I'm now reading some Norse legends about Greenland. Biarni
has sighted some people that at first seemed to be in a boat, but were actually on a "skerry".
skerry
n.,
pl. 3ries 5via Orkney dial. < ON sker, reef (< IE base *sker3, to cut > SHEAR) + ey, ISLAND6 [Scot.] an isolated rock or reef in the sea
So he rescued them. no explanation as to how they got there. But "skerry" which I thought might mean some kind of boat, reminded me of "wherry", which is a boat.
wherry
n.,
pl. 3ries 5ME whery < ? whirren, WHIR, with suggestion of fast movement6
1 a light rowboat used on rivers
2 a racing scull for one person
3 [Brit.] a large, broad, but light barge, used for moving freight
vt.
3ried, 3ry[ing to transport in a wherry

My dorm was close to the college boathouse for single sculls. You had to begin in a wherry, which was about twice the beam of a single. It was of a sturdy lap-strake construction. I never could make one go straight, and only by luck graduated to a "broad" which to me was far easier to keep going straight, so that I got into a narrow the same day, and also into a proper single also the same morning. Then I got hit by acute labyrinthitis and never got into a single again. Hand me my crying towel.