Since the 1700s, a road led to Contee's Wharf, where deep water and the protection of Big Island made a natural port on the river. The river served as a vital link between area residents and the outside world, and the wharf became the center of trade, commerce, news, and gossip. Sailing vessels brought imported goods such as china and fine cloth to exchange for tobacco grown on Java, and the wharf also served other nearby farms. Into the 20th century, the steamboat Emma Giles called at Contee’s Wharf and ferried people, crops, and livestock. Early settlers copied Native American dugout canoes, then developed English punts with sharper bows and sterns that were faster but less stable than Indian canoes. One-log punts gave way to two- and three-log canoes, and finally to a five-log canoe known as a bugeye, all of which were used for fishing and oystering on the Rhode River.