Chesapeake Bay Bugeye

Chesapeake Bay Bugeye Thelma Roberts
Herbert Kendrick, Dillsburg, Pennsylvania, 1987
Gift of Virgil H. Haywood

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The bugeye, which gave its name to the rig used also on the three-sail bateau, was originally a wooden dugout boat, based on the earlier log canoes. In later years they were framed and planked, but with rounded bilge and longitudinal planking instead of the cross-planked bottom and hard-chine techniques used in the "bateau" or "skipjack" hulls; their length-to-beam ratio was generally greater than that of bateau/skipjack hulls, and they had narrow, pointed sterns, which were often surmounted with a wider platform, known as the "patent" stern. This allowed more room for working the helm and handling the push-boat.

 

 

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