Four Months in a Sneak-Box | Page 4

which does not reach very far back into the
present century. With the assistance of Mr. William Errickson of Barnegat, and Dr.
William P. Haywood of West Creek, Ocean County, New Jersey, I have been able to
rescue from oblivion and bring to the light of day a correct history of the Barnegat
sneak-box.
Captain Hazelton Seaman, of West Creek village, New Jersey, a boat- builder and an
expert shooter of wild-fowl, about the year 1836, conceived the idea of constructing for
his own use a low-decked boat, or gunning-punt, in which, when its deck was covered
with sedge, he could secrete himself from the wild-fowl while gunning in Barnegat and
Little Egg Harbor bays.
It was important that the boat should be sufficiently light to enable a single sportsman to
pull her from the water on to the low points of the bay shores. During the winter months,
when the great marshes were at times incrusted with snow, and the shallow creeks
covered with ice,--obstacles which must be crossed to reach the open waters of the
sound,--it would be necessary to use her as a sled, to effect which end a pair of light
oaken strips were screwed to the bottom of the sneak-box, when she could be easily
pushed by the gunner, and the transportation of the oars, sail, blankets, guns, ammunition,
and provisions (all of which stowed under the hatch and locked up as snugly as if in a
strong chest) became a very simple matter. While secreted in his boat, on the watch for
fowl, with his craft hidden by a covering of grass or sedge, the gunner could approach
within shooting-distance of a flock of unsuspicious ducks; and this being done in a
sneaking manner (though Mr. Seaman named the result of his first effort the "Devil's
Coffin" the bay-men gave her the sobriquet of "SNEAK-BOX"; and this name she has
retained to the present day.
Since Captain Seaman built his "Devil's Coffin," forty years ago, the model has been
improved by various builders, until it is believed that it has almost attained perfection.

The boat has no sheer, and sets low in the water. This lack of sheer is supplied by a light
canvas apron which is tacked to the deck, and presents, when stretched upward by a stick
two feet in length, a convex surface to a head sea. The water which breaks upon the deck,
forward of the cockpit, is turned off at the sides of the boat in almost the same manner as
a snow-plough clears a railroad track of snow. The apron also protects the head and
shoulders of the rower from cold head winds.
The first sneak-box built by Captain Seaman had a piece of canvas stretched upon an
oaken hoop, so fastened to the deck that when a head sea struck the bow, the hoop and
canvas were forced upward so as to throw the water off its sides, thus effectually
preventing its ingress into the hold of the craft. The improved apron originated with Mr.
John Crammer, Jr., a short time after Captain Seaman built the first sneak-box. The
second sneak-box was constructed by Mr. Crammer; and afterwards Mr. Samuel Perine,
an old and much respected bay-man, of Barnegat, built the third one. The last two men
have finished their voyage of life, but "Uncle Haze,"--as he is familiarly called by his
many admirers,--the originator of the tiny craft which may well be called multum in
parvo, and which carried me, its single occupant, safely and comfortably twenty-six
hundred miles, from Pittsburgh to Cedar Keys, still lives at West Creek, builds yachts as
well as he does sneak-boxes, and puts to the blush younger gunners by the energy
displayed and success attained in the vigorous pursuit of wildfowl shooting in the bays
which fringe the coast of Ocean County, New Jersey.
A few years since, this ingenious man invented an improvement on the marine life-saving
car, which has been adopted by the United States government; and during the year 1875
he constructed a new ducking-punt with a low paddle-wheel at its stern, for the purpose
of more easily and secretly approaching flocks of wild-fowl.
The peculiar advantages of the sneak-box were known to but few of the hunting and
shooting fraternity, and, with the exception of an occasional visitor, were used only by
the oystermen, fishermen, and wild-fowl shooters of Barnegat and Little Egg Harbor bays,
until the New Jersey Southern Railroad and its connecting branches penetrated to the
eastern shores of New Jersey, when educated amateur sportsmen from the cities quickly
recognized in the little gunning-punt all they had long desired to combine in one small
boat.
Mr. Charles Hallock, in his paper the "Forest and Stream," of April 23, 1874, gave
drawings and a description of