the counter, or a
hole- the “score”- in the counter itself to accommodate it.
(28) Another necessary appendage for the motorboat
was the rudder. This could be attached in at least two ways. I am
familiar with the two ways used in the Elliston area. For one, a long,
iron bar extended from the upper part of the counter outside to the
“shoe” of the keel. The rudder was attached to a wooden rudder post that
had iron rings on it that slipped around the iron bar. This rudder and
post was taken up inside the boat every time the boat was not in use,
for instance, when at anchor on the collar. A second type was
permanently fixed under the transom. It was attached to an iron rod or
pin called a “pintle” that turned in a socket called a “gudgeon,”
located on the shoe of the keel. The “steering rod” came up through the
bottom of the boat in the after shoots, and the steering tiller was
completely inside the boat. For the first type of rudder, the tiller had
to be longer than that for the second type. It was wooden, and one end
of it fitted into a hole in the rudder post so that it could swing
easily just above the counter gunwale. For the second type of rudder,
see page 65.
I have been dealing exclusively with the motorboat in
this description of how to build a boat by model. A rodney of small punt
was constructed the same way, but the inside finishing would not take so
long. There was no cuddy, no engine house, and of course no propeller or
rudder to attach. Nevertheless, the same craftsmanship was needed. As
Noah Chaulk said, “She’s built the same way as a motorboat. Only thing
is, she’s smaller.”
Building by Mould
Mr. John Barrett of Old Perlican, Trinity Bay, was
the builder in 1970 who described to me by text and diagrams how a boat
was built using “whole moulding” The three parts of the “mould” he
sketched resembled those of the old Tilly “mould” from Elliston,
particularly in the shape of the “hollow” or “hollowing board,” which
appears to be wider and shorter than that used by Winterton builders. In
his drawings he indicated how the “hollowing board” was placed in
relation to the other two parts in order to obtain the different
“bends.”
Building a boat by mould differed from building by
model, only in the method followed to get the shape of the boat. The
construction techniques were the same, and followed the same order, the
keel being the first part laid to which the stem and sternposts were
scarfed.
To “frame out” a boat by the mould method, the
builder used three pieces of wood, marked at specific intervals and
manipulated in such a way as to give all the bends for the frame. The
pieces were the “timber,” the “hollow” or “hollowing board,” and the
“rise board.” The latter had the scale for the position of the after
hook on one side and that for the fore hook on the other face, or the
builder might have two rise boards: one called the “after” rise board
and the other the “forward” rise board.
The general practice seems to have been to use the
mould to get the midships bend, the after hook, and the fore hook, and
as well, the “first to fore,” midway between the “midship bend” and the
“fore hook” and the “first to the baft ( first abaft), midway between
the “midship bend” and the “after hook.” Having taken off five bends,
the builder might use a lead mould for the form of the other timbers.
Mr. Barrett said, “The frames that go between them can be taken off the
same way, or when the boat is battened out, you could use a lead mould.”
This is the same advice as that given by those who built by model.
The terminlology used here, especially the word
“baft” which is a Middle English word, indicates the roots of this
boatbuilding method.
When one starts to build a boat with a mould, it is
essential to see that the measurements on the parts of the mould are in
correct proportion to the size of the boat intended. The measurements
differ accordingly. Here is how a mould might be used in the
construction of a small boat 4 feet wide, 16 feet long, and 1.5 feet
deep:
Midship Bend (MB):
(1) The first of these bends taken off is the Midship
Bend (MB). To get the width of the boat, you measure from the top of the
“timber” mould to its base, say four feet wide. Scale: one inch to a
foot. To mark the midship bend ( MB) , you use the boards as shown. Draw
the shape of the bend with chalk or s sharp tip. Put nails at intervals
on this line. Make a mould of lead or other material the shape of the
line. Place this mould on the timber to get the midship bend as shown.
(2) Now you make another one the same shape and put
them together as shown. The two sides are held together at the foot by a
piece of wood called the “floor.”
(3) Fore Hook (FH):
The forehook, if the boat is four feet wide in the
midship bend, should be six inches narrower. You generally have it
narrower than the after hook also. The fore hook when put together goes
the breadth of itself from the steam post. You place it on the keel so
that the top of one bend touches the stem post; the top of the other
bend will be above the “floor” of the “frame.” This will give you the
correct placement.
(4) After Hook ( AH):
As it looks when finished ( See illustration showing
main bends on page 71.) Make another just by laying this one on the
wood, and mark it off the same as this one.
(5) Place the floor on top of the hook at the foot to
keep the sides together. Spike the sides together underneath.
(6) First to Fore (FF):
It goes between the midship bend ( MB) and the fore
hook ( FH).
( 7) Next, First Abaft or First to the Baft (FB). It
is located between the after hook and the midship bend. This completes
five bends ( also called frames ). The frames that go between them can
be taken off the same way, or, when the frames have been battened out,
you can use a lead mould to get the shape of the remaining timbers. (
See illustration on page 72.)
The timbers are placed 8”-10” apart. The first to
fore ( FF) is placed midway between the midship bend and the after hook
(AH). Between the fore hook and the breast hook are #1, #2, # 3, and # 4
fore pitchers. Between the after hook and the counter pitcher are #1,
#2, #3, and #4 after pitchers. ( See illustration on page 72.)
Once the boat has been “timbered out,” the rest of
the building procedure is the same as that by model.
Page 75
Because of the need to work to a sale involving the
strict positioning of lines on a straight board, the boat built by mould
had, I believe, less individually than one taken from a model, which was
carved exactly to the shape that pleased the builder and the owner. The
boat was made to this design. Noah Chaulk said that the older boats in
Elliston, built by mould, tended to be wider through the bows, making
them clumsy-looking, whereas boats built by model, with suant bows, were
graceful. Boats built by model varied from builder to builder, and
sometimes boats built by the same builder varied depending on the needs
of their owners. Also there were some characteristics of the boats built
in one community that distinguished them from boats built elsewhere. In
the main, Bonavista boats tended to be deep, with bluff bows. My main
Elliston informant, Thomas Porter, said they had upright stems and
sterns while Catalina boats had flaring, “whaler” bows, and they were
shallower, making the latter more graceful. “Like a puncheon to a
barrel” was Noah Chaulk’s observation on the two types. Philip Hicks
said that the Catalina boats were designed for rougher water. Since the
sea is rough water. Since the sea is rough, especially in Maberly and
The Neck, it is understandable that all the trap boats there were of the
shallower “Catalina” design. However, in the 1940s and ‘50’s, some crews
from The Point and North Side- Lewis Porter, Garland Porter, Samuel
White, and George Oldford- used “Bonavista boats.
Building a boat was often a co-operative effort. As
one of my informants commented, “It was more than one day’s work, wasn’t
it?” When a boat was ready for the water, all the able-bodied men around
the community gathered for the launching. Round sticks or “ways” were
laid down and the boat was pushed and hauled over these. The men
arranged themselves on both sides of the boat and one of their number
started to sing the “Jolly Poker.” At the words “Heave my jolly pokers!”
everyone heaved and started the boat rolling toward the sea.
Page 76
Once launched, a motorboat stayed in the water all
summer, unless it had to be hauled up because of some defect that did
not become apparent until after the launching. Every fall, all boats
were hauled up on shore. In the 1940s, on the North Side most boats
spent the winter on the bank in Noder Cove; the Deck across from the
government wharf accommodated most “Cove” boats; and by then The Neck
boats which used to be hauled up on the bank by Follett’s Cove on the
South side of Sandy Cove Reach had joined the Maberly boats “Over
Below.” I recall ours spent the winter just above Charlie’s Cove, near
to Bobby and Ike Chaulk’s sheep stable.
Usually the engine was removed for the winter season
and the boat was either turned bottom-up and given a protective covering
of boards, or else it was left upright and covered. Others spent the
winter in stages or sheds. In spring every boat was thoroughly checked
over and given a fresh coat of paint inside and out before the
launching. It was an eventful day for most fishermen’s children when the
boats were launched. If you were lucky you got a ride to the Collar.
In the early nineteenth century, boats were used in
Elliston for the transportation of people and goods, but by the end of
that century, roads suitable for the horse-drawn traffic of the period
connected Elliston with all the nearby places. Although boats were still
used in the twentieth century to transport “rinds” from the bay or to
take salt from a schooner directly to the fishing premises, by then the
boat was not essential means of transportation- the horse was. Before
the advent of trucks, horses moved all large items, not only those
connected with the fishery, but also with the household.
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