In their comprehensive and authoritative history of boat and shipbuilding in North Carolina through the early twentieth century, William Still and Richard Stephenson document for the first time a bygone era when maritime industries dotted the Tar Heel coast.

The work of shipbuilding craftsmen and entrepreneurs contributed to the colony's and the state's economy from the era of exploration through the age of naval stores to World War I. The study includes an inventory of 3,300 ships and 270 shipwrights.