The Gundalows of New Coastal New Hampshire and Maine

The Gundalow Company, photo from Trip Advisor

There was a time, in New Hampshire and Maine, when the quickest way to transport goods and people was by water. The main impediment, though, to this mode of travel was the tidal nature of the many rivers that flowed into and out of the Great Bay. The waters of the Lamprey, Scamscott, Winnicut, Salmon Falls, Cocheco, Bellamy and Oyster Rivers, eventually flow into the Piscataqua and into the Atlantic Ocean. The Great Bay is a tidal estuary; at low tide more than 50% is exposed. 

One of the most successful vessels to navigate these waters was a boat known as a Gundalow. More a barge than a boat, the gundalow was introduced in the mid-1600s, reached its heyday in the 1700s-1800s and was gradually replaced by more modern transportation systems, most notably the railroad. More than 2000 of these workhorses were built and the growth of the region depended on these sturdy boats. 

It's been suggested that the name Gundalow comes from the Venetian Gondola. The boats operated only on smooth inter-coastal waters in good weather. The flat bottoms were perfect for the tidal rivers and the boatmen could move the boats with their long poles through narrow channels. The boat was designed to harness the power of the tides. Moving inland with the incoming water and floating downstream with the outgoing tide.  When conditions were right, in deeper water, the sailor could employ the triangular sail attached to its stubby mast.

Goods flowed into the Portsmouth harbor from Europe and other American cities. Loaded onto gundalows, the cargo was moved upstream to smaller towns of Dover, Exeter and Durham. Bricks, lumber, produce and other local products moved around the region via these boats. 

The Gundalow, also called the salt-marsh gundalow was used to move hay from its watery marsh straddle to the farmer's barn. Benedict Arnold had nine gundalow in his fleet in his 1776 Battle of Valcour Island, a significant inland naval fight against a superior British fleet. 

Today, the Gundalow Company operates a new vessel, built in 2011, out of Portsmouth, NH. It was designed to take passengers and students sailing. It's on my bucket list of things I'd like to do. 

The Garrison Houses of New England

McIntire Garrison, Maine

Many people, who are unfamiliar with early colonial history, might be surprised to learn that New Hampshire and Maine were the frontier. A thin line of settlements that stood between the Native warriors and their French allies from sweeping the English from the North American Continent. These areas were under constant threat of attack. To defend themselves the people built Garrison Houses for protection.

Both settler and native used the rivers of New Hampshire as their chief means of transportation. Dover, New Hampshire, now includes multiple towns including Durham and the Oyster River settlement area, were not only the location of multiple garrison homes, at one time at least 12 known houses, but it was also the site of frequent attacks. Two major attacks occurred in 1675 and again in 1694. In the 1694 attack, five house were destroyed. 

The New England garrison house was typically a two story building constructed of logs or thick planks. Most often, the upper story jutted out over the first on two or more sides. The house would have been surrounded by a wooden stockade for added protection. The Garrison was often someones personal home, but other buildings such as the meetinghouse might also be fortified. Each neighborhood had at least one garrison to which the residents could flee to in times of unrest. 

In the 1689 attack on Cochecho Falls, north of Dover, Native women asked to sleep inside the stockades of many of the garrison houses. In the night the women opened the gates to the attacking warriors, resulting in many deaths and even more captives taken to Canada. 

During troubled times, militia troops might be staged at garrison houses to either ward off attacks or respond quickly and prevent further death and destruction. 

Very few of these houses exist. They were either razed during conflict, torn down in more modern times or incorporated into a larger house. The oldest house in Maine is a garrison house, the McIntire Garrison House, which was designated a National Historic Landmark. Other examples are the Damm Garrison House which is part of the Woodman Museum in Dover, NH. The Damm house was a single story house, unusual for it's construction.

Interestingly, the Garrison style of architecture caught on and many more modern New England houses are built in what is called Garrison Style. 

Modern house in the Garrison Style

See this interesting PDF written by the Colonial Dames of America on the Garrison Houses


Related post on John and Elizabeth Heard of Dover and their garrison house.