The wherry of the Norfolk Broads has a type of its own, and is often fitted out as a pleasure boat. It is safe and comfortable for inland waters, but not the sort of boat to live in a sea-way in anything but good weather.

The Thames and its estuary rejoice in a great variety of boats, of which the old Peter boat (so called after the legend of the foundation of the abbey on Thorney Island) preserved a very ancient type of build, shorter and broader than the old Thames pleasure wherry. But these and the old hatch boat have now almost disappeared. Possibly survivors may still be seen on the upper part of the tidal river. Round the English coast from the mouth of the Thames southwards the conditions of landing and of hauling up boats above high-water mark affect the type, demanding strong clinker-build and stout timbers. Hence there is a strong family resemblance in most of the short boats in use from the North Foreland round to Brighton. Among these are the life-boats of Deal and the other Channel ports, which have done and are still doing heroic work in saving life from wrecks upon the Goodwins and the other dangerous shoals that beset the narrowing sleeve of the English Channel.

Farther down, along the southern coast, and to the west, where harbours are more frequent, a finer and deeper class of boats, chiefly of carvel-build, is to be found. The Cornish ports are the home of a great boat-building industry, and from them a large number of the finest fishing boats in the world are turned out annually. Most of them are built with stem and stern alike, with full and bold quarters, and ample floor.

It is not possible here to enumerate, much less to describe in detail, the variety of types in sea-going boats which have been elaborated in England and in America. For this purpose reference should be made to the list of works given at the end of the article.

The following is a list of the boats at present used in the royal navy. They have all of them a deep fore foot, and with the exception of the whalers and Berthon boats, upright stems and transom sterns. The whalers have a raking stem and a sharp stern, and a certain amount of sheer in the bows.

Length.
Feet.		Beam.
Ft. In.		Depth.
Ft. In.
1a. Dinghy. Freeboard about 9 in. Weight 3 cwt. 2 qr. Between thwarts 2 ft. 9 in. Elm.13½4′ 8″2′ 2″
1b. Skiff dinghy for torpedo boats. Freeboard about 9 in. Carry about ten men in moderate weather. Between thwarts 2 ft. 7½ in. Weight 3 cwt. 4 ℔ Yellow pine.164′ 6″1′ 10″
2a. Whaler for destroyers. 5 in. sheer. Yellow pine.255′ 6″2′
2b. Whaler. Between thwarts 2 ft. 10 in. Freeboard about 12 in. Weight, 8 cwt. Strakes No. 13. Lap ¾ in. Elm.275′ 6″2′ 2″
 (All have bilge strakes with hand-holes.)
3. Gig. Between thwarts 2 ft. 9½ in. Weight 8 cwt. 2 qr. 15 ℔ 13 Strakes. Elm.305′ 6″2′ 2″
4. Cutter. Between thwarts 3 ft. 1 in. To carry 49 men. Carvel built.308′ 1″2′ 8½″
5. Pinnace. Between thwarts 3 ft. Carvel-built. Elm.3610′ 2″3′ 5″
6. Launch. Between thwarts 3 ft. 1 in. To carry 140 men. Double skin diagonal. Teak.4211′ 6″4′ 6″
7. Berthon collapsible boats weighing 7 cwt. for destroyers.

With the exception of the larger classes, viz. cutters, pinnaces and launches, the V-shape of bottom is still preserved, which does not tend to stability, and it is difficult to see why the smaller classes have not followed the improvement made in their larger sisters.

Though the number and variety of sea-going boats is of much greater importance, no account of boats in general would be complete without reference to the development of pleasure craft upon rivers and inland waters, especially in Pleasure boats and racing. England, during the past century. There is a legend, dating from Saxon times, which tells of King Edgar the Peaceable being rowed on the Dee from his palace in Chester to the church of St John, by eight kings, himself the ninth, steering this ancient 8-oar; but not much is heard of rowing in England until 1453, when John Norman, lord mayor of London, set the example of going by water to Westminster, which, we are told, made him popular with the watermen of his day, as in consequence the use of pleasure boats by the citizens became common. Thus it was that the old Thames pleasure wherry, with its high bows and low sharp stern and V-shaped section, and the old skiff came into vogue, both of which have now given way to boats, mostly of clinker-build, but with rounder bottoms and greater depth, safer and more comfortable to row in.

In 1715 Thomas Doggett (q.v.) founded a race which is still rowed in peculiar sculling boats, straked, and with sides flaring up to the sill of the rowlock. Strutt tells us of a regatta in 1775 in which watermen contended in pair-oared boats or skiffs.

At the beginning of the 19th century numerous rowing clubs flourished on the upper tidal waters of the Thames, and we hear of four-oared races from Westminster to Putney, and from Putney to Kew, in what we should now consider large and heavy boats, clinker-built, with bluff entry.