When I looked out the window of the George Marshall Gallery on the York River and saw the gundalow covered for the winter I had to call up my friend Michael Gowell. He has been captain of the Captain Edward H. Adams since 1989 and all I know about the Gundalow I have learned from him. It's a replica of the Fanny M, the last working gundalow, launched in 1886 and built and operated by Ed Adams of Durham Point back when the river was the road. The boat was designed with a flat bottom to sail over shallow water and dock on mud flats. There was a large flat deck so materials could be loaded and unloaded from the boat's surface. The flat boat could also sail up shallow rivers. It could move 70 tons of brick from Portsmouth to Newmarket in 3 hours. It had a middle eastern rig. The sail hung from the yard and you could dip the yard when you went under a bridge and keep going. The old boats had 4 plugs and instead of bailing out water they took out the plug and drained the boat. Pretty smart if you ask me. Every year Michael takes the gundalow from York to Portsmouth in early May. It stays there for 4 months. Then in September it goes to the Great Bay. Learn more about this ship when it comes to your river this summer.