Johnny Wood Boat

Boats from St. John River area in New Brunswick, that carried cordwood to Maine's lime kilns. More formally called St. John River woodboats, they were well established in the 1830s and last built about 1917. These were small schooners, 40 to 80 feet, and flush decked to make deck loading easier. The foremast was up in the bow, with the mainmast amidships. The masts had stops on them so that the booms could be set 6-10 feet above the deck, above the wood cargo. The boats were shallow draft, 6-7 feet, and were designed with relatively flat bottoms and bilge keels so that they could ground out on a falling tide to make them easy to load where there were no docks. Simply built, they had a small cabin aft for the 2-3 man crew.