The Light on the Hudson

by Dana Ferry

published by Ithaca Press

Schooners, Skiffs and Skiffs

Traversing the oceans, lakes and rivers, schooners, sloops and skiffs advance to their destinations. Around harbors, within docking berths and reclined on sandy shores, these vessels reside. Flowing with their masts, mainsails and oars, each has its function. The water is a stage for the schooner, the sloop and the skiff as each maritime craft acts out its role.

A schooner glides on the water commencing its ocean voyage to haul cargo to other shores. Its fore-and-aft sails on two masts define this sailboat which was pioneered by the Dutch in the 16th or 17th century. The peculiar name “schooner” derives from a Scottish word that means to skip or skim over the water. The first one of these ships set out from Gloucester, Massachusetts in 1713. As a gathering crowd witnessed the historic moment, a bystander proclaimed, “Oh how she scoons.” Andrew Robinson, who had built the vessel, responded to the bystander by announcing, “A schooner let her be.” Just northwest of Gloucester, the town of Essex was home to a notable ship building enterprise. These shipbuilders constructed over four thousand schooners, necessitated by the flourishing Gloucestor fishing industry. The schooner was prevailing in trades that depended on momentum and windward deftness, such as slavery, privateering and off-shore fishing.

Captain James Cook sailed aboard sloops as he embarked on his second and third legendary Pacific trips. About the sloop he remarked, “the ship of my choice” and “the fittest for service of any I have seen.” The sloop is the universal sailboat and is recognized by a normal mainsail and a foresail. In the 17th century, Bermuda shipbuilders fashioned this sailboat with its single-masted, fore-and-aft rigging. Following the Revolutionary War, the British Royal Navy requested sizable quantities of these sloops to be constructed by the Bermudians. The outcome was the sloop-of-war, a warship with a single gun deck that could transport as many as eighteen cannons. These sloops were also advantageously designed with multiple masts resulting in a roomier deck and the ability to transport more guns.

The dependable skiff has been noted in classic literature such as Moby Dick and The Old Man and the Sea and more recently in a book titled The Light on the Hudson by Dana Ferry. This boat is distinguished by its flat bottom, openness, pointed bow and flat, square stern. Used for fishing, relaxing or to take a modest trip from an off-shore lighthouse to the mainland, the skiff is propelled by oars, sail or in modern times, motor. The unusual name of this rowboat was spawned from a Middle English word skif, meaning “small boat” and was related to ships originally as the “small boat of a ship,” comparable to lifeboats used today. The simplicity of the skiff makes for a reliable water craft used by light keepers and fishermen for centuries.

The schooner, sloop and skiff each have their place historically and presently on the seas. Whether being used in times of war, privateering, lugging cargo, fishing, sport, or leisure activity, these maritime crafts have altered sea-faring through the years. Shipbuilders have conceived other, practical ship designs, for example Captain Alexander McDougall’s illustrious whaleback ship that eventually failed due to flaws in its design. But the schooner, sloop and skiff remain on the ocean stage, playing their parts.

Schooners, sloops and skiffs are prevalent in Dana Ferry’s The Light on the Hudson. For more information, visit www.DanaFerry.com.