Sail Freight: The Piscataqua Gundalow

This article is part of a series linked to our exhibit: "A New Age Of Sail: The History And Future Of Sail Freight In The Hudson Valley," and tells the stories of sailing cargo ships both modern and historical, on the Hudson River and around the world.

www.gundalow.org. Photograph by Ralph Morang.

Gundalows were iconic wooden cargo vessels that operated primarily on the rivers and bays of the coastal regions of New Hampshire and Southern Maine from the mid-1600’s to the early 1900’s.  These vessels evolved to become a practical and efficient method for transporting goods and materials to and from the deep-water port of Portsmouth, NH to the towns that were established in the Piscataqua River watershed and were classified as Piscataqua Gundalows.  Considered to be the “18-wheelers” of the that era, gundalows helped to build the economy of the region by carrying raw materials to the various mills and factories in those towns while also facilitating the transport and trade of manufactured items that made their way up and down the East Coast of the United States and to as far away as Europe and the Mediterranean.

EARLY YEARS – 1650 to 1800
Early European settlers in the Piscataqua region encountered a vast network of rivers, streams, and bays that had been used for centuries by the indigenous people of the area as resources for food, water and for transportation to and from ocean fishing grounds and their summer and winter encampments.  As the area became settled by the Europeans the need for an efficient and timely method of bringing goods and materials to and from the many towns that developed in the watershed rose to a level that necessitated a solution.

Roads in the area were nothing more than hunting trails established by indigenous people and were not set up to accommodate horses and carts which would have been the alternative to canoes or boats.  Trips on land meant days of travel adding miles to a journey between Portsmouth and a town on Great Bay that could be traversed by water in a matter of hours.  Having observed the reliance of the indigenous population on the water as an efficient transportation medium and realizing the swiftness of the tidal current and its periodicity – nearly two flood tides and two ebb tides per day – those involved in the commerce of the region came to conceptualize and develop the first gundalows.

Drawing on their experiences in their former homelands and capitalizing on an abundance of building materials, local farmers, fisherman, merchants, and property owners began to build square ended, flat bottomed scows that could be loaded with cargo, floated on the water, and steered with long oars called sweeps.  Early gundalows were undecked meaning that they resembled a rowboat or canoe.  There were no raised platforms from which to gain a vantage point for steering and all cargo rested on the bottom of the scow.  The flat bottoms and wide beams were necessary for trips that spanned more than one tide cycle allowing the gundalow to rest evenly on the exposed mudflats left after the tide ebbed.  The flat bottoms also facilitated beaching to load and unload cargo and passengers for there was little infrastructure in the way of wharfs, docks, and quays available in those early days.  Sweeps were used to pole the gundalow off the beach at high tide and acted as a rudimentary rudder for steering – like a Venetian gondola from which it is believed that the name gundalow was derived.  Gundalows also had shallow drafts (usually < 3 ft) allowing them to reach to the head of the tide in many of the rivers that emptied into Great Bay, Little Bay and the Piscataqua.

THE MIDDLE YEARS 1800 to 1860
From about 1800 until 1860, gundalow design changed as more and more people from Europe and the Mediterranean settled in the watershed.  After 1800, the square ended scow configuration slowly faded replaced by a rounded stern which accepted a more sophisticated steering system consisting of a fixed rudder with a tiller attachment and a raised platform from which the gundalow captain could see to steer the vessel.  The raised platform aft led to a similar platform at the bow from which the crew could look for hazards and landmarks that were used for navigating the treacherous waters of the Piscataqua River.  Taking to heart the adage that “time is money”, gundalowmen began to introduce sails on their vessels around 1820, not as a way to steer the boat, but more as a way to gain speed above and beyond that of the fast-moving tidal current.  These sails were typically square in shape and mounted on a vertical mast located at the bow.  The mast and sail configuration, which was removable, could be turned to take advantage of the wind direction but required crew to work the rigging and stabilize the sail.  This method of sailing in the sometimes-narrow river basin was neither quick (tacking and jibing would have been an adventure!) nor efficient and the extra speed could only be gained moving with the current and if the wind was blowing from sailing points abaft the beam.  Along with the increased population came the desire to travel across the rivers and streams more efficiently on foot or horse.  Bridges sprang up in several places in the watershed in the 1740’s which presented a new challenge for gundalow captains to overcome.  The bridges were constructed in locations along the rivers where land masses were relatively close together not usually at the port or dock facilities in the towns served by gundalows.  Clearance under the bridges was typically less than 25 feet even at low tide and a gundalow with a square-rigged sail could not travel up or down river with the mast and sail raised beyond where the bridge was erected.  This dilemma forced gundalow captains to offload/onload cargo far from its destination or to forego the added speed created by the sail by transiting without the mast and sail raised.

THE END YEARS - 1860 TO 1925
Because gundalows were not constructed in shipyards, they were not required to be registered with the local town, county or state governments.  Many farmers, fisherman and property owners built gundalows without plans making up or changing the designs as they went to take advantage of improvements adopted by other gundalow builders.  While the standard characteristics of gundalows remained uniform – flat bottom, wide beam, shallow draft, square rigged sail and tall vertical mast – other innovations were added to improve gundalow operations.  These innovations such as adding cuddy cabins for the captain and crew to shelter in overnight or when the weather made it difficult to operate and changing the steering system to include a ships wheel connected to a drum that turned the rudder with a system of block and tackles located on the deck, were commonplace as gundalows multiplied in the Piscataqua watershed. 

It is estimated that over 1,000 gundalows were being used on the Piscataqua River and in the tributaries that fed Great Bay and Little Bay at some point in the 1800’s.  Unfortunately for the entrepreneurial spirit of the gundalow captains there was one challenge that they could not overcome.  With the introduction of the steam engine and subsequently railroads, a faster, more reliable mode of transporting goods and materials started to take over.  The first railroad to reach New Hampshire established a train station in the town of Dover in 1832.  Ironically, with the growth of rail transportation, infrastructure such as railroad bridges and train depots were needed to keep up with the popularity of the new transportation system.  Gundalows were used extensively to deliver the materials needed to build that infrastructure unwittingly helping to diminish the reliance on those vessels as the rail system grew to take over their role.  During this final phase of gundalow building one innovation stands out because it helped to overcome the problem of getting up or down river where a bridge had been built.  Drawing on ship designs such as dhows and feluccas from the Mediterranean and the Middle East, a lateen rig was adopted by many gundalow owners. 

​The lateen rig eliminated the tall vertical mast and square sail of earlier models and replaced it with a system that incorporated a shorter stump mast (approximately 20 ft high) and a long yard that was fixed to the mast at an angle with a block and tackle allowing the yard to be lowered and raised.  With this rig, gundalow captains could now “shoot bridges” meaning they could lower the yard to the deck as they approached a bridge, “shoot” under the bridge, and raise the yard and sail back to its sailing position once they were clear.  Even with this innovation, “shooting bridges” required a mastery of river conditions, vessel speed, and maneuverability because there were no other methods of propulsion to help steer the gundalow under the bridge.

The last operating gundalow was launched in 1886 at Adams Point in Durham, NH.  She was named Fannie M after the wife of her builder, Captain Edward H. Adams.  Adams was a major force in gundalow design and construction.  His innovative approach to the building of these vessels resulted in the classification of gundalows that operated in the watershed as Piscataqua River gundalows.  These gundalows incorporated many of the innovations that have been described in previous paragraphs, but it was the ships wheel/tiller steering mechanism, the lateen sailing rig, and the spoon bow that set Piscataqua gundalows apart from gundalows operating in other parts of New England.
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The Fannie M. operated until 1925 far exceeding the typical lifespan of past gundalows and was beached along the shoreline (as were most gundalows that had exceeded their usefulness) at Adams Point in Durham, NH.  Shortly after that, Captain Adams having the foresight to understand the impact that gundalows had on the history, heritage, and economy of the region, participated in a WPA (Works Progress Administration) effort to document the sailing and motor vessels in various regions throughout the country.  Measurements taken from the many journals that Captain Adams kept for his gundalow construction projects, including the Fannie M, were used to create formal drawings that are now housed in the Smithsonian Institute preserving the legacy of the Piscataqua Gundalow.

20th and 21st Century Gundalows
Captain Adams was not done building gundalows after the Fannie M was taken out of service.  In 1931, he and his son Cass, set about designing and building a new type of gundalow which would carry only passengers and incorporated a gas-powered engine to propel the vessel.  Over the next 19-yrs, Adams and Cass would work on the gundalow in their spare time using driftwood found along the shoreline of their property on Great Bay to fashion the hull and deck.  Finally, in October of 1950, the new design, aptly named Driftwood, was ready for launch.  Built with a deeper draft which allowed enough headroom for passengers in the cuddy cabin to stand when the weather was poor, the new gundalow also shed its lateen sailing rig using the engine from a Model-A Ford for propulsion.  Launch day saw hundreds of people from the local community turn out to the Adams property along Great Bay.  Speeches were made and a bottle of champagne was broken across the cutwater (bow).  Driftwood slid down the ship ways and into Great Bay.  The engine started and she motored out towards the middle of the bay for a test run of her steering and speed.  Unfortunately, the valve that allowed water to circulate through the engine to cool it was left closed and after about 45 minutes the engine seized and would not restart.  Driftwood was towed back to shore and hauled up on the beach next to the ship ways.  She remained there never to sail again.  Five months later Captain Adams passed away at age 91.

Gundalows were not completely forgotten after the passing of Captain Adams.  In 1978, several wooden boatbuilders in the Piscataqua region some of whom were apprentices to Capt. Adams, got together with the Strawbery Banke Museum and remembering the importance of these vessels to the history and the economy of the region developed a plan to build a replica of the Fannie M.  Their objective was to use the replica as a floating classroom to educate the young people of the Piscataqua region about their rich maritime heritage, the importance of gundalows, and overall, the importance of a clean environment to the sustainability of the watershed.  The CAPT Edward H. Adams was built on the grounds of the Strawbery Banke Museum and launched in 1982.  Being a replica and keeping with the design of Piscataqua Gundalows in the late 1880’s, the new gundalow was not certified to carry paying passengers on the water.  Instead, she was towed from town to town in the watershed where festivals celebrating the rivers and bays of the region were held.  Local schools brought classes of students down to where the Adams was docked for onboard education programs and tours of the gundalow, concerts, and other maritime related events.  In 1999, Strawbery Banke Museum deaccessioned the Adams because of the cost required to maintain a gundalow that had far exceeded its life expectancy. 

​The group of volunteers that had been conducting the education programs on the Adams got together and formed the Gundalow Company.  The Gundalow Company took ownership of the Adams and through fundraising and grants raised the funds to keep her running.  Over the next 8 years the Adams continued to serve the Seacoast community but the officers and directors of the Gundalow Company realized that she was reaching the limit of her useful life.  In 2009 a decision was made to build a second replica, but this time the organization made a conscious decision to build a gundalow that would be able to bring students, residents, and visitors to the area out for trips recreating the gundalow experience of sailing on the Piscataqua River, Great and Little Bay and the other rivers in the watershed. A capital campaign was started and materials for the build were purchased and assembled on the grounds of Strawbery Banke where in early 2011 construction of the successor to the Captain Edward Adams began.  In early December of that year and after countless hours put in by professional shipwrights, boat builders and volunteers, the gundalow Piscataqua was launched from the boat ramp at Peirce Island in Portsmouth, NH.  Piscataqua met all USCG safety regulations which included the installation of a 25 HP diesel engine, lifelines, a fire suppression system, and automated bilge alarms. Following her launch, she completed her fitting out with the installation of her lateen sailing rig and in May 2012 sailed with her first class of local school students.  Since that time, she has sailed with over 75,000 passengers including 25,000 plus students and summer campers, and 50,000 residents and visitors to the Seacoast NH and ME areas, all with the mission of protecting the maritime heritage and the environment of the Piscataqua Region through education and action.  To read more about Piscataqua, gundalows in general, and the mission of the Gundalow Company please visit gundalow.org 

Author

Rich Clyborne is the Executive Director of the Gundalow Company of Portsmouth, New Hampshire.

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