Ancestry Magazine

Ship-related occupations in colonial America, for example, would have included shipwrights to build the ship’s wooden hull. But other workers were required to create the necessities for sailing. Sails, for instance, involved first making a canvas. A sailmaker then determine the size and shape of the needed sails for the vessel. Interior features of a ship might be built by a finish carpenter. Coopers made barrels for transporting products, like hardtack (bread) and salted meat, or cod caught by local fishing boats. These same barrel makers in turn employed stavecutters and blacksmiths.

During America’s colonial period, England severely restricted the trading activities of its colonies, even requiring registration of any vessel participating in transatlantic or intercolony trading. Unfortunately, none of these registers survive. Additionally, many ship owners “neglected” to register their crafts, resentful of England’s parental interference.

American shipbuilding was usage-driven. Shipbuilding businesses were established where there were significant fishing and trade opportunities and where there was a good supply of raw materials. For example, Maine’s proximity to fishing banks and dense forests helped spur its shipbuilding activity after 1650 when the English Civil War reduced England
’s control of shipping across the Atlantic.

What types of boats your ancestors might have used or worked on was also dependent upon when and where the boats were constructed.

Usage was the primary driver of evolution in boat and ship design. While the earliest American-built craft were essentially identical to their English counterparts, changes were quickly prompted by use—fishing versus trade, amount and type of cargo, distance of voyages, and the physical environment.

For example, areas with outer banks and tidal rivers had shallow waters and required ships with shallow drafts (the distance the hull rides below the water line). To achieve this, boatbuilders in the Chesapeake added masts and sails to Indian canoes. The oyster-harvesting business in the Chesapeake in the 1800s led to additional alterations and the development of a shallow-draft boat called a “bug-eye” with two sails.

The Chebacco River is winding and tidal, so it was necessary that its boats be relatively small. This led to the design of the Chebacco boat, the mainstay of the inshore fisheries for almost half a century following the Revolution. Legend says the first Chebacco boat was small enough that it was built in a garret (attic); part of the house had to be dismantled to get the boat out.

Chebacco boats were typically handled by only two or three men. They were two-masted, adapted from the typical shallop design with a “pink” (narrow, pointed) stern. A variation, called a dogbody, had a square stern. They were relatively fast, and although small, were used in the War of 1812 and made trading voyages from Maine to the West Indies. It is said that shipyards in Chebacco (today Essex, Massachusetts) built four thousand two-masted vessels—more than any other town in the world.

Not all shipbuilding activity was in New England. Your southern ancestors may have also had a hand in
making ships. While centralized shipbuilding got off to a slower start in the South, by the mid-1700s, South Carolina also had several shipyards, especially near Charleston. Southern-built ships were notable for their durability because the types of wood used, primarily live oak and cedar, were more resistant to moisture and insects than boats built in New England.

Even for post-colonial ancestors, ships played an important role. Trade with China, for instance, began at the end of the Revolutionary War. Voyages were long and dangerous, but profits were high. Merchants in Salem, Massachusetts, lead these ventures, commissioning ships from a number of shipyards in New England.

By the early 1800s, New York was the largest shipbuilding state based on capacity, followed by Maine. The California Gold Rush spurred a desire for even faster transportation from the East Coast to the West Coast, increasing the production of trim clipper ships. Eventually, however, our ancestors’ dependence upon ships declined as railroads, automobiles, and other forms of transportation eventually came into favor.