Blast From the Past: The Barnegat Bay Sneak Box

The image seen here is of a pair of Barnegat Bay sneak boxes, circa 1920-30. As iconic to waterfowling history as the Susquehanna Flats sinkbox, the sneak box design is an enduring symbol of the hunters’ adaptability to their local conditions. Those conditions, on the coast of New Jersey, could be brutal.

The vessels originated in 1836, some 25 years before the Civil War. The design is credited to New Jersey boat builder Hazelton Seaman, who lived in one of the “lonely villages that lined the sedgy shores” of Barnegat Bay, a narrow estuary separated by a barrier island from the Atlantic Ocean. Fringed by cordgrass “salt-hay meadows,” the bay’s tidal marshes and eelgrass flats were ideal for black ducks, diving ducks, swans, geese, and brant.

The boat’s name is a bit of a misnomer. The “sneak” part of the title is less about sculling resting birds and more about stealth and mobility to get to the gunning grounds. The “box” piece references its influence from the well-known sinkbox. Seaman put the two together to build a boat rigged for rowing, sailing, poling, and even traversing ice through a combination of sail and runners attached to the hull. All forms of propulsion were stowed below decks during the hunt.

The sneak box was constructed with watertight tongue and groove planking from white cedar, locally known as Jersey swamp cedar. Its hull length was typically 12 feet, and its four-foot width and spoon-shaped deck made it remarkably stable. Boats were produced at dozens of boatyards by generations of families who often built them by eye and without a pattern.

Every thought went into its versatility. The seaworthy little watercraft was fitted with a mainsail mast-hole, sprit sails, retractable centerboard, rudder, oar locks hinged to fold down, and a canvas spray curtain. The cockpit kept the hunter dry, and in winter was often stuffed with “salt hay” for warmth. Its deck could hold nearly a hundred of the region’s famous carved hollow decoys.

The image of the lone gunner and his skiff was real, but at the peak of their hunting popularity local boat captains towed a string of them to the gunning grounds to drop off their hunters. Scores of sneak boxes might line the bayshore, the “crack of guns constantly echoing over the waters.” When President Cleveland hunted Barnegat Bay in 1896, it was said that he was “altogether too portly” to squeeze into a low-decked sneak box. Instead, the president was indignantly rowed “in an ordinary skiff” to a duck blind.

Before modern weather reporting, the number of hunters who died in the boxes was remarkable. They drowned when they fell from the boat, or it capsized in large swells. Mostly, it was because of hard storms with snow and ice that caught them far from safety. One newspaper headline in 1912, an unusually deadly year, read: “Corpse of real estate broker erect in sitting position with gun over knees and trigger back ready to shoot.” The Barnegat Bay sneak box remains popular today.

The author is a waterfowl historian with several books to his credit. Visit www.robertksawyer.com. 

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