oat" or "Croatan boat," had been developed in the vicinity of
Roanoke Island for the local shad fishery. Although it was seaworthy and
fast under sail, this boat was not particularly well suited for the
oyster fishery because of its high freeboard and lack of working deck
for tonging.

[Illustration: FIGURE 17.--Deck of a North Carolina sharpie schooner
showing U-shaped main hatch typical of sharpies used in the Carolina
Sounds.]

Because the oyster grounds in the Carolina Sounds were some distance
from the market ports, boats larger than the standard 34-to 36-foot New
Haven sharpie were desirable; and by 1881 the Carolina Sounds sharpie
had begun to develop characteristics of its own. These large sharpies
could be decked and, when necessary, fitted with a cabin. In all other
respects the North Carolina sharpie closely resembled the New Haven
boat. Some of the Carolina boats were square-sterned, but, as at New
Haven, the round stern apparently was more popular.

Most Carolina sharpies were from 40 to 45 feet long. Some had a cramped
forecastle under the foredeck, others had a cuddy or trunk cabin aft,
and a few had trunk cabins forward and aft. Figure 6 is a drawing of a
rigged model that was built to test the design before the construction
of a full-sized boat was attempted.[10] The 1884 North Carolina sharpie
shown in this plan has two small cuddies; it also has the U-shaped main
hatch typical of the Carolina sharpie. It appears that the clubs shown
at the ends of the sprits were very often used on the Carolina sharpies,
but they were rarely used on the New Haven tongers except when the craft
were rigged for racing. The Carolina Sounds sharpie shown under sail in
figure 8 is from 42 to 45 feet long and has no cuddy.

[10] In building shoal draft sailing vessels, this practice was usually
possible and often proved helpful. In the National Watercraft Collection
at the United States National Museum there is a rigged model of a
Piscataqua gundalow that was built for testing under sail before
construction of the full-scale vessel.

The Carolina Sounds sharpies retained the excellent sailing qualities of
the New Haven type and were well finished. The two-sail, two-mast New
Haven rig was popular with tongers, but the schooner-rigged sharpie that
soon developed (figs. 9, 11-18) was preferred for dredging. It was
thought that a schooner rig allowed more adjustment of sail area and
thus would give better handling of the bo