{"id":969,"date":"2014-04-07T14:00:56","date_gmt":"2014-04-07T18:00:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ncseagrant.ncsu.edu\/coastwatch\/?page_id=969"},"modified":"2024-09-20T11:49:49","modified_gmt":"2024-09-20T15:49:49","slug":"traditional-working-boats-of-the-outer-banks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ncseagrant.ncsu.edu\/coastwatch\/traditional-working-boats-of-the-outer-banks\/","title":{"rendered":"Local Catch: Traditional Working Boats of the Outer Banks"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n\n\n
By MORGAN A. JONES<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The waters of the state are as diverse as the skiffs and boats that use them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Often, boats are specific to their intended catch, with adaptations to produce a higher-quality product. These adjustments include unique gear, as well as distinctive structural features on the vessel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Here are some boats that were highlighted at the 2012 Outer Banks Seafood Festival in Nags Head. See the tiding on page 3 for more about the event.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The shad boat was developed on Roanoke Island by George Washington Creef and is specific to the northern Outer Banks. The boat, which was adopted as the official State Historical Boat in 1987, was originally used to harvest shad with a gill net, a vertically hung net that traps fish as they swim into it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “The North Carolina shad boat played an important part in the daily lives of people living on the coast during mid 1800s and early 1900s,” says Barry Wickre, manager of the Roanoke Island Maritime Museum. “The boat is known for its easy handling and sea kindliness, and was used in everyday life from fishing and delivering the mail to hauling supplies and people.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n The shad boat is designed for the upper Albemarle and northern Pamlico sounds, where the water is shallow and the weather changes rapidly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Initially, these boats had round-bottomed hulls that made them expensive and complicated to build, explains Michael B. Alford, author of Traditional Work Boats of North Carolina. In the early 1900s, shad boat hulls were shaped into a “V” bottom to lower expense and support an engine, he continues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The boat also had a single mast rigged with a spritsail, a four-cornered fore-and-aft sail named for a specialized spar. The spar, also called a sprit, supports the peak of the sail and extends it out from the mast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In its heyday, the shad boat was the “pickup truck” of eastern North Carolina waters, and was used to fish pound nets, a common method used to catch shad and herring. The small boat would pull up to a square net enclosure known as a pound, and fishermen would bring the catch on board by hand or by using a dip net.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Roanoke Island Maritime Museum houses the Ella View. Built in 1889, it is one of the last known shad boats in existence built by Creef. The museum staff use the Spirit of the Roanoke Island, a Creef-style replica boat, to conduct summer sailing tours and educational sails in Shallow Bag Bay.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Flat-bottom work skiffs, such as the mullet skiff, were less expensive and easier to build.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Because mullet are harvested in shallow sounds and estuaries, these skiffs typically have an outboard engine that is mounted in a well and can be moved forward, sometimes to the bow.<\/p>\n\n\n\nSHAD BOAT<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
MULLET SKIFF<\/h2>\n\n\n\n