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A Sea Bright Skiff Model
. . . . .
by Edward R. Thieler III
During the 1700s and 1800s the
people of coastal New Jersey developed several kinds of small craft that are unique to
the region. The garvey, sneakbox, and melonseed were ideally suited to clamming,
NAUTICAL RESEARCH JOURNAL
fishing, and waterfowl gunning in the
extensive shallow bays behind the protective barrier islands. Challenging the surf on
the exposed beaches required a more seaworthy design—in response the Sea Bright
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skiff emerged. Construction of all of these
boats benefited from the abundant cedars,
oaks, and pines found in the Pine Barren
forests bordering those bays.
Historical Context
For over one hundred years an active
commercial fishery existed in the Atlantic
Ocean off the barrier island beaches of the
New Jersey coast. From 1845, when the
fishery began with hand-lines and hooks
cast from small skiffs, until 1961, when
the last pound net gear and poles were
removed from the ocean, the fishermensurfmen of New Jersey provided the teeming immigrant masses of New York City
each year with hundreds of thousands of
pounds of fish. As the need for fish
increased, the equipment used to catch
them evolved, including the family of boats
the men used in the fishery.
Although beach based fisheries
existed along the entire coast of the state,
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from Raritan Bay in the north to Cape May
in the south, most of the activity was concentrated in Monmouth County which, at
the time, encompassed the northern half of
coastal New Jersey. The eponymous town
of Sea Bright did not exist at the beginning
of the fishery but was founded later (in
1869) near the fishing community of
Nauvoo.
The Boats
The first skiffs used on the New
Jersey coast were probably imported from
New York and included dories, oyster tonging skiffs, and variations of the Whitehall
skiff used in the protected estuarine waters
of Raritan Bay, New York Bay, and Jamaica
Bay. By the early 1800s it became obvious
that these small boats could not handle the
challenges encountered in launching from,
and returning to, the beach through the
often daunting waves of the surf.
The beach skiff that evolved to meet
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the demands for survival in this high energy environment acquired a number of
notable characteristics.
A nicely curved stem profile flowing
into full bow contours was ideally shaped
to lift the bow over the oncoming waves
going out, and to prevent it from “submarining” down a wave front when coming
back, bow-to, to the beach. The boats had a
well raked transom that directed a following wave to flow under the skiff and lift it
rather than coming aboard. The full round
bilge lines allowed for excellent stability
and carrying capacity. When on the beach,
the slightly rockered, broad plank-keel permitted the boat to rest upright without
support and, when afloat, made it more
maneuverable. In some the plank-keel was
as wide as one-third the beam. One of the
most notable characteristics was a marked
sheer curve. This not only made the skiffs
lovely to look at but also served to raise the
bow and stern to meet and deflect the seas
and lowered the waist to make boarding
the catch more efficient. Rather than a
plank skeg being nailed on as an afterthought, the skeg was built into the skiff
bottom by twisting the garboard planks
from their almost horizontal position at
the mid-hull to vertical at the stem and at
the stern post. The sternpost extended
below the inside face of the transom
and,fastened to the plank-keel, formed a
knee. Most importantly, this built-down
skeg
provided
directional
stability.
Additionally, it created a broader surface to
help support the boat as it was hauled over
the sand, and created a convenient sump to
aid in bailing. It also made shaping and fitting the garboard plank an interesting and
very challenging exercise.
Considering the hard use the skiff
would endure, construction was notably
light and strong. Atlantic white cedar
(Chamaecyparis thyoides) from the New
Jersey pinelands, planked lapstrake fashion
and fastened every few inches with copper
NAUTICAL RESEARCH JOURNAL
rivets or clenched nails made a strong,
water-tight hull. In the early years this
plank skin was supported with frames
sawn out of natural white oak and cedar
knees found at the tree root-trunk junction; steam-bent white oak ribs were used
later. This construction left unsupported
triangular voids between part of the plank
faces and the frames or ribs. These spaces
were filled in with blocks of wood curiously
called “codwads.” Overall vessel strength
was increased by the white oak used in the
stem and sternpost, breast-hook, quarter
knees, outer and inner gunwales, and cap
rail. Thwarts were supported by substantial
oak knees as well.
Because Jersey cedar is quite strong
and resilient for its weight and because the
overlapped seams of lapstrake construction
add considerable strength, the planks used
in construction of these surf boats were
remarkably thin. In the subject 24-foot
skiff the plank keel was only 1-3/4 inches
thick with the planking from only 5/8-inch
stock. The transom was 1-3/4-inch cedar.
Copper rivets spaced every three to four
inches secured the edge of one plank to its
neighbor and brass screws were used elsewhere. The centerboard, centerboard
trunk, and thwarts were cedar also.
The Fishery
When the commercial fishery started in 1845 the first beach skiffs used were
small; about 15 feet by 5 feet. These were
manned by two men who pushed the boat
out through the surf, then hopped in, perhaps helped by a third pusher who stayed
ashore. The men aboard pulled the boat
out through the surf with powerful oar
strokes. They fished with hand lines baited
with shiny metal lures and hooks that
would be familiar to today’s surf casting
fishermen. Some skiffs were fitted for sailing farther off-shore. These had a small
loose-footed main spritsail; a jib, often a
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“balanced” jib bent to a club lashed to the
stem head, a centerboard, and a steering
sweep. Once the boat was through the surf,
the mast was raised and the sails set. On
their return, if conditions were suitable,
they were able to sail in through the surf. In
a boat loaded with fish this must have been
exciting to see—and do. Otherwise, the
mast and sails were furled, stowed in the
bow, and the skiff rowed in either bow-to
the beach (exciting) or stern-to the beach
(safer).
By the 1850s the demand for fish
exceeded the hook-and-line supply and the
net-fishery started to evolve.
Floating gill nets set to drift farther
off-shore made their way into the fishery, as
did small pound nets set on poles closer to
shore. These nets required larger boats, so
skiffs measuring about 17 feet by 6 feet were
built to the same design to meet the need
for increased carrying capacity. By now,
some boats were being launched by hauling
them hand-over-hand along a rope anchored
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to a heavy pole set well down into the sand
out beyond the surf zone.
Although the first pound net was set
in 1855 in sheltered waters, their general
use in the harsh, high wave-energy environment of the coastal surf did not become
practical until the early 1870s. Once the
skills, equipment, and techniques became
established, their presence increased dramatically along the coast over the next
decades. At the height of the pound net fishery, during the 1920s to 1930s, there were
about 125 pound nets along the New Jersey
coast. Some of these extended a half mile
from the shoreline out into the sea.
By now the beach skiffs supporting
these efforts had grown to about 20-24 feet
in length. Some of the bigger boats were
manned by six rowers using 12-foot oars,
with a “captain” in the stern guiding the
vessel with a 15-18-foot sweep. By the early
1900s reliable marine engines came to the
Jersey shore and 30-foot boats were created
to handle the increased power, with rudders
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replacing steering oars. In a few fisheries,
boats of 40-50 feet in length, of the same
design and construction, found employment, but these usually did not enter the
surf.
More effort was required to launch
and retrieve them as the boats increased in
size. In some cases a block was attached to
an off-shore pole beyond the surf zone and
men on the beach would “catapult” the
skiff out through the surf by hauling on a
tow-line reeved through the sheave. Later,
horses did the hauling and, in the final
days of the fishery, the very large boats
were hauled out and in through the surf by
caterpillar tractors. Once on the beach, the
pushing and pulling was aided by planks
laid on the sand over which the boat was
rolled on wooden rollers.
Other Equipment
The skiffs themselves were not the
only interesting element in this business.
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The bulk of the fishing was done
starting in the late spring, continued
through the summer and fall, and ended
about November. The winter and early
spring weather and waves made any boating off-shore hazardous.
The men were kept busy during the
winter months harvesting ice from the
local inshore lakes and bringing it to the
beach dunes. There, holes some 75-100
feet in diameter were dug deep into the
sand and then covered with a high conical
roof. Enough ice, insulated with salt-marsh
hay and saw-dust, could be stored in these
“ice houses” to last through the summer
months. In later years ice-making factories
came to the area and the need for the beach
“igloos” disappeared.
New Jersey is noted for the “pine
barrens” that occupy much of the state’s
interior.The sandy, nutrient-poor soil supports a unique flora, including the pitch
pines (Pinusrigida ) and other pines for
which the region is named, the Atlantic
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white cedar (Chamaecyparis thyoides)
proudly claimed as “Jersey cedar” by local
boat builders, and a variety of oaks, especially white oak (Quercus alba).In addition
to its usefulness in boat construction,
white oak lends itself to weaving excellent,
durable, baskets. Many residents of a number of pine-lands communities in the central part of the state formed small
industrial complexes, and, using white oak
splints, wove thousands of baskets to be
used in agriculture as well as in the coastal
fishing business. The baskets are 18 inches
in diameter, 12 inches deep, and hold one
bushel: about 50 pounds of fish. They were
soaked in pine pitch before going to the
fisheries.
The cart-making industry profited
from the fishery too. Two wheeled carts are
almost as prominent a feature in photographs as beach skiffs. Their role was to
carry fishing equipment down the beach to
the boats and to carry baskets of fish,
stacked in layers, back up the beach to be
processed, iced, and shipped. Large four
wheeled carts, pulled by teams of horses,
and, later, by caterpillar tractors, supported
the large pound net fishery in later years.
Initially the loads of fish made their
way to New York City on sloops and
schooners, later on trains, and, finally, in
the waning years in trucks. It is interesting
to note that few fish went to other population centers, so near and so demanding was
the New York market.
Over the years some of the remote
fishing camps became small, self sufficient
communities that in turn became the
coastal resort villages and towns of today.
of other uses.
Sixteen-foot cedar and oak lifeguard
boats, built to the same design and scantlings as those fishing skiffs constructed in
the 1800s, were built by a number of highly regarded boatwrights along the Jersey
coast. Famed boatwright, Charles Hankins,
of Lavallette, New Jersey built the last of
them until just a few years ago. (Reference
1) Fiberglass life boats molded from wooden ones are still rowed out through the surf
in New Jersey as summer time beach lifeguard rescue vessels. Many are raced in
events such as the locally famed South
Jersey Lifeguard Championships.
The U.S. Life Saving Service, formally established in 1871, staged a larger
variation of the skiff on the coastal beaches
of the entire east coast to be man-hauled
and horse-drawn on four-wheeled carriages
to respond to ships blown ashore.
After prohibition began in 1920,
both the rum-runners and the Coast Guard
fitted modified models with increasingly
powerful multi-cylinder aircraft engines.
The 16-foot high-powered Jersey
Speed Skiff is raced on the east coast and is
notable for being able to turn at high speed
and rolling so high on its lapstrake side
that the interior is visible to spectators on
shore.
Until fiberglass became the construction material of choice a number were
built as very nicely appointed cruising
yachts.
The Models
The Skiff
Other Uses
The demise of the fishing industry
did not completely ring the death knell for
the Sea Bright skiff. The strong, light construction that served it so well in the surf
made it adaptable to the needs of a number
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I built the skiff model starting with
the plans and table of offsets given by
Howard I. Chapelle in American Small
Sailing Craft. (Reference 2) Lofting at 1:12
scale provided the information needed to
make the section molds, transom, sternVol. 58, No 2 SUMMER 2013
post knee, stem, and other construction
details necessary to set up the building
mold.
I used the cut-away building board
technique described by Alan Frazer in the
third of his four articles published in this
Journal in 2003, and found all of them very
useful in building this lapstrake boat.
(Reference 5) The plank-keel, stern-post
knee and transom, and inner stem were set
up on the board, as dictated by the lofting,
to complete the skiff mold backbone. I used
the two piece method of building the stem;
first landing planks on an inner stem, then
trimming the plank ends, and finally
adding the outer stem.
I used a modification of the spiling
technique Frazer described, starting on page
156. (Reference 5) I placed double-sided
tape on drafting mylar and then stuck this
to the mold. This provided a firm and fixed
surface on which to draw the proposed
plank and became a stiff pattern for tracing
the derived shape onto the basswood plank
material.
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Rather than the clamping cord he
recommended, I found that rubber bands
were easier to use for clamping the strakes
to the mold. (Reference 5, Figure 9)
In the model, basswood planks
replaced cedar, and fine grained spruce and
fir substituted where oak would have been
used in the real boats. Bamboo treenails
represent screws and rivets. I glued all the
joints with Titebond II™.
I like to collect old wood and use it
in my models. Some years ago I was given
some ancient fine-grained quarter-sawn
cypress salvaged from dismantled pickle
vats; the oars are made of that wood. The
steering sweep is made of a cedar shingle
thrown from the roof of an old building
being restored at the Chesapeake Bay
Maritime Museum. The spars are cedar
salvaged from a tree struck by lightning.
I made a miniature spar gauge to lay
out the lines to “eight-side” the mast and
sprit blanks after they were four-sided.
(Reference 3) The remaining shaping was
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done using scrapers made of 3-inch lengths
of nesting brass tubes. Just as is done with
woodworking scrapers, I file and burnish a
bur on the inside circumference of the
tube. I start by using the tube closest in
size to the maximum diameter of the spar,
when that area has been scraped to size the
next smaller size tube scraper is used and
so on until the spar is finished. This
results in a round spar, and eliminates the
oval cross-section often obtained by the
usual sanding methods.
The Baskets
Never having had a basket weaving
course, making the baskets became an
enjoyable challenge.An internet site, “basket weaving 101,” gave more than enough
information to get started. The trick was to
split one of the splints crossing the bottom.
After that it was easy.
I had taken a number of measure136
ments and photographs of existing baskets
in museums to help in making an accurate
replica. To assure the models were of uniform size I made them over a carved wooden mandrel.
The Cart
Building the wheels is the obvious
challenge here. I found the most helpful
information and description at The
Worshipful Company of Wheelwrights of
the City of London, England, founded in
1670. (Reference 15) One page had all the
terminology and pictorial details I needed.
I made scale drawings, dimensioned
the wood, and then assembled the wheels
using maple from old discarded library
card-catalog drawers. After pegging and
gluing the seven felloes (rim segments) for
each wheel, I made lathe mounted tooling
that I used to turn the rims; first the inner
diameter, then the outer diameter and
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137
thickness. I turned the naves (hubs) on my
lathe and drilled the spoke holes in the
rims using a homemade dividing head.The
spokes were tapered using a sanding jig and
then hand sanded to the proper oval crosssection shape.The tyres (metal tires) were
made from old galvanized sheet metal, as
were the hub bands. I clamped the metal
strip in place on the wheel or hub and
placed a rivet across a filed scarf joint to
hold the dimension. The band was then
removed from the wheel and the joint soldered. The resulting hoops fitted snuggly
in place.
The Figure
Since I was unable to carve a recognizable human figure I looked for a modifiable doll. My wife finally found one in a
big-box store. It is a plastic Mattel Toy
“Loving Family” Dad™; he is 5 feet 11
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inches tall. I was able to cut and position
the limbs, glue them with cyanoacrylic
glue, and then fill the voids with West
System™ epoxy. I roughen the glossy surface with abrasive pads and painted with
acrylic gesso and acrylic colors. The hat
was molded over a carved form from tissue
papier-maché and thinned yellow carpenter ’s glue. The form was coated with paraffin wax to prevent sticking.
References
1 American Folklife Center—Library of
Congress, Local Legacies Celebrating
Community Roots. A video available online in which famed builder Charles
Hankins narrates as he builds a 16-foot
beach life-guard Sea Bright Skiff. Also has
footage of a sailing skiff, beach patrols
launching and retrieving through the surf,
pound net fishing, speed boats, and other
Vol. 58, No 2 SUMMER 2013
uses—do not miss this marvelous film. An
excellent supplement to Guthorn’s
book.http://www.folkstreams.net/film,41
2 Chapelle, Howard I., American Small
Sailing Craft. New York: W.W. Norton &
Co., Inc., 1951. I drew the plans and lofting using the offsets and notes given on
pages 94-97 and Figure 33, “Old beach
skiff, northern New Jersey and New York
Bay “Seabright” model.” Note on plans:
New York Bay Skiff, taken off 1937.
3 ——-, Boatbuilding. New York: W. W.
Norton & Co. Inc., 1941.How to make a
spar gauge and shape spars from pages
558-564 and Figure 176.
4 Frazer, Alan D., “Modeling an
Adirondack Guide Boat.”Nautical Research
Journal, 28: 3 (September 1982):111-126.
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5 ——-, “The St. Lawrence River Skiff,”
Part One,Nautical Research Journal 48: 1
(Spring 2003), 29-34; Part Two, Nautical
Research Journal 48: 2 (Summer 2003),
104-106l Part Three, Nautical Research
Journal 48: 3 (Fall 2003), 154-158; Part
Four, Nautical Research Journal 48: 4
(Winter 2003), 218-223. The Frazer articles
contain a number of techniques helpful
when building these types of lapstrake
hulls. The model was constructed using
modifications of some of these techniques.
6 Guthorn, Peter J., The Sea Bright Skiff
and other Jersey Shore Boats. New
Brunswick, New Jersey: Rutgers University
Press, 1971. The most complete historical
source; it discusses the fisheries, boat construction, builders, varieties of skiff, and
other items associated with Sea Bright
skiffs. It also contains chapters on the
Barnegat Bay sneakbox, rail bird gunning
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skiffs, and other New Jersey work boats.
7 JerseySpeedSkiffs.com.The unofficial web
site of the organization. Not updated in
several years but has some terrific action
photos and individual boat histories.
www.jerseyspeedskiffs.com
8 Klebold, Ferdinand F., Pound Fishing—
Bay Head to South Seaside Park, New
Jersey. Manahawkin: Surf Printing, 2002.
Contains a large collection of photographs
and text.
9 Monmouth Beach Cultural Center,
Monmouth Beach, NJ. Has a large collection of photographs and recollections, and
some nice models associated with the fishery. The Center is housed in restored Life
Saving Station #4.
10 New Jersey Museum of Boating, Bay
Head, NJ. Has a 1902 Jerolemon skiff (also
Jerolamar and other spellings). On a visit to
the museum I retrieved a thick, multilayered exfoliated piece of paint from the
inside of their Jerolemon Skiff. Careful
sanding away of the layers showed, from
present to original; light green, yellow,
orange, tan, gray.www.njmb.org
11 Robinson, Robby. “The Sea Bright
Skiff—A Big Little Boat.” WoodenBoat
Magazine, #109 (November-December
1992), 40. Good content and excellent
drawings explaining construction of the
two types of skiff bottom box keels; also
some helpful historical photographs.
12 Sim, Robert J. Pages from the Past of
Rural New Jersey.Trenton, New Jersey:
New Jersey Agricultural Society, 1949.
Photograph of Andy Brown with his cart
taken about 1940. (Personal communication, July, 2010, with Lorna Chadwick
Shinn, who knew Andy and bought produce from this cart.)
140
13
Smithsonian
Art
Collection:
“Fishermen Unloading a Boat, Sea Bright,
New Jersey,” by Louis Comfort Tiffany,
1887. This picture taken by the stained
glass wizard has all elements of the early
fishery; the boat, cart loaded with fish, a
basket, and the hardy fishermen. On the
beach the clump of line with wooden block
buoy hides a fisherman type anchor.
http://americanart.si.edu/collections/search
/artwork/?id=34399
14 Tuckerton Seaport and Baymen’s
Museum, Tuckerton, New Jersey.Recently
completed an exhibit depicting the later
days of the pound net fishery.
http://www.tuckertonseaport.org
15
The
Worshipful
Company
of
Wheelwrights of the City of London,
England. The sketch and text make wheel
construction
easily
understandable.
www.wheelwrights.org/craft/14-making-awheel
Acknowledgements
Howard H. Hughes. A master machinist,
Howard has made, and taught me how to
make, a number of model parts. He supervised my efforts in making the tooling used
to turn the wheel rims.
Mary May. I tried a number of basket weaving woods with mixed results until I met
Mary May, an outstanding New Jersey basket weaver, historian, and teacher of the
craft of New Jersey Pine Barrens basket
weaving. She gave me some pointers and
some black ash splints (Fraxinusnigra), the
perfect wood for this project. Her web site
has very helpful instructional videos and
historical information.http://marymaybaskets.com
Vol. 58, No 2 SUMMER 2013