Chalk Boats

William Auerbach-Levy

A quietly beautiful image of boats anchored along a sandy shore in William Auerbach-Levy’s “Chalk Boats.”A scene that is so briefly rendered it could almost be a sketch, it is nonetheless a complete composition, expertly balanced between shadow and light, with the boats appearing almost like lounging guests beside the gentle current of a lake.

Apparently Chalk Boats were boats with wide hulls that were used to transport chalk and lime. A paper done at the University of Essex by Robert Sier notes: "Lime was transported from Purfleet inhorse drawn wagons or by water in 10-ton chalk boats. The evidence for the size of chalkboat is found in a covenant attached to Taylor’s lease concerning mending sea walls and banks with 14 faires (loads) of Chalk, every faire containing 10 tons of chalk according to the burthen of chalk boats that usually carry same”. This referring to 16th century England.

Similar boats were also used as single masted fishing boats.