Inshore Craft

This comprehensive reference work describes and illustrates some 200 types of inshore craft that once fished and traded, under oar and sail, around the coasts of the British Isles. The types are arranged by coastal area and each is described in terms of its shape and design, fitness for location and purpose, build, evolution and geographical distribution. Details of dimensions, rig, building materials, seamanship and the survival of examples are given where known, while hundreds of line drawings and photographs show the vessels in their original forms.A team of twelve experts describe all these boat types and, in addition, there are introductions to the main geographic areas outlining the physical environments, fisheries and other uses of the sea that have influenced boat design; maps of all the areas show ports and physical features.At the beginning of the last century sail and oar dominated fisheries and local trade: one hundred years later those craft have all but vanished. This book brings alive for maritime historians and enthusiasts, traditional boat sailors, modelmakers, and all those with an interest in local history, the vast array of craft that were once such a significant feature of our inshore seas.Inshore Craft is a spectacular achievement—Wooden Boat Magazine

An attempt to list, define, describe and illustrate the coastal vessels which operated under sail and oar in the waters around the British Isles, roughly covering the dates 1820 to 1920 (p. 7).

This comprehensive reference work describes and illustrates some 200 types of inshore craft that once fished and traded, under oar and sail, around the coasts of the British Isles. The types are arranged by coastal area and each is described in terms of its shape and design, fitness for location and purpose, build, evolution and geographical distribution. Details of dimensions, rig, building materials, seamanship and the survival of examples are given where known, while hundreds of line drawings and photographs show the vessels in their original forms. A team of twelve experts describe all these boat types and, in addition, there are introductions to the main geographic areas outlining the physical environments, fisheries and other uses of the sea that have influenced boat design; maps of all the areas show ports and physical features. At the beginning of the last century sail and oar dominated fisheries and local trade: one hundred years later those craft have all but vanished. This book brings alive for maritime historians and enthusiasts, traditional boat sailors, modelmakers, and all those with an interest in local history, the vast array of craft that were once such a significant feature of our inshore seas.

In the days of sail and oar, before the arrival of marine engines, any number of picturesquely-named craft, built to suit the local conditions, worked and fished out of small harbors and off beaches around the coasts of Britain. The first volume of Edgar March’s classic two-volume work, first published in 1970, describes all the craft originating from the north of Scotland down the East Coast to the Thames Estuary and explains their methods of construction, their rigs and their handling qualities, along with details of the fishing gear and explanations of how fish were caught and marketed. The conditions under which fishermen worked and lived are also described and a way of life, now gone forever, is brought vividly to life. Few written records were kept and the author used many first-hand accounts told to him by the old men who had experienced the arduous way of life of eighty and more years ago. Volume One includes all the craft originating from the north of Scotland down the East Coast to the Thames Estuary. Volume two covers the coastline from Kent to Cornwall and up the west coast of England to Scotland. Illustrated with over 120 evocative black-and-white photographs and more than 150 line drawings and plans, the new edition of this wonderful work will be welcomed by ship modellers, traditional boat enthusiasts, and those with an interest in the arcane world of the fisherman, now lost forever.