Bugeye (boat)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The bugeye is a type of sailboat developed in the Chesapeake Bay for oyster dredging. The predecessor of the skipjack, it was superseded by the latter as oyster harvests dropped.

1 Origins
2 Design
3 Operation
4 Decline of the type
5 References

[edit] Origins

Between 1820 and 1865, the state of Maryland banned the practice of dredging for oysters. In the latter year, the law was relaxed; the use of steam power remained banned, however, and remained entirely prohibited until 1965, in which year powered dredging was allowed two days of the week. Boat builders were presented with the need to design a sailboat capable of pulling a dredge through the shallow waters of the oyster beds. Pungys and schooners required too much draft; the log canoe had insufficient capacity. The solution was to combine aspects of the three. The hull of the log canoe was widened and a fore-and-aft schooner rig was set into it. The resulting boat was the primary oystering boat into the 1890s, after which it began to be supplanted by the simpler and cheaper skipjack.

The origin of the name is obscure.

[edit] Design

The typical bugeye was two-masted, with leg-of-mutton sails and a jib. Though the relative sizes of the sails suggested a ketch rig, it is considered to be a schooner, and therefore the rear mast was the main, not the mizzen. The masts were sharply raked, and were stayed without spreaders. A bowsprit with trailboards was inevitably used.

The hull was beamy and shallow, with no chine. Initially it was chunked from logs, in the manner of the log canoe; eventually conventional framed construction was introduced as the supply of suitable trees was depleted. The usual form was double-ended, with a sharp stern, and most such boats had a heavy beam called the "duck tail" projecting a short distance from the stern in order to protect the rudder. To increase deck space a "patent stern" was installed after 1893; it consisted of a set of three beams: one across the duc tail, and two joining its ends to either side of the boat. The ostensible purpose, according to the patent in question, was to provide a mounting spot for davits for a dinghy; the whole area, however, could be planked over to provide a considerable increase in deck space. All log bugeyes were sharp-sterned, but some frame versions had round sterns; a very few had a square transom. The freeboard was invariably low, the better to lift the dredge onto the deck.

Due to the wide, flat bottom, a centerboard was provided. Early boats used a tiller for steering, but as patent steering gear became available, the wheel came into use instead.

Besides the raked, paired masts, the other distinctive feature of the bugeye is the mounting of the bowsprit. This was mounted between paired hawsepieces and knightheads, and terminated in a large vertical post called the "samson post", upon which the anchor windlass was also typically mounted. The hawsepieces projected above the deck and, with the prominent hawse holes, are thought possibly to be the origin of the name "bugeye".

In the center of the ship sat the windlass (generally called the "winder") for the dredge line. Early winders were simple hand-cranked spools, eventually equipped with devices to prevent injuries when the dredge caught on an obstruction. As gas and diesel engines became available they replaced the hand-cranked winder. In either case a pair of rollers was mounted at the rail on either side, to protect the hull from rubbing and to reduce friction.

By and large there was very little development within the type, other than the minor imporvements already listed. There was a small trend towards increasing size; bugeyes averaged around 55 feet in length, but some later examples were well over 80 feet long. Variations in the sail plan were tried, particularly with additional jibs, gaff rigging and staysails. A few were built with a single mast, resulting in a boat with a superficial resemblance to the skipjack.

[edit] Operation

Oystering was performed in the winter (the "R months" of September through April); in the summer the boats were used in light freight work where it was available. For oystering the boat would be taken out to the bed, and the dredge would be dropped as a pass was made at speed over the bed. At the end of the run the dredge would be lifted onto the deck and the live oysters separated from the dead shells and other debris. This process would be repeated until sufficient oysters were obtained. More enterprising captains would then sail the boat directly to the markets in Baltimore, Crisfield, and other towns where the oysters were bought at wholesale and processed. Alternatively, the catch could sold to a buy boat, which acted as a middle man in the process. Some boats both dredged and acted as buy boats, in which case a bushel basket would be mounted on the fore mast to indicate the latter.

With its low freeboard, the bugeye was not generally considered to be an ocean-going vessel; some boats were however sailed to the West Indies in the off season for the tropical trade. One bugeye, the Brown Smith Jones, was built for the Maryland Oyster Police. It had the curious distinction of being commissioned in the United States Navy in World War I, taking the name USS Dorchester in this service.

[edit] Decline of the type

Construction of bugeyes closely paralleled the oyster harvest, which peaked in 1884. As the catch declined, the skipjack became more popular, as it was smaller and cheaper to build. Bugeye construction dropped to almost nothing shortly after the turn of the century. Many of the survivors gave up dredging and devoted themselves to the buy boat business, in which case the sails were no longer wanted. In a typical conversion the bowsprit and main mast were removed entirely, and the fore mast shortened and modified into a derrick for hoisting. A stern cabin for the wheel and an engine for power completed the transformation. (The William B. Tennison is a surviving example of such a conversion.)^[1] As a result of such concersions, and simple attrition, surviving bugeyes are extremely rare, and only one (the Edna E. Lockwood) survives in its original form.^[2] The plan was however taken up as a pleasure craft, and new versions for that purpose continue to be built.