Recycle, Reduce, Reuse: The Development of the Pensacola Snapper Smack

Summary

Penscola, Florida’s red snapper fishery was among the city’s most prosperous industries by the late 19th century. The vessels employed in the fishery, known locally as "snapper smacks", were heavily influenced by the evolving designs of New England fishing schooners, but adapted for conditions encountered in the Gulf of Mexico. And though these designs proved ideal for snapper fishing, external factors reduced capital in the industry and led Pensacola fish houses to simply recycle schooners formerly used in the North Atlantic fisheries. After being sold south, modifications made to the hulls and rigs of reycled vessels equipped them for use in the Gulf. Thus, while an ideal design for the Penscaola snapper smack can be identifed, in realtiy the type included a diverse range of schooner designs. This paper discusses the indstrial changes that produced the snapper smack and how its diagnostic features can be used to identify archaeolgical remains.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• To "Hazard a Turbulent Sea:" Marine Archaeology in the Gulf of Mexico--Examining 500 Years of Exploration and Exploitation   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2016

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Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 819