The No Mans Land Boat

Rosemary Wyman

Originally used as a beach-launched fishing boat, the No Mans Land Boat, named after an island near Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts, is a seaworthy double-ender. Several have been documented, and this one, built by the author, is based on a Beetle builder’s half-model from the 1880s.

As s working-sail fleets faded after the turn of the 20th century, astute observers in numerous corners of the world recorded their last remnants. The old way of building—carving a half model and then measuring it—was still very common, so without photography and field documentation, many boat types simply would have been lost. The No Mans Land Boat was certainly one of these.In the 1930s, these double-ended cod-fishing boats caught the attention of historians Howard I. Chapelle, M.V. Brewington, and others. The Smithsonian Institution, where Chapelle became a curator, has a rigged model built by a No Mans Land veteran. In the 1950s, another historian, Robert Baker, found an 1880s boat and restored it for his own use; that boat and another now reside at Mystic Seaport Museum, and Baker documented both. So plans for the type exist, and they are as enticing today as ever.