The history of early boats has been nearly lost. There are only a few clues to tell us what kind of boats people once used. Dug out canoes have been found, and there are stories about boats made of hides. The smallest hide boats were called coracles and were used for salmon fishing until recently.

We do know that the Norse people visited Scotland from the Eighth century to the Thirteenth century. They were good seamen and built some of the best boats in the world. Scottish craftsmen copied their boats. They were built with overlapping planks. They had a sharp bow (front of the boat) and stern (or back of the boat). They had wide planks and a light wooden frame. These boats were very light and flexible. They moved with the sea. Yoles from the island of Stroma were built the same way as the Norse craft.

In the early Nineteenth century, most Scottish fishing boats were small and open. They did not go far out to sea. Fishermen believed that open boats caught more fish. However there was a big gale in 1848 and 124 boats were sunk. After that the government sent a man called Captain John Washington to find out why so many boats had sunk. He said that boats should have a deck. Boat builders began to build safer boats with decks.

By the 1880s, there were three main types of fishing boat built in Eastern Scotland. Scaffies were built in the north and fifies were built in the south. Zulus were built almost everywhere. The larger boats all had decks, with small cabins for the crew. Many were carvel built. That meant that the planks of the hull met each other end to end. A carvel built fifie named Reaper has been restored. It can be seen by the Scottish Fisheries Museum at Anstruther. It is also sometimes sailed around the country.

During the Nineteenth and much of the Twentieth century, most fishing ports had at least one boat building yard. Some had two or three. Many of these yards became well known. People from all over Scotland would have had their boat built there. Sometimes, people from other countries also came to Scotland to have a boat built. One of these famous yards was Miller's of St Monans. Miller's built all kinds of fishing boats. They produced information to tell people what sort of boats they built.

At the end of the Nineteenth century, men began to build steam-powered fishing boats. These vessels were larger and more expensive than the sailing boats. At first, boat builders used wood for the hulls of these steam fishing boats. Later, they used iron or steel. Today some fishing boats are still built of wood, while others are made of steel. There are fewer boat builders, but the boats are safer.