The Carolina Sounds area was the last place in which the sharpie was
extensively employed. However, in 1876 the sharpie was introduced into
Florida by the late R. M. Munroe when he took to Biscayne Bay a sharpie
yacht that had been built for him by Brown of Tottenville, Staten
Island. Afterwards various types of modified sharpies were introduced in
Florida. On the Gulf Coast at Tampa two-masted sharpies and sharpie
schooners were used to carry fish to market, but they had only very
faint resemblance to the original New Haven boat.
[Illustration: FIGURE 19.--Sharpie yacht _Pelican_ built in 1885 for
Florida waters. She was a successful shoal-draft sailing cruiser. (Photo
courtesy Wirth Munroe.)]
The sharpie also appeared in the Great Lakes area, but here its
development seems to have been entirely independent of the New Haven
type. It is possible that the Great Lakes sharpie devolved from the
common flatiron skiff.
The sharpie yacht was introduced on Lake Champlain in the late 1870's by
Rev. W. H. H. Murray, who wrote for _Forest and Stream_ under the pen
name of "Adirondack Murray." The hull of the Champlain sharpie retained
most of the characteristics of the New Haven hull, but the Champlain
boats were fitted with a wide variety of rigs, some highly experimental.
A few commercial sharpies were built at Burlington, Vermont, for hauling
produce on the lake, but most of the sharpies built there were yachts.