Isaac Wells Canning fishing from a small boat at Fisherman's Cove. Fisherman's Cove, located adjacent to Spencer's Island, was a seasonal fishing grounds during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

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The Wooden Boats of Cumberland County’s Upper Bay of Fundy Shores.

John Pettis, Brookville, Cumb.Co. N.S.
John Pettis was a builder of both
small and large craft.






Introduction

The history of the Parrsboro Township as well as the adjacent coastal communities of Eatonville, Spicer’s Cove and Apple River is intimately connected to the building of wooden watercraft of all sizes. The largest were three and four masted sailing vessels that could carry hundreds of tons of cargo. The smallest were round and flat bottomed rowboats, sloops, and propeller driven motorboats that were first powered 1by in-board steam engines, then by inboard marine“make and brake engines” , and finally by high powered gasoline and diesel engines2 It is these small wooden boats and their builders that form the focus of this web site.

Each region of the Atlantic coast developed small working boats that were particularly suited to the water and the weather conditions of that region. Howard Chapelle in his book American Small Sailing Craft (Norton 1951)3 states that " in the last half of the nineteenth century, about two hundred distinct types and sub-types of small boats were in use in North America". Small watercraft were built along the Parrsboro Shore and along the Apple River Shore. Our knowledge, however, of these workboats is very limited. Few photographs exist and even fewer half models have survived. Who were the small boat builders? The names of several builders have survived but only shreds of information are available on each one.

What type of work were the Parrsboro Shore and Apple River Shore boats designed to perform? These boats operated in waters that have one of the highest tidal ranges in the world. A range sufficiently large that harbours are completely drained at low tide leaving boats that are moored close to the shore out of the water for several hours every day. How did these tidal conditions influence the design of a boat’s hull?

References

1Mitchell, R. M. (1994). The Steam Launch, Portland, Oregon: Elliott Bay Press.

2Lowell, R. (1994). Boatbuilding Down East: How to Build a Wooden Boat. South Portland, Maine: Simonton Cove Publishing Company.

3 For Howard Chapelle also see Henry Holt and Company, New York, 1995




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