Watermen used a wide variety of small boats around the Chesapeake Bay for fishing, oystering, and crabbing. Some of their boats were brought from other places along the East Coast, but most were locally built, with designs that suited to available materials, water conditions, boatbuilding techniques and local preferences. Over time, so many log canoes and V-bottom boats were built that they became particularly identified with the Chesapeake region.
While some of these boats were built for a specific fishery, many many were versatile enough to be used for a different purpose if a fishery declined. Though all of these boats started in commercial fisheries, many ended their sailing days as pleasure boats.
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