What is a gundalow? It is a flat bottomed cargo barge once common on the Piscataqua River and in the nearby rivers of New Hampshire and Maine. They were popularized in the 1600s, and were still used until the early 1900s. There is no keel on a gundalow, which was useful for mudflats and low tide. The name is thought to have derived from "gondola". Similar flat bottomed boats called "gandelows" ply the waters of the River Shannon in Ireland.
Many people with ancestors from New Hampshire and Maine can trace back to an early settler in this region, and a lineage society known as "The Piscataqua Pioneers". These settlers lived up and down the Piscataqua River, from Portsmouth all the way up along the Maine and New Hampshire border to the Salmon Falls River and the Cochecho River. This region includes the Great Bay estuary, and the Bellamy, Oyster, Lamprey, Squamsott and Winnicut rivers. The Abenaki people lived here, and the name Piscataqua is said to derive from the Abenaki word pezgitegwa or "dark river".
The Piscataqua River region of New Hampshire and Maine
Gundalows carried bricks, timber, sheep and raw materials downstream to the Portsmouth port, and carried finished goods upstream to settlements along the river. Today, one of the few gundalows is the one called Piscataqua in Portsmouth harbor, which carried tourists up the river and out to the Isles of Shoals. I recently enjoyed a cruise on the gundalow Piscataqua with the Locke Family Association during their 136th family reunion.
The Gundalow Company website: https://www.gundalow.org/
Gundalow at Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gundalow
The Piscataqua Pioneers lineage society: https://piscataquapioneers.org/
The book Piscataqua Pioneers: Selected Biographies of Early Settlers in Northern New England, Portsmouth, NH, 2000 published by the Piscataqua Pioneers. Available at the website above.
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To cite/link to this blog post: Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "The Gundalow Piscataqua in Portsmouth, New Hampshire", posted October 27, 2026, ( https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2026/10/the-gundalow-piscataqua-in-portsmouth.html: accessed [access date]).
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