Abstract:
Settled in 1730 by Ebenezer Harker, by 1900 Harkers Island had become home for approximately 20 families whose main income derived from fishing and whaling. Harkers Island fishermen most often built their own boats without the use of drawn plans, relying instead on distinctive, “high flared bow†hull designs that had been passed down from previous generations. Boatbuilding on Harkers Island remains much the same today, with six or more major boat works on the island building every size of boat, from eight-foot dinks to eighty-foot luxury yachts.