The shad boat is a

traditional fishing boat Traditionally, many different kinds of boats have been used as fishing boats to catch fish in the sea, or on a lake or river. Even today, many traditional fishing boats are still in use. According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Org ...

which was proclaimed the Official State Historic Boat of

North Carolina North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and ...

by the North Carolina General Assembly in 1987. One hundred years earlier, George Washington Creef of Roanoke Island built the first shad boat in North Carolina in the early 1880s. Creef shaped his boat hull from the root ball of

Atlantic white cedar ''Chamaecyparis thyoides'' (Atlantic white cedar, Atlantic white cypress, southern white cedar, whitecedar, or false-cypress), a species of ''Cupressaceae'', is native to the Atlantic coast of North America and is found from southern Maine to ...

, also known as juniper, trees that grew along the shoreline of the

pocosin A pocosin is a type of palustrine wetland with deep, acidic, sandy, peat soils. Groundwater saturates the soil except during brief seasonal dry spells and during prolonged droughts. Pocosin soils are nutrient-deficient (oligotrophic), especially ...

wetland region of southeast

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...

and northeast North Carolina. The boat type is named after the shad which was the type of fish caught from the boats. Initially, the shad boat had a round-bottomed hull and single mast rigged with a sprit sail. Oddly, the sprit rigged mainsail was often accompanied by a

jib A jib is a triangular sail that sets ahead of the foremast of a sailing vessel. Its tack is fixed to the bowsprit, to the bows, or to the deck between the bowsprit and the foremost mast. Jibs and spinnakers are the two main types of headsail ...

and a

topsail A topsail ("tops'l") is a sail set above another sail; on square-rigged vessels further sails may be set above topsails. Square rig On a square rigged vessel, a topsail is a typically trapezoidal shaped sail rigged above the course sail and ...

. Later, in the early 1900s, the hull shape was altered into a hard chine "v" bottom to support an engine block. Once the " pickup truck" of the waters of eastern North Carolina, there are only a handful of relic shad boats left on Roanoke Island. One is on view at the George Washington Creef Boathouse in Manteo, where the curator, Scott Whitesides and volunteers replicated the Creef shad boat in 2002. Another shad boat, originally built by Alvira Wright in 1904, is undergoing restoration for eventual display at the

Museum of the Albemarle The Museum of the Albemarle is located in Elizabeth City, North Carolina. It serves as the northeastern regional branch of the North Carolina Museum of History. This area of North Carolina is sometimes considered the birthplace of English North ...

Elizabeth City Elizabeth City is a city in Pasquotank County, North Carolina, United States. As of the 2020 census, it had a population of 18,629. Elizabeth City is the county seat and largest city of Pasquotank County. It is the cultural, economic and educ ...

. A shad boat is also on display at the Roanoke River Maritime Museum across the street from the replica Roanoke River Light in Plymouth. Ella View, a shad boat built by George Washington Creef in 1883 Ella View

References

Sailboat types Types of fishing vessels Symbols of North Carolina History of North Carolina Roanoke Island {{ship-type-stub

See also

References