One of the all time great hsitoric photos

[Harbormaster]

This is from New Orleans, before 1908. Mostly oyster boats, Italian?

Down load it and look at it in your photo program so that you can really blow it up and see what's going on.

[Vince Brennan]

Ahhh... download.... AHHH...

Huh?

[Harbormaster]

Right click the image with your mouse, and "save as" or even just , "view image." And then click on the magnifier?
Good Luck

[darroch]

...does a red x have buddha nature?

[Harbormaster]

Try this as a link,,,,

http://www.shorpy.com/files/images/4a19871a.jpg

[sailboy3]

sez page not found.

[Harbormaster]

If this doesn't work, nuthin' will:

http://www.rocklandharbor.info/New%20Orleans.jpg

[sailboy3]

Now yer talkin.

Wow.

[Harbormaster]

Praise the Lord.

[SMARTINSEN]

Praise the Lord.

I do not know what that was about, a glitch in the intertubes, I guess.

Very impressive in high-def.

[JimConlin]

I observe a few odd things, but I haven't had the Aha! moment.
The gent is the middle seems to have a rifle.
The few other people in the pic.
Why the flags?
The wooly thing in the water. Looks like Maine rockweed on a ledge.
The piles of firewood in the left background.
Two horse&wagon combo's in rt. background.

OK, Dr. Holmes, what am I missing?

[Jimmy W]

It looks more like a broom than a rifle, but he does have a peg leg.

[Chris-on-the-Boat]

Thank you, Harbormaster.

[ramillett]

That's a fun picture Thank you

[Gabriel Sky]

Nice Photo.

I seem to recall in Chapelle's book a reference to a New Orleans lugger.

Do you think dat's dem?

[Harbormaster]

Things I see: that there's at least 5 different types of 100 year old working boat types All of the skiffs appear to be flat bottomed. The clarity is so good, that the more I blow it up, the more I can just get lost in the picture. I can almost walk the decks. I like the names of the boats and I like the sun shade/tarp that one guy has rigged up. I like that one guy has a broom and he's pretending that it is a gun. One of the wagons says "Crescent City." Just the number of boats.

I still haven't figured out what the poles are used for.

[Jim Ledger]

I still haven't figured out what the poles are used for.

FWIW, the poles seem to be on the lateen-rigged boats. The gaff riggers don't have any.

[Jay Greer]

Noting all of the flags, it may be election day or the fourth of July. It almost appears to be a scow schooner in the extreme left. However it is at the wrong angle to clearly see the bow. The poles may be oyster tongs.
Jay

[Garret]

I think he's "playing" a guitar/banjo with the broom, not holding it as a gun, but whatever - a very cool pic. Someone in the building on the far left has just done laundry I think.

[Jim Ledger]

The poles may be oyster tongs.
Jay

Tongs would have a rectangular cross-section with a lot of lengthwise taper. You'd see the pin and the heads would prevent them from being packed so closely.

In each set one of the poles appears to have a turned finial, no unlike the end of a drumstick.

Some method of spreading a shrimp net? Fish trap poles?

[dbdotdot]

I'd like to have a few hundred BF feet of that wood in the background...bet it's nice stuff.

[DCBrown]

I can't believe no one has made mention of the skiff in the foreground. So simple and plain . This looks like the kind of boat an experienced builder would turn out using no plans except those in his head. Anyone care to guess at its dimentions?

[Thorne]

Ditto. The use of planks to hold/brace the ends of the thwarts is interesting, as are the holes in the transom rather than cleats. And note the sculling notch.

[Harbormaster]

Yes, before the advent of plywood the sides could still be made from a single wide plank, no need for frames or caulk seams. I wonder if the pulley in the bow served some sort of weigh purpose? really quite lovely.

[McMike]

Dude's playing broom guitar and he's got one pant leg all tucked up gangsta style. Man we need to bring hats like those back; I gotta git me a bowler hat like dat!!!!

[Thorne]

I'm interested in the extreme rocker in that skiff's bottom - quite unusual. Modern skiffs will have much less rocker unless they are a river dory, as outboards on the transom need something to push against.

Possibly the skiff is designed especially for shallow water rowing, poling and sculling? And those extremely wide side planks - you don't find 'em like that anymore!

[John Turpin]

Those flags don't have 50 stars.

[Harbormaster]

Is it really rocker? I think that they are fairly flat, they just tuck up quite quickly at the transom, like a real rowing skiff should.

And no, the flags don't have 50 stars, it's the number of stars that pegs the picture before 1908.

[SamSam]

I'm interested in the extreme rocker in that skiff's bottom - quite unusual. Modern skiffs will have much less rocker unless they are a river dory, as outboards on the transom need something to push against.

Possibly the skiff is designed especially for shallow water rowing, poling and sculling? And those extremely wide side planks - you don't find 'em like that anymore!

Yeah, I don't think it has a lot of rocker if you look at the inside chine. It seems to be a combination of a small counter (?) below the transom and bottom paint that swoops up to the bottom of the narrow transom.

On the other hand, the one in the center of the photo looks to possibly have some rocker. I can't see any evidence any of them were sailed.

[Sailor]

Minerva of New orlean's has numbers painted on her gaff and a canvas hatch cover for the companionway. A quick flip of the flap to get in but it will keep the sun and heat out, or warm winter stove heat in if it were in warmer climes. I like that idea. I'll put it in my "Good Ideas" folder.

[DCBrown]

This gets more interesting every day.Sam, if you compare the shortness (height?) of the transom to the width of the port side plank it becomes obvious that there is something going on that we can't see. A counter you say?

[SamSam]

This gets more interesting every day.Sam, if you compare the shortness (height?) of the transom to the width of the port side plank it becomes obvious that there is something going on that we can't see. A counter you say?

I believe that's the word. A short, straight overhang that doesn't merge into into a pronounced rocker. It's kind of hard telling, I guess the water in the bottom pooled in that small area indicates some rocker, but it doesn't look to be extreme.

[SamSam]

That's quite a site, Harbormaster.
http://www.shorpy.com/

[Thorne]

It may not be called rocker if it only tucks up to the transom, but I believe that the cross-planked bottom really does rise up to that short transom.

Here's an enlarged image with the brightness/contrast tweaked a bit in Photoshop. Look at the shadows of the rope running up to the Minerva, and the light on the back of the skeg -- it seems to indicate that the bottom really curves up to that transom.


Oops, the Forum resizes it smaller. Here is the direct link to the larger image - http://www.luckhardt.com/NewOrleans-skiff.jpg

Here is an enlarged section showing a skiff just a few boats down in the same photo -- same tucked-up bottom to short transom -

Direct link to larger image - http://www.luckhardt.com/NewOrleans-skiff2.jpg

[Harbormaster]

I can try to track it down, but in American Small Craft, Chapelle shows that flat bottom skiffs traditionally used for rowing had that kind of tuck-up.

Here's another "Shorpy" photo that shows another flat bottom skiff - one that Chapelle called something like a Mississippi River skiff - a whole different bottom style. He said that they made the stern like that so that they could keep a long line in the stern without swamping the boat. The rest of the photo is interesting too. Again, right click to view image and then use the magnifier...

[RFNK]

Great old photo Harbormaster - thanks!!
Rick

[Paul Pless]

Okay Harbormaster,where's the archive of these photos? I went to the Rockland webpage and can't find any links. . .

[Thorne]

Harbormaster - the Forum software resizes any images we post, so there is no "enlarge" options. That is why for the images I posted, I also listed the image URL below it so that you can view them full size.

So here is the image URL for your photo - http://www.rocklandharbor.info/Mary%20Miller.jpg

The only skiff that I can find in the above photo is the one on the top deck of the paddlewheeler, and I can't see the bottom shape, just the wedge-shaped transom.

[Paul Pless]

Harbormaster - the Forum software resizes any images we post, so there is no "enlarge" options. That is why for the images I posted, I also listed the image URL below it so that you can view them full size.

In Mozilla you can right click on any image and select 'view image'. This takes you to the original format for that image and allows you to enlarge it.

[SamSam]

Okay Harbormaster,where's the archive of these photos? I went to the Rockland webpage and can't find any links. . .

This takes you to the site...
http://www.shorpy.com/
Scroll down to 'All Galleries' click, and then scroll down to'Boats and Bridges'.

[SamSam]

I can't post photos from that site that can be enlarged, but looking at that skiff in question it seems to me (looking at the insides at the chine) that that it has only a slight rocker, more like this...
http://www.dngoodchild.com/5726.htm


the upsweep at the transom avoiding the suction of an outboard type transom that goes down into the water. But, it's hard telling, it could have as much rocker as the one in the middle.

While lurking around for other skiffs I ran into this odd little site...
http://www.dpeck.info/uganda/uganda-boats.htm

[Jimmy W]

There is a similar skiff in this photo taken in Florida. Also oyster tongs.
http://www.shorpy.com/node/4372

Library of Congress page with links to that photo and another of the area.
http://www.loc.gov/pictures/search/?...coal%20luggers

[Harbormaster]

That's neat - looks like a picture about the same time, the photographer just walked down the dock.

[Harbormaster]

WOW! I just downloaded that picture you posted as a tif, and there's a fantastic little schooner aground way up on the right hand side. isn't she a cutie!

[DCBrown]

http://www.simplicityboats.com/summerbreezetemp.html


I have been studying,thinking,trying to figure how those one plank sides were cut to produce this simple skiff. I glued together a 20 inch hull model out of masonite and held it next to a print of the photo (Thanks Thorne). I looked and trimmed,thought I had it close. Today I was looking at some sites I had saved and found that skiff. Summerbreeze is "that" boat.What do you all think?