Various types of watercraft used in Colonial Virginia have been
mentioned in the records. The dugout canoe of the Indians was found
by the settlers upon arrival, and was one of the chief means of
transportation until the colony was firmly established. It is of
great importance in the history of transportation from its use in
pre-history to its use in the world today. From the dugout have come
the piragua, Rose's tobacco boat, and the Chesapeake Bay canoe and
bugeye as we see them today.
The first boats in use by the colony in addition to the Indian canoe
were ships' boats--barges, long-boats, and others. A shallop brought
over in sections was fitted together and used in the first explorations.
As the years went by, however, "almost every planter, great and small,
had a boat of one kind or another. Canoes, bateaux, punts, piraguas,
shallops, flats, pinnaces, sloops, appear with monotonous regularity
in the seventeenth and eighteenth century records of Virginia and
Maryland."
Little is known about the construction of boats in the colony except
the log canoe. A long and thick tree was chosen according to the size
of the boat desired, and a fire made on the ground around its base.
The fire was kept burning until the tree had fallen. Then burning off
the top and boughs, the trunk was raised upon poles laid over
crosswise on forked posts so as to work at a comfortable height. The
bark was removed with shells; gum and rosin spread on the upper side
to the length desired and set on fire. By alternately burning and
scraping, the log was hollowed out to the desired depth and width. The
ends were scraped off and rounded for smooth navigating.
Captain John Smith, who had a number of occasions to use the canoe,
wrote that some were an elne deep (forty-five inches), and forty or
fifty feet in length; some would bear forty men, but the most ordinary
were smaller and carried ten, twenty, or thirty men. "Instead of oars,
they use paddles or sticks with which they will row faster than our
barges." Additional space and graceful lines in the canoes were
secured by spreading the sides. To do this, the hollowed log was
filled with water and heated by dropping in hot stones until the wood
became soft enough to bend into the desired shape by forcing the sides
apart with sticks of different lengths and allowed to harden.
The tools with which the Indians built their boats and used for other
purposes, were tomahawks of stone sharpened at one end or both, or one
end was rounded off for use as a hammer. A circular indentation was
made in the center to secure the tomahawk to the handle. Another
method of fitting the stone tomahawk to a handle was to cut off the
head of a young tree, and as if to graft it, a notch was made into
which the head of the hatchet was inserted. After some time, the tree
by growing together kept the hatchet so fixed that it could not come
out. Then the tree was cut to such a length as to make a good handle.
Another method in use was that of binding the stones to the ends of
sticks and gluing them there with rosin.
Some colonists did not hesitate to take the canoes from the Indians,
which they may or may not have returned. On one occasion the King of
Rappahanna demanded the return of a canoe, which was restored. Among
the first laws of the General Assembly was that for the protection of
the Indians, enacted in August, 1619: "He that shall take away by
violence or stealth any canoe or other things from the Indians, shall
make valuable restitution to the said Indians, and shall forfeit, if
he be a freeholder, five pounds; if a servant, forty shillings or
endure a whipping."
A story of an Indian and his canoe was told by John Pory, Secretary of
Virginia, after he had visited the Eastern Shore. "Wamanato, a
friendly Indian, presented me with twelve bever skins and a canow
which I requited with such things to his content, that he promised to
keep them whilst he lived, and berie them with him being dead."
Several writers of boatbuilding have expressed the thought that the
evolution of the Chesapeake Bay canoe and the Chesapeake Bay bugeye
from the Indian dugout canoe was one of the most interesting developments
in the history of shipbuilding. M. V. Brewington, in his _Chesapeake
Bay: A Pictorial Maritime History_, says of this development: "The
white man's superior knowledge of small craft soon indicated changes
which would improve the canoe: sharp ends would make her easier to
propel and more seaworthy; broader beam and a keel would increase
stability; sail would lessen the work of getting from place to place.
Sharpening the bow and stern was a simple matter; the increased beam
was difficult because no single tree could provide the needed width.
In time, the settler learned to join two or more trees together to
give the beam desired. He learned how to add topsides, first of hewn
logs, later of sawed plank. A keel was added and a sailing rig. After
the centerboard was invented, it took the place of a keel...."
"But the culmination of the simple, single log, trough-shaped Indian
dugout was the bugeye, a complex vessel as much as eighty-five feet in
length. There was an intermediate step between the canoe and the
bugeye, the brogan, a large canoe, partially decked, with a cuddy
forward in which a couple of men could sleep and cook.... The earliest
known use of the name "bugeye" was in 1868, but doubtless the word was
not coined upon the first appearance of the vessel itself.... In
essence the bugeye was a large canoe, fully decked, with a fixed rig
following that of the brogan. There were full accommodations for the
crew which, because the vessel was built for oyster dredging, needed
to be comparatively large.... Throughout the course of development
from canoe to bugeye, the original dugout log bottom was always
apparent in this most truly American craft."