[[File:John Thomas Serres - The Thames at Shillingford.jpg|thumb|300px|right|''The Thames at Shillingford'', 1823, an oil painting by John Thomas Serres. The small fishing boat in the foreground is a Peter boat.]]
A '''Peter Boat''' or ''Peterboat'' was a type of fishing boat, found principally on the Thames Estuary and the adjacent coasts of eastern England. In legend, the peter boat's origins may lie with the boats used to ferry passengers to and from St. Peter's Abbey, the Saxon predecessor to Westminster Abbey in London (the Abbey was originally on a small island called Thorney Island) or simply from St Peter, the patron saint of fishermen.
By the middle of the second millennium, a peter boat was a double ended rowing boat of about {{convert|12|ft}} in length, usually used for fishing.<ref name="dab">{{cite web | url = http://dark-age-boats.co.uk/peterboat.php | title = Peter Boat | work = dark-age-boats.co.uk | publisher = Dark Age Boats and Edwin Deady | access-date = 2012-07-08}}</ref><ref name="eap">{{cite web | url = http://eastangliapubs.com/history_peterboat | title = History Of The Peterboat | publisher = East Anglia Pub Company | access-date = 2012-07-08 | archive-date = 2012-01-16 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20120116065949/http://eastangliapubs.com/history_peterboat | url-status = dead }}</ref> A second type from about 18 feet to 28 feet (5.5m to 8.5m) was used below the Pool of London and had sails<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Greenhill |first=Basil |title=Inshore Craft: Traditional Working Vessels of the British Isles |date=2013 |publisher=Seaforth Publishing |isbn=978-1-84832-167-0 |location=Havertown}}</ref>. Lower down the Thames the fishermen of Gravesend and Barking developed an estuary version and in summertime sailed to the Essex and Suffolk coasts, bringing back their live catch in wells<ref name=":0" />.
The ''Peter Boat Inn'', in Leigh-on-Sea near the mouth of the Thames Estuary, is named after this type of fishing boat.<ref name=eap/><ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.jonesboatyard.co.uk | title = History Of The River Great Ouse | publisher = jonesboatyard.co.uk| access-date = 2015-02-11}}</ref>
==References== {{reflist}}
{{Fishing vessel topics}}
Category:Types of fishing vessels
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