ank extensions of the keelson were fitted, the bottom
laid, and the boat turned over. Sometimes the case was made and fitted
with the keelson structure, but sometimes this was not done until the
deck and inboard works were finished.

[Illustration: FIGURE 14.--The entrance of a North Carolina sharpie
schooner and details of her sharp lines and planking. Note scarphs in
plank.]

The son of Lester Rowe, a noted sharpie builder at New Haven, told me,
in 1925, that it was not uncommon for his father and two helpers to
build a sharpie, hull and spars, in 6 working days, and that one year
his father and two helpers built 31 sharpies. This was at a time after
power saws and planers had come into use, and the heavy cutting and
finishing of timber was done at a mill, from patterns.

In spite of Barnegat Bay's extensive oyster beds and its proximity to
New Haven, the sharpie never became popular in that region, where a
small sailing scow known as the "garvey" was already in favor. The
garvey was punt-shaped, with its bow narrower than the stern; it had a
sledlike profile with moderately flaring sides and a half-deck; and it
was rigged with two spritsails, each with a moderate peak to the head
and the usual diagonal sprit.[9] The garvey was as fast and as well
suited to oyster tonging as the sharpie, if not so handsome; also, it
had an economic advantage over the New Haven boat because it was a
little cheaper to build and could carry the same load on shorter
length. Probably it was the garvey's relative unattractiveness and the
fact that it was a "scow" that prevented it from competing with the
sharpie in areas outside of New Jersey.

[9] The foremast of the garvey was the taller and carried the larger
sail. At one time garveys had leeboards, but by 1850 they commonly had
centerboards and either a skeg aft with a rudder outboard or an
iron-stocked rudder, with the stock passing through the stern overhang
just foreward of the raking transom. The garvey was commonly 24 to 26
feet long with a beam on deck of 6 feet 4 inches to 6 feet 6 inches and
a bottom of 5 feet to 5 feet 3 inches.

[Illustration: FIGURE 15.--Midbody and stern of a North Carolina sharpie
schooner showing planking, molding, and other details.]

The Chesapeake Bay Sharpie

The sharpie appeared on the Chesapeake Bay in the early 1870's, but she
did not retain her New Haven characteristics very long. Prior to her
appearance on the Bay, the oyster fishe