Nautical Research Journal 5


3. T e panel with the jig pattern glued to it and cut out in the center. T e respective frame numbers are shown beside each frame notch. T e bow is to the right side.


Americans did not record information on the fi shing and merchant ships they built in the 1700s. T ere simply was no administrative or bureaucratic entity in existence where such data would be recorded. As we know, the British taxed the Americans on many things, including the freight-carrying capacity of American-built ships. Many of the schooners built by Americans before the Revolution were purchased and used by British merchants and the Admiralty. Several American ships were overhauled in England where the British recorded the lines, station contours, dimensions and plan views. One of these American- built ships, the schooner Halifax (considered similar to Hannah), was purchased and used as a gunboat by the British. Halifax was measured in England, and recorded as fi ve tons larger than the 78-ton Hannah, which was never overhauled there. It is suspected that John Grover might have provided false information


to the British tax agents in the colonies on the size of his ships simply to lower his costs of ship registration and taxation.


Hahn discusses his attempts to obtain accurate information concerning the American schooners built during the 1700s, and references Howard Chapelle’s


reconstruction drawings and books.


Chapelle learned of the many drawings of American schooners made by the Admiralty and residing in the National Maritime Museum. Hahn took Chapelle’s information, expanded and refi ned it through contacts with a past deputy director of the National Maritime Museum and individuals managing the archives in the Public Records Offi ce. He concluded that Halifax and Hannah were very similar and modifi ed Chapelle’s drawings of Halifax to represent Hannah. Drawings of both are in Hahn’s book.


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