Gundalow

A gundalow (also known in period accounts as a "gondola") is a type of flat-bottomed sailing barge once common in Maine and New Hampshire rivers, United States.

The yard was attached to a stump mast and heavily counterweighted, pivoting down while still under sail to shoot under bridges while maintaining the boat's way.

Up to 70 feet (21.34 m) long, gundalows were fitted with a pivoting leeboard in lieu of a fixed keel, giving them an exceptionally shallow draft and allowing them to "take the hard" (settle into sand, ledge, or mudflats) both for loading and unloading cargoes and maintenance.

Common cargoes were bricks, timber, cattle, sheep, and other bulk raw materials downriver, and finished goods up.

Gundalows were very active delivering cordwood to brickworks to fire their kilns, picking up cargoes of finished bricks in return.