To Build a Gandelow

摘要

In the huge estuary of the River Shannon, a common type of traditional workboat that survived well into the 20th century was the gandelow, a flat- or semi-flat-bottomed rowing craft built by local fishermen using whatever wood was at hand. The Shannon is Ireland's longest river, and the fishing communities of its estuary historically employed hundreds of people who used such boats for salmon fishing, drift-netting for herring, and transporting people and goods to oceangoing ships. These boats had traits in common up and down the estuary but showed many subtle variations in form, reflecting the particular needs of their builders and adaptations to unique environments along various reaches of the waterway, where the tidal range can be as much as 18′. Gandelows were essentially river boats, and although their sheer profiles were pronounced they were not nearly as extreme as those of the local currachs, whose high bows enabled launching in the sea surf. Two especially notable gandelow types emerged, one to the west in Cashen Bay and the other upriver at Limerick. The Cashen gandelow was built much like a dory, with a "tombstone" transom. At Limerick, the boats had a distinctive broad transom, known locally as a "butterfly-plank" stern, to increase buoyancy aft so that the stern would lift to the following seas that prevailed on their homeward journeys upriver. It also provided space for net storage. The Limerick boats were built lighter than many other gandelows because they had to be rowed farther to reach their fishing grounds. Another of their distinctive traits was a "dish-shaped" bottom that curved athwartships in addition to being given ample rocker fore-and-aft. The boats settled in the mud-and often became stuck-at low tide, and this shape allowed a boat to be rocked from side to side, and front to back, to more easily work free.