Sharpies in the Carolinas

At the end of the civil war in the USA, the South lay in economic ruin, seemingly unable to rebound from a tragic depletion of manpower and treasury.
That year George N. Ives, whose family was prominent in business and agriculture in Connecticut, came to Morehead City, North Carolina, to establish a wholesale fishing business. He would stay and become a leading citizen, distinguishing himself with numerous contributions and reforms in fisheries and related trades, and in fishery management.

One of Ives’s first concerns was the lack of a local boat that could support his business needs. The log-built craft were, he wrote in Forest and Stream in 1881, “strong and serviceable boats admirably suited for their purposes…” About the boats that were used for “business and pleasure,” he noted that they were “deep, sharp, clinker-built; fast sailers, but totally unfitted for shoal water navigation.”! In the sharpie of his native state, Ives perceived characteristics that he thought would be ideal for the Carolina sounds. He placed an order with George M. Graves, a sharpie builder in Fair Haven (now a part of New Haven).

Because it could be built quickly and inexpensively, the sharpie was accessible to many who could not afford a vessel of conventional construction. A small operator with a sharpie could vie with the schooners owned by the wealthy or by shipping companies. A farmer could contract with an independent sharpie owner at a rate significantly lower than that asked by the schooner operators. Or a farmer might just buy his own sharpie and not have to hire someone else to take his produce to market.

No small credit for the triumph of the sharpie must go to the perceptiveness and acumen of George Ives. He assured success of his endeavors by having his boat built by a top-notch builder and then testing its mettle against the home fleet in its native waters of Long Island Sound. He was well prepared when he made his case for the sharpie with the Carolina boatmen. He knew the local boats and their capabilities and limitations. His thoroughness gave him the confidence to challenge the fastest boat in the area.

After winning a race between the two types of boat, the pressure was on to get more of the new boats into local service. Ives had shipped his two boats on the deck of a schooner, but for the average fisherman, ordering a boat from New England was not an option. Even if one were to sail the new boat south to avoid shipping costs, there were risks. We might also assume that many Carolina sailors still had some mistrust of flat bottoms on seagoing boats.

This is an extract from “Sharpies in the Carolinas”, published in issue 137 of “Wooden Boat” magazine in July/August 1997.