Boatbuilding Methods and Materials

owered wooden fishing boats were built by the same builders who had formerly created their sailing or rowing predecessors. Initially only the hull shape changed, and the methods and materials remained the same. Hull designs were invariably produced in the form of three-dimensional half models. These wooden carvings were the lingua franca of boat design, inherited from the older tradition of wooden shipbuilding. They were carved with the skill of inherited experience but were made from a single block of wood, not the more common demountable layers of larger, wooden-ship half models. When the builder and customer had agreed upon the final design the shape was expanded to full size on a lofting floor, and building commenced. Local woods of various types were generally used according to their availability: hardwoods for keels, stems, frames and sternposts or transoms; softwoods for hull planks, decks and smaller structural fittings.

The boats were built up on a backbone of a hardwood keel, stempost, sternpost, horn timber and stern knee. These parts were selected, shaped and assembled in the boat shop and braced against movement. Next, a series of transverse moulds (patterns), made from the full size shapes produced on the lofting floor, were temporarily fitted on top of the keel, equally spaced from stem to stern. Round these moulds, long thin battens were fixed to test their fairness and alignment. At this point, the building sequence varied. Some boatbuilders then fit the planking round the moulds and fully planked the hull, removing the battens as they advanced. With the planking completed, they next softened the hardwood frames in a steam box and bent the heated, pliable timbers into the interior of the hull.

An alternative sequence of construction was employed by other builders. Steam bent timbers were first fitted inside the battens, then the planks were fastened directly to these frames. In either sequence, the planking was attached to the timbers with galvanized clench nails.

This fastening method was almost universal throughout the industry. Rough, square galvanized steel nails were driven through small holes pre-drilled through the plank and frame. The pointed ends were driven against a steel "dolly" held so that the nail was not simply bent but eased into a reverse curve and driven back into the flame - to clench the fastening. Each nail became a miniature clamp. The head was countersunk into the plank and puttied over to protect it. The fastening was inexpensive and adequate but unfortunately not long lasting as the galvanized protection was almost always damaged during clenching. The broken coating no longer protected the metal, and corrosion soon started. Many boats quickly became "nail sick".

Both Cape Island boat building sequences resulted in an identical finished craft. Neither seemed to produce a better hull, and it was not clear how or why the sequence varied.

The narrow aft underwater hull between the keel and the wide flat quarters is called a "skeg". A distinct feature of wooden Nova Scotian boats was the hollow or built-down skeg; elsewhere builders made a solid wood deadwood. It was a lighter more buoyant hull and always a feature of "Novi" boats, as they were known throughout Maine. The hollow after skeg was structurally weak as it was difficult to make a sound transition at the junction between the vertical skeg-side planks and the horizontal, flat after-planking. Plank seams tended to work open in this area, and the tightly bent frames often cracked. As fishermen changed from smaller four- and six-cylinder automobile engines to more modern, powerful V-eight units, the nuisance was magnified. Builders used a variety of ways to cure this problem, but the methods never seemed to solve the problem completely.

Boatbuilding Locations

n Nova Scotia, wooden-boat builders could be found almost everywhere along the long sea-girt rim of the province. They were concentrated near their customers, the fishermen. Most fishing boats found in a harbour were built by that port's boatbuilder or builders, with a smattering of craft from nearby coastal communities. Boats of one specific locality were rarely found far beyond its reaches until they were old and sold away as their owners bought new locally built craft.

Boatbuilders were often sons or grandsons of builders, and sometimes had brothers or other relatives also building boats. Within recent memory, there were twin brothers building boats in two shops within sight of each other in Scots Bay, and this was not unusual. Two brothers operated boat shops within a coin toss of each other in Cape St. Mary, while a father and two sons operated three boat shops in the village of Wallace. Although this was common, when a location became saturated with builders, they were not reluctant to relocate where they were needed. Examples of this transference of technology were common.

Because of the environment and their location, near fishing grounds, many fishing communities were located on offshore islands, Cape Sable Island perhaps being the best-known example. This island was large and near the mainland and is connected by a causeway today. Other islands, from Scatarie, Madame and Chéticamp off Cape Breton to Sober, Pictou, Big Tancook and others off the mainland of the province, were fishing locations and had their share of boatbuilders. Since stable island communities were a limited market for boats, boatbuilders' sons often left their islands to take their experience to larger markets on the mainland. Some became itinerant builders who, having found a client, would stay to build a boat and then move on to the next client.

Boatbuilder Families

he Stevens, Langille, Levy and Heisler families were all boatbuilders on Big Tancook Island, many of whom moved to the mainland to carry on their calling. One branch of the Levys moved east along the coast to Sober Island and Cape Breton Island to continue building there. Other Tancook Island fishing-boat builders went on to gain fame as notable yacht designers and builders. David Stephens of Second Peninsula and Ben Heisler of Chester built many award- and trophy-winning schooners, as well as single-masted yachts. Perhaps David Stephens is best known as the builder of the schooner Atlantica at Expo 67 in Montreal. Both men were also well accepted locally, with many motor fishing boats to their credit.

Another builder, William Frost of Long Island, Digby County took his skills to Maine and, after returning to build boats in Nova Scotia during World War I, he emigrated and became the man who taught the speedy power boat building techniques there. The ancestor of Jonesport boats, the New England cousins of the Cape Islander, was a Will Frost boat, Redwing. In Nova Scotia and Maine, Frost was not only a pioneer power boat builder but an agent for early make-and-break engines. One branch of the Frost family which remained in Nova Scotia continued to build boats, and Kingsley Frost retired from the business about a decade ago in Maitland, Nova Scotia.

Boatbuilding Shops

s in the large shipbuilding industry, many power fishing-boat builders originally built outdoors without cover. When power tools and equipment were introduced to the business, they were usually enclosed in a small adjacent workshop. Some builders could still be found producing wooden boats outdoors after World War II.

Boatbuilding shops were almost as varied as the power boats which emerged from their wide swinging doors. Many buildings were designed and erected solely for boatbuilding purposes and were efficient structures for such production. Almost always wooden, with a pitched roof, they had a wide door across one narrow end and a smaller personnel access door elsewhere, probably near to the adjacent boatbuilder's dwelling. A continuous row of windows down each long wall provided natural light to the two workbenches on each side. The arrangement resembled a dried-out marine berth with wooden wharves along each side. A wooden floor was built in a "U" round a central dirt or cinder-floored erection bay. The building floor sloped towards the delivery doors, if they opened onto tidal waters. Many boat shops were not actually on the water, and the craft were "skidded" to the launch site. The floors of these buildings were generally flat.

Woodworking machinery was most often located across the narrow end of the shops, opposite the big doors. A band saw, thickness planer, and drill press were most common along with the ubiquitous steam box to heat and soften timber frames for bending. Steam for this unit was raised in various ways but most usually from the same scrapwood-fired unit also used to heat the building. Machinery was frequently powered by stationary gasoline engines with belt drive transfers where electrical service was not available. All rural areas were not supplied with power until after World War II. There were few circular saws, as most builders bought their stock from lumber mills roughly dressed to size. This description of a generic boatshop covers the type most commonly found as a one-family shop, building one boat at a time.

In complete contrast, a wide variety of buildings were adapted for use as boat shops. Barns, houses, old schools, and even a small old church have all been internally gutted and adapted to house boatbuilding establishments. What these buildings lacked in layout efficiency, they generally made up for in greater working area and low purchase price.

The shops used today to build glass-reinforced plastic (GRP) or fibreglass hulls are frequently modern steel buildings with flat concrete floors. They are industrial units that are little different from manufacturing sites for other products or warehouses. Some fibreglass boatbuilders continue to use adapted buildings, but they are usually much larger than their predecessors from the wooden-boat era.