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Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum Fall 2007

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Preserving the Past, Looking to the Future

I have just passed my first WaterWays anniversary at CBMM. Fall 2007 My first year has been at once energizing and exhausting, reas- Volume 5 Number 3 suring and surprising, gratifying and challenging. I have been Editor welcomed into this region far Dick Cooper more quickly than I would have [email protected] expected (I am a New England- er, after all) and have discovered Graphic Design/Photography many unexpected joys of living Rob Brownlee-Tomasso on the Eastern Shore and becom- ing part of a new community. I have gotten to know and appre- Contributors ciate the exceptionally devoted James Boicourt and skilled staff of CBMM, and have been impressed again and again by the Jennifer Calub generosity and support of the Museum’s members, volunteers, and friends. Julie Gibbons-Neff Cox Thank you. Rachel Dolhanczyk I am about to join many of my colleagues at an International Congress of Robert Forloney Maritime Museums, and I know we will spend a lot of time worrying about Pete Lesher dwindling interest in our institutions. The reasons for this are myriad. But my John Miller experience leads me to believe that many museums, especially history muse- Stuart Parnes ums, have been so rooted in the past that they have not looked to the future. Kathleen Rattie Predicting the future is not what history people do, and yet we desperately Doug Ross ask, “Will the next generation really care about the work of museums such as CBMM?” Museums need to safeguard their core mission but, as times change, Michael Valliant they must also adapt to remain relevant. Over the past 42 years, CBMM has flourished. It is America’s most sig- Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum nificant preserver and interpreter of the Bay’s maritime heritage. Our mission charges us with preserving the culture of this region, but we recognize that this Navy Point, P.O. Box 636 means more than collecting artifacts. To preserve the very tenuous culture of St. Michaels, MD 21663-0636 the Bay’s people, we need to help sustain the Bay itself. 410-745-2916  Fax 410-745-6088 In the next year, I want to help CBMM spend more time and effort looking www.cbmm.org  [email protected] forward. We are uniquely positioned to take steps in directions that are vital to our region and our nation, but relatively new for us. First, we must understand and disseminate information about what is happening to the health of The Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum is a private, the Bay and to the maritime culture that surrounds it. Second, we must start at not-for-profit 501(c)(3) educational institution. A home and lead by example through embracing a campus-wide commitment to copy of the current financial statement is available institutional sustainability. Third, we must place a steady emphasis on envi- on request by writing the Vice President of Finance, P.O. Box 636, St. Michaels, MD 21663 or by calling ronmental stewardship in our educational programming and exhibits. 410-745-2916 ext. 238. Documents and information There have been only a few times in the past when the Chesapeake Bay submitted under the Maryland Charitable Solicitations has been the focus of national and even international attention. We live in one Act are also available, for the cost of postage and of those times. I hope you share my belief that this is the proper role for your copies, from the Maryland Secretary of State, State House, Annapolis, MD 21401, 410-974-5534. museum at this critical time for the Bay and its future.

On the Cover Workboats share Cambridge’s harbor with condos, part of the development that is adding thousands of new homes to the port Stuart L. Parnes, President city on the Choptank River. See Eastern [email protected] Shore Growth, page 16. Photo by Cooper Media Associates Contents

(Above) A tired old workboat’s resting place is a field in Dominion Features on Kent Island. Journalist Larry Lewis grew up on Kent Island before the Bay Bridge connected Preserving Palmers 13 it to the rest of the world. His At 83, Dick Day, a retired federal government executive, is the guru remembrance of island life starts when it comes to marine engines that powered fishing boats on the on page 20. Chesapeake Bay and around the world. By James Boicourt Eastern Shore Growth 16

The Eastern Shore, bypassed by development for centuries, is on the verge of a population explosion. Almost every small town is expected Departments to grow rapidly over the next 25 years. By Dick Cooper

Calendar 6 Island Time 20

To the Point 10 Kent Island used to be a remote place, accessible primarily by boat. For a boy growing up in the 1940s, it was an idyllic island with summers full of sandlot baseball, fishing, and exploring. By Larry Lewis Wood Works 34 Chesapeake Bay Artist 26 Mystery Answers 35 The late John Moll sketched and painted Chesapeake scenes for decades. He left behind a large body of work that has made the Bay’s lighthouses and watercraft icons of the region. By Jennifer Calub This Just In 31

In another age, postcards were used to spread breaking-news photographs and commemorate events. The postcard collection of Dr. Laurence C. Claggett, Jr. contains numerous examples. By Dick Cooper

5 Calendar Fall 2007

lished on America’s largest estuary, covering birds and what they do in the marsh, along with an overview of how important marshes are to the Bay as well as the food and detritus that keeps the marsh system cycling. Steamboat Building, Van Lennep Auditorium. Non- members $8, CBMM members $5

Birding Cruise Aboard Mister Jim November 10, 9 – 10:30 a.m. Wayne Bell was the founding director of Washington College’s Center for the Environment and Society and Sculpture by Bart Walter is an officer of the Maryland Ornithological Society. Join him as he lectures aboard CBMM’s buyboat, Mister Jim. October Possible sightings include raptors such as osprey, eagles Chesapeake Icons and hawks, geese migrating into the area for the winter, Opened October 6 as well as the earliest sea ducks. Meet at Admissions Steamboat Building, 2nd-Floor Gallery Building. Reservations required. Non-members $20, What do you picture when you think of the Chesapeake CBMM members $15 Bay? This exhibit highlights five classic Bay icons: blue crabs, lighthouses, oysters, skipjacks, and waterfowl. How did these and other familiar images come to sym- bolize the Chesapeake Bay? This exhibition will showcase iconic artifacts from our collection—from oyster cans and seafood marketing materials to fine art and models of skipjacks. Family activities will explore how these icons came to be used as well as provide opportunities to create new representations of the Chesapeake.

OysterFest (New Weekend!) October 27, 11 a.m. – 4 p.m. October 28, noon – 4 p.m. 20th Anniversary of OysterFest. What better way to kick off a celebration than with CBMM’s 2nd Annual Oyster Slurp Off? Join in on the fun as amateurs and the occa- sional professional compete for the fastest time, or take part in all in things “oysters,” cooking demonstrations, tonging trips down the Miles River, KidsTown, and more. Wye Oak Commemorative Have a boo-rific time at the Museum’s Haunted Hallow- Oyster Knives een while at OysterFest. Food and boat rides an addi- November 10, 5 – 6:30 p.m. tional cost. Non-members $13, CBMM members Free Dale German, master furniture and cabinet maker, Paul Bartlett of Kitchen Solutions Consulting LLC, and George Hastings, national oyster shucking champion, recently November collaborated on the design for the Wye Oak Commem- orative Oyster Knife. Modeled after the “Chesapeake The Lure & Lore of Wetlands stabber,” a style of oyster knife used by watermen since Lecture by Robert L. Lippson the late 1800s, the handle is expertly crafted from se- November 8 at 10:30 a.m. lect pieces of the famous Wye Oak. Steamboat Build- An illustrated talk by the author of Life in the Chesa- ing, Van Lennep Auditorium. Non-members $8, CBMM peake Bay, one of the most important books ever pub- members $5 6 and a companion book to the exhibit has recently been December published by Yale University Press. The exhibit came to Sweeter Side of CBMM: CBMM directly from the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and is continuing on A Classic (Boat) Christmas to the Houston Museum of Natural Science, Houston, December 8 & 9, 10 a.m. – 4 p.m. Texas, upon leaving St. Michaels. You can’t have a St. Michaels Christmas without classic boats! Members of the Antique and Classic Boat Soci- ety’s Chesapeake Chapter will display these works of art under a tent at CBMM. Bring the kids for children’s January 2008 activities and light refreshments in the Steamboat Build- ing, and watch model boats sail and race on the Miles Skipjack & Screwpiles: River! Admission is included with your Christmas in St. Using Art to Sell “Place” Michaels ticket or available at the Museum. Saturday January 12, 1:30 p.m. – 3:00 p.m. and Sunday. Join our Director of Education, Robert Forloney, as he presents ways art can be used to shape a particular vi- sion of a region or culture. Trained at Parsons School of A Sailor’s Christmas Day Design and using our “Chesapeake Icons” as a catalyst, December 8, 5 – 6:30 p.m. he will discuss various ways that images can be used to Perhaps it’s the North Atlantic in the bitter cold squalls manipulate a sense of place, as well as the relationship of snow, as you try to fill the hold with enough salt cod between tourism, art, and communities. Steamboat to pay the bills. Or perhaps it’s balmy in the Java Straits Building, Van Lennep Auditorium. Non-members $8, coming home with tea and silks from China. Or may- CBMM members $5 be it’s off Cape Horn, where it’s never warm, headed to the coast of Peru for whales. In any case, it’s a long way from home when it comes to Christmas for a sailor at sea. Come hear songs, verse, and stories that paint the scenes of Christmas at sea, presented by folksinger and chanteyman Geoff Kaufman. Steamboat Building, Van Lennep Auditorium. Non-members $8, CBMM members $5

Afternoon with a Curator: Mermaids and Big Bucks January 19, 1:30 p.m. – 3:00 p.m. Join us for a special treat as we mine our collections storage and bring out objects and artifacts not normally on display. In this “behind the scenes” presentation, Curator of Collections, Pete Lesher (above), will discuss how our extensive collection of oyster cans exemplifies the vast number of businesses once active in this region and how this industry has affected the region. Steam- boat Building, Van Lennep Auditorium. Non-members $8, CBMM members $5 Photograph by William Burt Exhibit-Related Programming LAST CHANCE! Moving into the future, CBMM will continue to develop new and innovative series of programs inspired by Special Exhibition: Marshes: both its permanent and special exhibitions. Our next The Disappearing Edens group of educational offerings will be related to the Closes on December 16 “Chesapeake Icons” show and span a wide range of A stunningly beautiful collection of 40 exquisitely de- programs both in regard to types and audiences. Par- tailed color photographs by William Burt provide win- ticipants can learn about everything from the role food plays in defining regions to the relationships between dows into the textures, hues, vistas, and inhabitants of tourism, culture, and identity. Workshops, presenta- marshes from the Chesapeake Bay to Bear Lake, Utah, tions, and hands-on activities will take place on site and even Saskatchewan, Canada. Burt is a profession- for children, adults, and families. Check in with our al photographer whose images are seen in Smithson- website regularly for updates and more information. ian, Audubon, National Wildlife, and other magazines, 7 To enroll, or to receive more information about the pro- February gram contact Robert Forloney at 410-745-2916 ext. World Wetlands Day 133 or via e-mail at [email protected]. February 2, 4 – 5 p.m. Celebrated for the first time in 1997, World Wetlands Day focuses on the relationships of wetlands and the Ongoing Programs communities in which they are situated. Each year, government agencies, non-governmental organizations, Apprentice for a Day and groups of citizens have taken advantage of the op- Learn traditional wooden boatbuilding skills under the portunity to undertake actions aimed at raising public direction of a CBMM shipwright. You can be a part awareness of the benefits of wetlands. The theme for this of the whole 13-week process of building a wooden year is “Healthy Wetlands, Healthy People.” Learn about lapstrake skiff or sign up to learn just the aspects of wetlands and create your own mini-filtration system us- boatbuilding that interest you. Must be 16 or older, ing recycled materials. Steamboat Building, Van Lennep unless accompanied by an adult. Pre-registration sug- Auditorium. Non members $3, CBMM members Free gested, but not required. Gift certificates are available and make great holiday presents! Non-members $25 Build a Skipjack in a Bottle per day, CBMM members $15 per day February 10, 9 a.m. – noon We will be building a 15’ 6’’ Lapstrake Sailing Jim Wortman, a local model maker, will lead a special Delaware ducker as the Journeyman’s Special. workshop designed for youth ages 9 – 12. Participants will construct their very own ship in a bottle using traditional techniques. The skipjack, one of the Chesapeake Bay’s icons, will serve as inspiration for this model- making activity. All tools and materials needed to construct the project will be provided. Steamboat Build- ing, Van Lennep Auditorium. Reservations required. Non-members $15, CBMM members $12

Journeyman Special Choose any four days for one reduced price. Diversify your experience to include several different skills. A great way to get the most out of your Apprentice for a Day experience. Gift certificates available. Perfect holiday gift! $50 CBMM Members, $90 Non-Members

January 5 & 6 Lofting January 12 & 13 Become a Docent/Interpreter Molds, Stems & Keel January 19 & 20, January 26 & 27, February 2 & 3 at CBMM! Planking Begins on February 13 February 9 & 10 The Museum is offering a docent training series that Steam Bending Ribs prepares participants to lead group tours, interpret the Museum’s exhibits, and assist with educational pro- February 16 & 17, February 23 & 24 grams. The program is a great way to meet others and Fitting Out Interior connect with those who share an interest in the Chesa- March 1 & 2 peake Bay. The session topics range from learning about Rudder & Daggerboard the Museum’s exhibits and collections to developing ex- periential learning techniques. March 8 & 9 Misc. & Details The 2008 docent training schedule is as follows: March 15 & 16, March 22 & 23 February: 13, 20, 27 Decks & Combings March: 5, 12, 19, 26 April 5 & 6, April 12 & 13 April: 2, 9 Spars & Oars 8 April 19 & 20 November 17th—Marshes. Take a kid-friendly tour of Details & Finish Work the special exhibition “Marshes: A Disappearing Eden” to learn why marshes are important to people, animals, April 26 & 27 and the health of the environment, and make a filtra- Rigging & Launch Boat tion system to better understand how marshes work at 11:30, 1:00, or 3:00.

December 8th—KidsTown. Visit KidsTown during Sweeter Side of CBMM and participate in hands-on and art-making activities between 10:00 and 4:00.

January 5th—Ships & Shapes. See the wall of color- ful “trail board” signs that were once a common sight on sailing and steamships. Learn about the trail boards and the importance of collecting in the special exhibition, “Their Last Passage: The Collection of Robert H. Burgess,” before creating a life-size, paper trail board to take home at 11:30, 1:00, or 3:00.

January 19th—Waterfowl. Meet a decoy carver and learn about ducks and birds while visiting the Water- fowling building. Paint your own duck decoy head at 11:30, 1:00, or 3:00. Kids & Family Programs Saturdays for Kids Children and their families are invited to visit on selected Saturdays of every month for storytelling, special tours, and hands-on art activities designed just for them.

Tidewater Tales At 10:30 our youngest visitors (ages 3 to 7 years old) can enjoy Tidewater Tales by listening to an exciting story about the Chesapeake region in one of the Museum’s exhibitions. Boys and girls will learn about Bay animals, local legends, history, and more. Drawing, exploration Saturdays for Kids program activities are subject of objects, and other activities will be part of these pro- to change. Please contact the Youth Programs Co- grams. Tidewater Tales is free with admission. ordinator, Rachel Dolhanczyk, at 410-745-2916 Drop-in Activities ext. 103 or [email protected] to confirm pro- Children can participate in an art-making or hands-on grams or for further information. activity inspired by one of our exhibitions. During special guided tours exploring the Museum’s collections, Lighthouse Overnight Program participants will learn about the different ways that the Scout, Student, and Youth Groups Chesapeake Bay has shaped the lives of local people. Become a lighthouse keeper. Experience the life of a At 11:30, 1:00, or 3:00, children (ages 5 to 12) can 19th-century keeper through planned activities. Take a drop by to take part in a unique hands-on experience. hands-on tour of the lighthouse, perform the tasks of a The program fee is $3 per child. traditional keeper, participate in an induction ceremony, and more…. Upcoming October 20th—Photography. Learn what makes a Fridays and Saturdays in April, May, June, September, great photograph and practice capturing images around and October. Dates are filling up for the spring—book the Museum’s campus with a Polaroid camera at 11:30, now for fall 2008. Cost: $650 for up to 15 people. Cost 1:00, or 3:00. (Note program change.) includes program activities, Mister Jim cruise, and two days’ admission to the Museum. Special lighthouse November 3rd—Oysters. Explore the “Oystering on badge and Chesapeake Bay patch available for Brown- the Chesapeake” exhibit and tong for oysters during ie, Junior, and Cadet Girl Scout groups. this kid-friendly tour. See the results of oyster-filtered water and look at oyster gardens up close at 11:30, Summertime family Lighthouse Overnight dates 1:00, or 3:00. coming soon. 9 To the Point The Academy provides a diverse range of courses, including classes in ecology, literature, history, and gardening, as well as field trips. Go to www.cbmm.org and click on “Educa- tion & Outreach” to find a course list. To register, make course suggestions, or to get more de- tailed information about upcoming activities, contact the Academy for Lifelong Learning at the Chesapeake Bay Mari- time Museum, 410-745-2916 ext. 111. The annual membership fee is $25 for a single membership and $40 for a couple membership. Membership in ALL is required for course par- ticipation. Museum membership does not apply.

John Ford and John Miller, CBMM’s literary tag team. Safety Training Pays Off Two Johns a-Teaching The CBMM marina crew helped rescue three boaters who fell from their vessels in separate incidents during the sum- CBMM Vice President of Advancement John Miller and mer, says Visitor Services Manager Paul Stearns. Facilities Manager John Ford leave their Eagle House offices Visitor Services Assistant Melissa Faulkner rescued two of each week for 90-minute sojourns in the land of academe. the boaters. The first accident occurred when a boater slipped With their unique, tag-team approach to teaching, they on the swim platform of his boat tied up at the Museum’s A- have led classes at the Museum’s Academy for Lifelong Dock and could not get out of the water. Learning (ALL) for the last five years that range from a “Melissa jumped down on the swim platform and pulled study of Nobel laureate Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s sweep- him out,” Stearns says. ing novel One Hundred Years of Solitude to one-act plays to In the second case, a woman fell into the water while Me- Literature of the Chesapeake Bay. lissa was helping her dock. She grabbed the woman’s hand Miller, a former college professor, and Ford, who had no and guided her to a ladder. previous teaching experience, found they share a love of lit- When another woman fell from her boat at the dock, Se- erature and volunteered to teach at ALL, an adult-education curity Officer Rick Thalmann and Visitor Services Assistant program sponsored by CBMM. Rachel Roman helped her get to a ladder. Miller says he and Ford started teaching together after Stearns says it is unusual to have water rescues. Ford mentioned that Moby Dick was read every year at Mystic Seaport and suggested that it should be done in St. Michaels. “I said, ‘I’ll do it if you do it. Why don’t we co-teach.’” The two pick a topic they think will be fun to teach and then set up a class. “One of us writes the syllabus. We usually meet the day of class and get a sense of what we want to do in case we come into class for an hour and a half and nobody says anything, but that has never happened,” Miller says. “What is particularly fun about it is we do not coordi- nate exactly what we are going to do,” Miller says. “So John might be outraged by what I might say and vice versa.” The classes have proved very popular with classes rang- ing from 20 to 25 for the six-week session. The largest class ever, 35, signed up to read and discuss One Hundred Years of Solitude. This winter, the duo is leading a class on the Melissa Faulkner to the rescue, twice. short stories of William Faulkner. Ford says the partnership has developed a “following “Last year, we didn’t have any, zero.” with the usual cast of characters showing up. They tell us He says that the staff is trained in how to handle safety they wouldn’t care of we did the phone book.” issues each year. “Marina Management 101 is what we call “With the whole ALL concept, you have almost exclu- it,” he says. sively senior citizens who bring all these various life experi- In a letter to Melissa, the woman she helped wrote: ences and perspectives to the class,” he says. “You end up “I thank you with all my heart for your help. You have all of seeing whatever piece of literature we are talking about from the qualities of a level-headed, kind, intelligent, and courageous so many different angles.” person. St. Michaels is lucky to have you as an employee.” 10 seum and slept on the historic lighthouse’s hardwood floors. New Boat Yard Apprentice “We have four weekends booked for fall ’08 already,” Cliff Mumford has he says. joined the Boat Yard crew The scouting groups have merit badges that focus on as an apprentice. Boat lighthouses. Yard Manager Rich Sco- “Many of the groups come here to help the girls earn their field say that Mumford, of badges,” he says. Milford, Delaware, comes Overnight participants receive an introduction to Chesa- with woodworking and peake Bay lighthouses, a guided tour of the lighthouse, and some boatbuilding experi- a chance to perform some of the duties of a traditional light- ence. “He is a sponge; he house keeper. In addition to the educational activities and learns everything he can,” overnight accommodations, they receive two days’ admis- Scofield says. “He wants sion to the Museum and a souvenir patch. to make a living working For more information on the Lighthouse Overnight on boats.” Program, contact Youth Programs Coordinator Rachel He said the CBMM ap- Dolhanczyk at [email protected], or call 410- prenticeship is for a year and 745-2916 ext. 103, or go to www.cbmm.org and click on “Education & Outreach.” Cliff Mumford, new Boat Yard the Museum can extend it for apprentice. a second year at its discretion. Community Outreach Helen Van Fleet, More than 30 members of the Union United Methodist George Merrill Honored Church in St. Michaels attended a special open house at the Museum in September as part of an expanded program to CBMM Operations Assistant Helen Van Fleet and vol- create new partnerships. unteer and ALL instructor George Merrill were honored in The men, women, and children explored the Museum on September by the Talbot County Commission on Aging for special docent-guided tours, went aboard the Lady Maryland their contributions to the community. They were presented with certificates at the second annual “Senior Celebration of Life” luncheon sponsored by Londonderry Retirement Com- munity in Easton.

Lighthouse Draws a Crowd Spending a night in the Hooper Strait Lighthouse has become one of the Education Department’s most popular programs, especially with the Brownie and Girl Scout crowd, says CBMM’s Director of Education Robert Forloney. More than 300 visitors this year, most of them Brownie Young sailors on Lady Maryland during an open house. and Girl Scout groups, brought their sleeping bags to the Mu-

and Sigsbee, two of the traditional Bay vessels maintained by the Living Classrooms Foundation, and participated in a variety of children’s activities. The visit grew out of a similar event when CBMM opened its doors to the church congregation during the Annu- al Homecoming Celebration at the end of August. This past winter, the church hosted a monthly Docent Meeting when the Museum auditorium was not available. Rosella Camper and Marla Baines, who serve on the CBMM Community Ad- visory Committee and are active in the church, discussed the video they created documenting African-American history in Girl Scouts enjoy a lighthouse sleepover. the area. The video was included in the recent “Waters of 11 To the Point

Despair, Waters of Hope” exhibit. As the Education Department at CBMM moves to offer Annual Fund 2007-2008 new educational programs, it is also working with community groups and organizations such as Union Church. CBMM “I’ve had a long-term interest looks forward to strengthening its ties with local communities in the Museum even before my in new and exciting ways. wife and I moved to the Shore in 2005. For me the Museum is a unique place in many ways. “Chesapeake Icons” But I have always been espe- Exhibit Opens cially attracted by its commitment to the preservation of the Blue crabs, oysters, skipjacks, lighthouses, and waterfowl. Bay’s historic working water- Tom Seip These images have become symbols of the Chesapeake Bay. craft, in particular its dedica- How these Chesapeake icons have evolved and ways they tion to preserving and passing on wooden boatbuilding have been portrayed is the theme of a new exhibition at the skills. These skills are an important part of the Bay’s Museum. “Chesapeake Icons” opened on October 6 on the maritime heritage, and I’m delighted my contributions second floor of the Museum’s Steamboat Building. of the Annual Fund help underwrite this unique aspect Used by artists, writers, and salesmen of all types, these of CBMM’s program.” five representations of the Bay make up much of CBMM’s — Tom Seip collection. This exhibition showcases a number of iconic ar- Easton, Maryland tifacts—from oyster cans and seafood marketing materials to fine art and models of skipjacks. “I love the water and I love The “Icons” exhibition will feature special programming the Chesapeake Bay. Boating (see calendar section of WaterWays for a partial listing of pro- and fishing have always been grams) as well as gallery talks in the exhibit. For well over a an enjoyable part of my life hundred years, the oyster has served as the defining seafood so it was natural for me to be industry of the Chesapeake Bay. In gallery talks on October attracted to CBMM and to be- 27 and 28, November 17, and December 8, from 1:30 – 2:00 come a member. I believe that p.m., learn how the oyster, as an iconic image, has been used annual giving from members as a successful marketing and advertising tool. Museum edu- Dagmar Gipe is essential to maintaining and cators will discuss how our extensive collection of oyster cans advancing the Museum’s programs and assuring that they are sustained at the very highest level. My Annual Fund gift is an investment I enjoy making every year.” — Dagmar Gipe Royal Oak, Maryland

Fall marks the beginning of our Annual Fund drive. Our goal is to raise $500,000 by the end of the fiscal year on April 30, 2008. The Annual Fund helps support all aspects of the Museum’s operations including exhibits, festivals, vessel restoration, and education programs for adults and children. Your contribution will also help to make our 18-acre campus a model of sustainability and Detail of a lighthouse quilt from the “Chesapeake Icons” exhibit. a center of environmental responsibility. It will permit everyone who cares about the Chesapeake to learn more about its cultural and environmental history and sustain illustrates the large number of businesses once active in this our efforts to preserve the Bay. To make a contribution region and how they have helped shaped the way people iden- please go to our website, www.cbmm.org, and click on tify the area. “Members & Supporters” or contact John H. Miller, For more information about the “Chesapeake Icons” ex- Vice President of Advancement at [email protected] hibition, please contact the Museum at 410-745-2916, or visit or telephone 410-745-2916, ext 129. the Museum’s website at www.cbmm.org/icons.html. 12 How Dick Day’s “Hobby” Preserves a Nautical Niche

By James Boicourt

The first boat engine Dick Day worked on was a Lacka- working—Lackawanna, sitting on its shelf. wanna one-lunger that came out of a rich man’s motor launch Day says that when he was growing up, his family ran an in 1935. The owner had the misfortune of dying young and antique business, giving him access to many old engines and the unattended launch fell into disrepair. The family chauf- radios. He says high school gave him a chance to develop feur didn’t want to throw away the “nice little engine” so he machining skills. gave it to the inquisitive 11-year-old Day. “All of my contemporaries worked around engines and Over fresh blueberry muffins and coffee on the sun porch farm engines,” he says. “A lot of people had gas engines to of his Southern Maryland creek-front home, Day, now 83, run their washing machines, run their water pumps and all recalls how that little engine started his life-long fascination that kind of stuff. It wasn’t rocket science, you know.” with all things mechanical. In 1942, he went into the Army, trained as a radio engineer, When he went off to fight in World War II, he says he and served 18 months in Italy. After his discharge in 1945, he put the engine in his family’s New Hampshire barn, never expecting to see it again. He says his father had given un- wanted metal for scrap during the war, but had not been able to get to the Lackawanna in the rafters. It is now part of Day’s extensive collection of antique marine engines. Day, a retired federal executive, is a nationally recog- nized expert on antique marine engines, especially Palmer Brothers Company engines, the simple but elegant engines that powered watermen’s boats on the Chesapeake Bay, and around the world, during the first half of the 20th century. During a tour of his extensive collection in his machine shop behind his home, Day points out the polished—still

Dick Day in his Southern Maryland machine shop. He is an expert on the marine engines built by Palmer Brothers.

13 Day shows CBMM Curator of Collections Pete Lesher one of the larger engines in his collection. (Lower right) Brass shines on one of Day’s restored engines.

married his high school sweetheart, Barbara. He spent the next few years in New Hampshire working a variety of jobs before beginning a radio-engineering career with RCA at the start of the Korean War. During the seven years with RCA, he says he traveled Europe, Africa, Scandinavia, and the Middle East, installing and repairing radio stations. He moved back to the United States and obtained a job as a radio engineer for the U.S. Government, where he continued working on radio installations worldwide. In his lifetime, Day says he has installed and repaired radio stations in over 80 countries. Around 1960, he began using the name “Heritage Engine mation, and restoration help that collectors or historians need. Collection” to collect, restore, and deal antique marine engine The collection of engines, parts, and machining equipment parts. Initially it was a stack of business cards with the name are only one facet of what he has preserved. He has doggedly of the company printed on them to be able to buy wholesale pursued historical information about the Palmer Brothers materials from industrial supply companies. Company for years. He has published manuals, documenta- Day’s love of antique marine engines led him to restore tion on each engine type, a history of the company, and an and collect many different makers. His chief interest is in index of existing Palmer engines he updates every year. engines built by the Palmer Brothers Company of Cos Cob, In these publications, Day has collected enough infor- Connecticut. He says he focused on Palmer because “out of mation to pinpoint the date of any engine by noting differ- the 750 or more documented manufacturers of marine en- ences in manufacturing processes from year to year. These gines at the time, the Palmer Brothers Company was by far changes, over time, also apply to other makes of engines, the most dominant of the time.” as they mark changes in manufacturing technology. He has A reputation for “extraordinarily reliable engines” kept preserved the understanding of this technology, not simply Palmer as the most popular maker of their time. the physical artifacts. Day is now the primary source for any Palmer parts, infor- Day’s documentation of Palmer Brothers’ history is not

14 limited just to the models of engines produced, but tells the production numbers for the Palmer Brothers Company were company’s story as well. The Palmer brothers started making around 60,000-70,000, Day says. telephone and telegraph parts in 1887. By 1893-1894, they Day’s interest in the history stems from Palmer’s impor- were successful enough that they decided to try to branch out tant place on the Chesapeake Bay and other fishery-based into motorized boats. Most people at the time were rowing, communities. At one time, a Palmer one-lunger in a water- and the engines that were available were not reliable due to man’s boat meant getting to fish, crabs, or oysters reliably, several basic design flaws. and getting home safely. “Frank Palmer was the businessman, and Ray Palmer “I’ve had old watermen tell me that one of these old one- was a really good engineer,” Day says. After engineering lungers would outlast three hulls,” Day says. “About every telephone parts, Ray Palmer, who was born in Chestertown, 10 years they’d cut down some Eastern Shore mahogany Maryland, “understood electricity,” Day says. This allowed (loblolly pine) and build a new hull.” him to understand the cause of most engine problems was Palmers were a fixture of the local waterman culture. poorly designed ignition systems. Ray Palmer designed a Dick Day has preserved the engines and their history. mechanism allowing a strong spark with minimal battery Through the Heritage Engine Collection, he has created a drain, and, as a result, created an engine so successful that in way to pass it on. w 1895, during the first year of production, they sold 100. As the era of the two-stroke engine came to an end about 1910-1912, Palmer identified their principal interest as the James Boicourt is the Museum’s Boat Yard Systems Specialist. working waterman. Their motto was, “Palmer Brothers, the Fisherman’s Friend.” They built large four-stroke engines that were more durable and reliable than any on the market and were designed primarily for workboats. The NR1 and later the ZR1 models were the most successful, and many of the parts used on the 1912 NR1 were in production until 1962. Total engine

Some of the tools (right) Day uses in his restorations. If he doesn’t have the right tool, he makes it. One-lungers line the machine shop shelves. Photos by James Boicourt and Cooper Media.

15 Eastern Shore By Dick Cooper, Editor

The Stevensville Cemetery covers a small triangle of high appealing that ruling. ground near the head of Cox Creek on Kent Island. The head- “The way Kent Island has been developed, it is obvious stones are carved with the names of the families of the early it wasn’t planned,” says Rob Etgen, executive director of the settlers of the largest island in the Chesapeake Bay. Eastern Shore Land Conservancy (ESLC). “It wasn’t cata- To the north and east, the creek quietly rises and falls with strophic, but it certainly wasn’t advantageous. The retrofit- the tide. Herons stalk the edges of the creek for soft crabs. ting of infrastructure and amenities is so expensive and so Ospreys circle over familiar waters. Light traffic crosses the hard to do in existing communities.” two-lane bridge over the creek going to and from the Victo- What happened on Kent Island did not stay on Kent rian heart of Stevensville that has changed little in 150 years. Island. But on its southern edge, the eternal resting place ends at The Eastern Shore, bypassed by East Coast urbaniza- the westbound lanes of Routes 50 and 301 where tens of thou- tion for centuries, is on the verge of a population explosion. sands of cars and trucks race along the spine of the island each Housing developments, some with thousands of new homes, day, covering the five miles from the Kent Narrows to the Bay are in the ground or on the drawing boards in almost every Bridge in less than five minutes. community from Perryville and Crisfield, Maryland, to Cape In the 55 years since the first Bay Bridge connected Kent Charles, Virginia. Island to Sandy Point on the western shore, few places on the ESLC, a private, nonprofit organization based in Chesapeake Bay have been so dramatically changed. Queenstown that works to protect farmland and help munici- Kent Island has gone from an isolated collection of farm palities with land-management planning, issued a report this villages and fishing hamlets to a major suburb of the Washing- year warning for the permanent loss of an additional 165,000 ton-Baltimore corridor. acres of Maryland farmland in the next 25 years. Strip malls line the highway and housing developments Citing Maryland Office of Planning statistics, the ESLC have filled most of the buildable land. The state recently report states “about 160,000 new residents will make the stepped in to block the building of 1,350 new homes on 74 Eastern Shore their home in the next 25 years, adding more acres across the creek from the cemetery. The developer is than 70,000 new homes.”

16 growt Bigh Plans for Small Towns

“Between 1900 and the construction of the first Bay Bridge into Ocean City. in 1952, the Eastern Shore grew by an average of about 300 The city that has called itself the “Seafood Capital of the people a year,” the ESLC report states. “Today, the Shore adds World,” now boasts waterfront residences that cost between that many new residents every two and a half weeks.” $400,000 and $1 million. Office of Planning statistics show that the Eastern Shore While talks and studies have been going on for years with population has been climbing since the first bridge, and no firm commitment, Crisfield and Somerset County officials gained momentum after the second span was built in 1973, are still hopeful that scheduled passenger and vehicle ferry rising from 200,000 in 1952 to more than 425,000 today. The service between Crisfield and Reedville, Virginia, would influx of new residents is projected to push the population help the economies of the cities on both sides of the Bay. closer to 600,000 by the year 2030. In Cambridge, a town of less than 11,000, more than While local groups have been able to get some devel- 4,000 new single-family houses, townhouses, and condo- opments reduced in size, new houses are being built at a miniums are being built around the harbor and on farm fields record pace. ringing the city. The change has been quick and recent on the Crisfield One of the planned communities has been scaled back waterfront. The gritty, leading edge of the town, built out into from several thousand houses and a golf course to 650 homes the water on billions of oyster shells, is now dominated by and no golf course. Maryland agreed to buy 750 acres of the new seven-story condo towers that have gone up over the 1,000-acre development along the Little Blackwater River last three years. More than 500 new units, complete with after it was feared that a large-scale community would breathtaking Bay views, balconies, fireplaces, and mas- adversely affect the fragile Blackwater National ter suites, will rise over the harbor, next to the Wildlife Refuge downstream. remains of the shellfish and crabbing in- Cambridge Mayor Cleve- dustry. From the water, it looks land L. Rippons as if the fishing village has says his town was been plowed, full-force, in need of revital-

New condos dominate the Crisfield waterfront, rising above the harbor and seafood processing buildings.

17 ization. The hardworking town on the banks of the Choptank with clubhouses, pools, and planned social events. River lost 10 percent of its residents over the last 50 years Etgen says development of the Eastern Shore became in- as canneries and seafood processors closed or moved out of evitable after Maryland’s “Reach the Beach” campaign in town. The downtown had fallen into disrepair but it is now go- the late 1980s and early 1990s made it easier to get from ing through a rebirth with old buildings put to new uses. the western shore to the Atlantic beaches. By building new “We have to grow incrementally,” Rippons says. bridges and expanding the highways, the “commuter shed” He says a major home improvement store will open in for the western shore jobs expanded rapidly eastward. Cambridge next year and more national retailers and restau- “People could suddenly commute from Cambridge to rant chains are talking about building in the town. Baltimore and Washington every day,” he says. “The result- “Once you get those, you get a snowball effect,” he says. ing sprawl hit almost overnight.” “Some residents are not happy with the growth, because they He says the counties of the Eastern Shore have become liked things the way they were.” increasingly protective of their rural zoning, pushing devel- “You are constantly weighing one factor against another,” opment into and around the existing towns. Rippons says. “You cannot grow too big, too fast.” Denton, once a bustling port on the upper Choptank Riv- Rippons says that on a recent weekend, Cambridge hosted er in Caroline County, has a population of 3,000. More than a skipjack race, a speedboat race, and a street fair. The new 4,000 new homes are in the building or planning stages. Wal- town marina on the Choptank mart plans to build in Denton. was completed this year. Trappe, in Talbot County, a “Visitors will tell you it is crossroads village off Route one of the paramount marinas 50, midway between Easton in the state,” he says. and Cambridge, has just Planners say that several over 1,100 residents. It could factors are drawing new resi- see as many as 3,000 new dents to the Eastern Shore. homes go up in the next sev- One of the strongest draws eral years. In St. Michaels, is housing costs. Developers a quaint village with almost advertise their new commu- 1,200 residents, a develop- nities east of the Bay Bridge ment that would put almost by comparing home prices in 300 houses in a cornfield just the congested Maryland and north of town has been work- Virginia suburbs on the west- ing its way through the plan- ern shore. They point out that ning stages. $300,000 can buy a two-bed- The Bay Bridge is just part of the view from Broad As the workforce moves room condo in Annapolis or Creek on Kent Island. east, so have some of the a four-bedroom colonial with employers. The Chesapeake two-car garage and a half-acre Bay Business Park, north of of land on the Eastern Shore. the Bay Bridge’s landing on Kent Island, is the home of sev- Increasingly, members of the aging East Coast Baby eral small businesses. The Easton Bypass, once intended to Boomer generation, a demographic group blamed for every route traffic around the historic downtown, is morphing into trend—good and evil—in the nation, are choosing the Eastern a retail hub with a new shopping center and national chain Shore for their retirement homes. For them, the attractions are stores. The “money” jobs, however, still draw commuters the slower pace of life, the moderate climate, and the abun- west over the Bay Bridge every day. dance of outdoor recreation, such as golf, fishing, hunting, Despite the growth and population pressures, the Eastern and boating. Plus, they are just a few hours from their former Shore of the Chesapeake Bay has retained much of its charm. homes, friends, and relatives. Several of the new housing de- Ernie and DeNyce Becker found their waterfront retire- velopments are marketed as 55-plus, active-adult communities ment home in Romancoke,

18 Cambridge is undergoing a transformation as condos and townhouses are being built around the harbor. Photos by Cooper Media

on Kent Island, 12 years ago. Ernie Becker says he worked “But then we began to realize everything we needed was for the federal government and lived in Chevy Chase, Mary- right here.” land, for 30 years. For several years, the Beckers had a beach “This place is very tranquil,” he says. “There is such a big house in Ocean City and spent weekends in traffic, driving contrast with what we have and city life.” across Kent Island. DeNyce Becker adds, “We have a real community, in the “We never knew this was here,” he says. sense of a small town.” w DeNyce Becker says that when they decided to look for a retirement home, the western shore was too crowded and Ocean City was too remote. After they bought their island home, the Beckers say they drove over the Bay Bridge on a regular basis. “We still felt that life was on the western shore or ‘the Dark Side’ as we call it now,” Ernie Becker says.

19 By Larry Lewis Island Growing up on the remote Photos from the Lewis family collection

The Kent Island boys I grew up with there in the 1940s and 1950s had little reason to think they were anybody special. Our days were spent quietly on a backwater island in the Chesa- peake reached primarily by boat, a life where little had changed in more than three centuries. Most of us were the sons of watermen struggling to put food on the table and pay the bills by selling oysters, crabs, soft-shell clams, fish, eels, and tiny grass shrimp taken from the Bay and rivers with back-breaking work. Our families had been in Queen Anne’s County so long, most of us were related. I was at least second or third cousins with half of all my school classes. My bus driver was my father’s cousin. Another cousin delivered our newspaper, and I played school The author (second from left) and his family enjoy a day baseball against his son. My un- on the Love Point beach on Kent Island’s northern tip in the late 1940s. cle, his wife, and their two sons lived across the road from us on Love Point, the northern tip of Kent Island where I grew up. The trip actually was not that smooth. The ride across was My grandparents lived next door. free. But, as I recall, we were not allowed to return until after The world seemed to leave us alone, and we did not 6 p.m., when tolls had begun. We waited, got back home by complain. paying the money, but delivered our newspapers late. That summer of 1952, I was 10, and doing what I always I was too young at 10 to think thoughts any deeper than seemed to be doing on days off from school—working on the where our next vacant-lot baseball game would be held, but, water or at other odd jobs for spending money. I was work- even then, some part of me must have known that the iso- ing five or six days a week helping a neighbor named Carlton lated life was over, whether I wanted it to be or not. It was “Picksharp” Councill deliver copies of the afternoon Balti- kind of like watching “Gone With the Wind” in time-lapse more News American all over the island from his van. photography. The first Chesapeake Bay Bridge from Sandy Point near The streams of traffic over the bridge from Baltimore, Annapolis to Kent Island opened to fanfare on July 30, 1952, Washington, and Virginia to the seashore became gushers. and I rode across to the western shore and back with my Traffic jams sometimes stretched 15 miles. Commuters braved newspaper-delivery boss that afternoon. He thought crossing longer drives. Housing developments went up everywhere. the bridge the first day was a big deal, and he was driving. Route 50/301 across the heart of Kent Island to the ocean be- I was unimpressed. came a maze of overpasses, cloverleafs, and traffic circles. 20 Time shores of the Bay.

the abandoned ferry pier down across the large marsh in front of our house, where the Smoky Joe used to carry passengers from Love Point to Light Street in Baltimore and back. We shed peelers into soft crabs in floats at the pier, and no one pilfered any. I have wondered if it was the peace, and time to reflect, that made me a writer. I remember often taking a small boat out onto Lake Anne, now sometimes called Lake Matta- pex, behind our house, tying to a pole stuck in the bottom out in the middle, and lying in the skiff for hours just looking at the sky and reading books by O. Henry and Hemingway. I decided early that I did not want to work on the water. I Boating on Love Point harbor near the ferry dock in 1925. From left, the author’s could not have been more than aunt, Hettie Fisher, her nephew, Walter Gardner, Hettie’s husband, Frank Fisher, owner of the boat, and the author’s grandfather, Charles Blizzard. eight or nine when I started oystering Saturdays with my father and another man. My I think what I have missed most since the days before the job was to stand at the culling board where they dumped the bridge—and then a second bridge—is the solitude. Simply, oysters and shells and gunk they brought up in their tongs. the quiet, unhurried days, when my brother, Bob, and I could I threw the good oysters of keeping size onto the pile in the head down to the Chester River beach to catch soft crabs, and bottom of the boat, and everything else back overboard. I be the only ones in sight. had hard rubber gloves and a little culling hammer to knock Bob and I would catch a dozen soft crabs, sell them to a shells off the oysters. neighbor for 25 cents apiece, and spend our money on candy I remember most being cold. And later, when my father at Marks store and tavern on Love Point. changed to clamming, I remember working with snow blow- You could walk through other people’s properties to go ing into our faces. down to the beach, and play on their vacant lots, and leave Most of the boys left school at 16 to work on the water. your car doors and house doors unlocked. The kids could The high school, grades seven through 12, had 120 students. stay out at night. We would leave home early on days when My graduating class had 20, and 15 of them were girls. there was no school and stay away until dark, and no one We Love Point kids shared a school bus with Kent Point, worried a bit. at the opposite end of the island. Half of the year, they went When there were storms, we would catch a bushel of hard home first and we waited 30 minutes for our turn. The other crabs just by dipping them off the top of the roiling water from half, we went first. continued, page 23 21 The Love Point Aloft Aerial Photography Hotel was a posh and popular resort in the early 1900s.

Laurence G. Claggett Collection, CBMM

Queen Anne’s County Historical Collection

Kent Narrows today bustles with heavy vehicle and boat traffic.

Ferries carried vehicle traffic across the Bay before the first Bay Bridge was completed in 1952.

In 1939, Kent Narrows ent Island, the largest island in the was a major seafood KChesapeake Bay, was settled by Wil- processing center. liam Claiborne, who built a fort on the southern tip of the island and claimed it for Virginia in 1631. He named the island after his home in England and set up a trading post to buy furs from the Indians. It became the third permanent English settlement, after Jamestown, Virginia, and Plymouth, Mas- sachusetts. King Charles I granted what is now Maryland, including Kent Island, to Lord Baltimore, two years later, touching off decades of armed conflict as Claiborne Courtesy of Betty Thomas Schulz fought in vain to keep it part of the Virginia colony. It was the first of several disputes between the neighboring colonies over land and religion. Kent Robert de Gast, CBMM collection Kent Island Island chart from 1859. CBMM collection

Bloody Point Lighthouse guards the shoal on the southern tip of Kent Island.

22 Nancy and Larry Lewis during a visit to CBMM stand in front of Alverta, a five-log canoe built on Kent Island in 1908 by his great-grandfather, Joseph Thompson. The Alverta is part of the Museum’s permanent collection. from page 21 So few students at the high school were thinking about going. He loved the tales of beachcombing fun, and crabbing and ing to college that a joint class of tenth, eleventh, and twelfth moonlit ramblings along the riverbanks and Bay shores. graders was created, called the “academic class.” Mostly one His father was a career diplomat, and Mark spent some of teacher, Emily Roe Denny, who was also the school librarian his younger years in boarding schools. and had written books, headed it. One of the books, The Indi- “Boy, I really wish I had grown up on Kent Island,” Mark ans of Kent Island, is still available. She had once worked as said to me many times. an editor for a New York book publisher. Kent Islanders were prideful, but they had an inferiority She encouraged me to be a writer. She picked me to be the complex, as well. Life there meant the shunning of many mod- editor of the school newspaper. More than once, she offered ern methods. The schools were tiny. Outsiders could always to lend me money for some school trip I could not afford. point to advantages they had that were “bigger and better.” Years later, her behind-the-scenes support got me started in That all ended, I believe, when the island officially was the newspaper business. declared the third oldest English-speaking settlement in the I went on to write for the now-gone Baltimore News U.S., behind only Jamestown and Plymouth. It was then that American for 17 years and The Philadelphia Inquirer for 22 I, too, finally began to appreciate my heritage. years, but not without some false starts. My ancestors came to the island in August 1631 with Cap- My school friends were the athletes from the basketball tain William Claiborne, from the Jamestown, Virginia, colony, and baseball teams, and we felt grown-up when we drove to who was sent by the English traders to open commerce with Baltimore to attend Orioles games. My Love Point buddies the Chesapeake Bay Indian tribes. were guys, like me, who thought we were sort of beachcomb- I once saw a map of the original land grants on Kent Is- ers, since we spent so much time in our little boats and around land. I still have relatives there with the last names of almost the old, abandoned ferry slip and on the beach at night. everyone who was given land. No wonder we are intermarried I can remember watching the glow of the coke ovens at and related, like the Old Order Amish of Lancaster County, Bethlehem Steel’s Sparrows Point plant across the Bay after Pennsylvania. dark and wondering what kind of life awaited someone brave Even today, heaven help you if you are trying to make enough to cross over and explore there. your way on Kent Island and were not born there. I went there eventually to study engineering, after flirt- There was the time my brother and I were buying soft ing with the possibility of attending the Naval Academy and crabs on a Sunday morning in Dominion, a watering com- learning that people who were deaf in their left ear, like me, munity on the lower end of the island. were not qualified. I returned a few years later more sure than The seller was there with his wife, who did not remember ever that writing was what I was meant to do. I also came me, but whose brother had been in my class, been a good friend, back with a broken heart. My first love out in the real world and played on the same high school baseball team. But the man married someone else. had only so many to sell and he was trying to keep them for his My friend Mark Miller, a top investigative reporter, always regular customers. We looked like outsiders to him. wanted me to tell him stories about my Kent Island upbring- Another islander standing nearby, a man my brother’s age 23 who had gone to high school with us, nodded in that almost imperceptible way Eastern Shoremen have that we were ac- ceptable as crab customers. “Are these Kent Island boys?” the seller asked the other man. “Original, original,” the man said. To be a Kent Islander was to be what famous Lower Shore boatbuilder Jim Richardson once told me all Eastern Shore- men are: “If you have something an Eastern Shoreman wants, he’ll try to buy it from you,” he said. “If you won’t sell, he’ll ask where you got it. If he can’t get it, he’ll try to make it. If he can’t make it, he doesn’t want it anymore.” It was being independent, and glaringly determined, and a survivor. Money was scarce in the watering villages of Kent Island when the winters were hard and the freezes lingered. The watermen could not break their workboats out of the creeks and harbors to tong on the oyster bars. There were no rainy-day bank accounts to fall back on. It was bean soup and biscuits, jars of canned vegetables from the summer garden, if you were lucky, and a lot of potato dishes. I attended a two-room schoolhouse that had no plumbing, in Chester, a community in the center of the island where I had been born in a farmhouse in October 1941. To this day, my mother, Edna Lewis, 86, insists on embarrassing me by telling people how I refused to use the school’s wooden out- Author’s grandmother, Hattie Eleanor Collier Blizzard, houses because I was so scared of spiders. and an unknown gentleman friend. Believed to have Every weekday after school, I did my homework with my been taken in Baltimore when she worked for the ear glued to a huge floor-model radio. My two favorite shows Salvation Army. were “Straight Arrow,” about a man who went into a cave and emerged as an Indian warrior bent on helping the oppressed, mother’s aunt, Hettie Fisher, ran the once-grand Love Point and “Sergeant Preston of the Yukon,” which later became a Hotel, where my father and mother met at a Saturday night TV program. dance. She also owned Althea Cottage, a bed-and-breakfast I always did well in school, and my father said I followed across the lake. every twist of plot on the radio, and got all of my homework One man used to fly down in his seaplane and anchor it on answers right. the Chester River shore for the duration of his visit. We had My father, Rufus M. Lewis, never really got a chance to go hunters who stayed in our little cabin on the Althea Cottage on in school. He had to quit in the fifth grade to help support property, shot every rabbit in sight, and strung them up in long his parents and their six children besides him. He worked first lines for photographs. People from the Saint Martin’s summer catching oysters with Captain Lester Lee, since immortalized camp up the road would stay with us. in the Pulitzer Prize-winning book Beautiful Swimmers, in the We lived with Aunt Hettie for the four years my father was famous chapter “Lester Lee and the Chicken Neckers.” The away in the Navy fighting in World War II. He built us a house tale is about outsiders who ruin Lee’s trotline crabbing and in Chester, and we lived there until the third grade, when we threaten him with a gun. moved briefly to Centreville, the county seat. Then we moved “For six weeks, I never saw the light of day at home,” my back to Love Point because Aunt Hettie was sick and could father said of that time. They left home before daylight and no longer live alone. did not return until late every day. By then, the Love Point Hotel was a shambles of broken My late father, who eventually grew to tolerate his dif- glass and splintered wood. People used to roller skate in the ferent name, taken from a goofy novelty song of the era, was old grand ballroom. I heard of many sexual liaisons between our clearest link to Kent Island history. His mother, Caroline, young people in the many-roomed derelict, but I cannot swear was a Thompson. There were Thompsons with Indian trader any of them actually happened. Claiborne, and they became Kent Island boatbuilders. On Sundays, my sister, Nancy, me, my brother, and our Her brother was Kirby Thompson, a noted duck carver of aunt and uncle, Rosie and Harvey Smith, would pick huge the island. bunches of wild asparagus along the abandoned railroad track Her father, Joseph Alexander Thompson, built a boat that on the Love Point Road. is in the collection of the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum. We fished, crabbed, and hauled floating wood to build a It is the Alverta, a five-log canoe that is described as an impor- pier in the lake and a log cabin in the woods. In frozen win- tant example of early motorized Bay craft. ters—and there were many—we skated on the lake. We ended up on the northern tip of Kent Island because my Incredibly, a small flotilla of World War II landing craft

24 for troops and tanks was scuttled in shallow water at the Love inside-the-park home run out of it. Wayne later had most of Point ferry pier. For years, we played on the rotting hulks of his hand shot off in a hunting accident with a shotgun. the ships, making them our headquarters. We would tie our The watermen hung out at Earl Stevens’ Stevensville small boats to them, eat our lunches aboard, and leave peri- Pool Room. I learned to shoot pool there, waiting for my odically to look for crabs clinging to the old ferry pilings. father to finish a few beers. One day, a good player actually There was Paul Mylander, whose lawyer father had pri- gave me a lesson. Hit the cue ball high to make it roll. Hit it vate planes, and his pal, David Leonard, who were always low to make it stop on a dime. Hit it on the right top to pull overhead somewhere skydiving. Leonard was killed in a the balls to the right. Reverse to pull balls to the left. It was plane crash before his horrified mother. “Karl the Russian” a fruitful afternoon. was the mysterious member of the Love Point gang. He could My father clearly inherited some of my family’s boat- speak only a few words of English, and lived, at first, in an up- building skills. One afternoon, in our backyard, he had some graded chicken coop and, later, in a renovated railroad car. No free time, so he gathered unused lumber from the garage and one knew where he came from. Samuel “Dockie” Marks had outbuildings there and built us a perfect skiff we could use a large collection of arrow and hatchet heads gleaned from the around the lake and the Chester River. tall, eroding Bay cliffs. He displayed it at his father’s store. There was no oystering in the summer, so watermen had to We used to play baseball over those cliffs. Sometimes a find other jobs. My father built houses, without plans, and he long drive would go over the cliff and the beach and land in laid the brick for a church wall on Route 50 at Queenstown that the water. Once, when I climbed down long wooden stairs to still awes me with its complexity every time I drive past it. get a baseball, I came upon two lovers on the beach, heavily One of my earlier memories is of going fishing with my engaged. I kept my eye on the ball, pretended I saw nothing, father and catching a tiny fish on a hand line. We also found a and went about my business. They did, as well. rotting net in a cove, and my father caught a large fish snared There were dark times, too. One friend killed himself af- there with his hands before it could escape. ter, it was believed, he saw his former girlfriend standing on We all prided ourselves on how well we could handle dip a darkened porch kissing another boy. He went out on a boat, nets and catch fleeing crabs. I once saw my father dip five feet tied an anchor around his neck and jumped overboard. One into the currents along the edge of the Kent Narrows from our family I knew lost several children in a farmhouse fire. Their fast-drifting boat to pick up a ripe peeler from the bottom. We mother later was killed in a farm accident when she fell from had run out of bait while fishing and we broke the peeler apart a tractor into a mower. for another hour of angling. Alcoholism was widespread among the watermen, who It was the best catch with a dip net I ever saw. w carried whiskey with them, they said, to nip on to keep warm in the winter. Many nipped on into the spring, summer, and fall. I played Little League baseball. Once we played in an old, abandoned Hot Stove League ballpark in Centreville. It Larry Lewis is a retired newspaperman who now lives on a was painted green. Our stocky catcher, Wayne Clark, hit a small horse farm in Sykesville on Maryland’s western shore. ball that rolled to the centerfield fence. Of course, he got an He does not own a boat.

Rufus Lewis, the author’s late father, on his boat. He was a waterman and boatbuilder.

25 Laurence G. Claggett Collection, CBMM

John Moll Chesapeake Bay Artist By Jennifer Calub

A graceful skipjack sits on serene blue-green waters; its sails are massive and powerful, emanating a sense of dignity and elegance. John Moll’s impression of this traditional Chesapeake sailing craft shows how art can inspire, evoke feelings, recall memories, and influence people in unique ways. John Moll’s artwork, focusing on subjects and themes that have become iconic specifically to the Chesapeake Bay and the Eastern Shore, has captured the attention of Marylanders, as well as visitors and newcomers. The artist’s work can be found throughout the region on postcards, notecards, sketches, prints, lithographs, watercol- ors, oil paintings, and even murals. Moll’s view of the area has become a trademark of Maryland, and the artist has become a part of the state’s artistic traditions. Born in Reading, Pennsylvania, in 1908, Moll initially began to cultivate his interest in drawing wharves and fishing grounds while at the Wilmington Academy of Art. He moved to Oxford, Maryland, in 1946, and began his freelance career producing much of his most well-known work. His illustrations have appeared in books such as Gilbert Byron’s Delaware Poems (1943) and St. Michaels, the Town that Fooled the British (1971). Moll’s skipjack print represents a significant icon of Chesapeake Bay history and culture. Originally called

26 Gift of Juliette E. McLennan, CBMM collection Gift of Edith Wood in memory of Daniel P. Barnard IV & Eleanor G. Barnard, CBMM collection

bateaux, these boats were built to dredge oysters, one of the Bay’s most important economic resources. In the 1890s, boatbuilders began to experiment with the “deadrise” hull. Skip- jacks had become a fixture in every port on the Bay in the early 1900s; the vessels dominated the oyster bars by 1910. Within the Laurence G. Claggett Collection of Maryland postcards, a promised gift to the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum, numerous John Moll postcards show the artist’s popularity and demonstrate how his work idealized Chesa- peake commercial boats and working waterfronts. One postcard features a historic location commonly associated with maritime culture and the Chesapeake Bay specifically, the Hooper Strait Lighthouse. Moll’s illustration reveals an in-depth understanding of the location’s historic significance, its importance to the people of the East- ern Shore, and its potential for representing the Chesapeake Bay. The artist’s choice in presenting the Hooper Strait Lighthouse, one of the few surviving screwpile lighthouses, now on the grounds of the Museum, in a commercial context (for postcards and other memorabilia) shows his purposeful intent in depicting subjects relating directly to the area. Another postcard features an illustration of an oyster shucking house in Oxford. Oystering on the Chesapeake Bay has historically been a source of growth, profit, and business. Shucking houses, life on the water, and oyster processing

Gift of Vida Van Lennep, CBMM collection 27 have become an important part of Maryland folk life. screwpile lighthouse, a skipjack, and a waterman with Moll’s interpretation of this active part of Maryland her- tongs for collecting oysters. This work shows Moll’s knowl- itage shows his appreciation for the region’s culture. edge of Bay symbols and the significant individuals critical As John Moll’s popularity and recognition grew, he to regional history. was asked to expand his repertoire into mural paint- Moll’s interpretation of the Eastern Shore and the ing. His murals have been featured in prominent loca- Chesapeake Bay reveals an intimate understanding of the tions such as the Tidewater Inn in Easton, the Woman’s area’s folk life, culture, and traditions. His work reaffirms Club of St. Michaels, and the Robert Morris Inn in the ideas and symbols associated with Maryland, becom- Oxford. The Talbot Bank in Easton features two John ing a staple of the region’s iconography. Moll’s art shows Moll murals. One work focuses on representing an ar- a unique representation of Maryland’s heritage and the ray of Bay vessels, including an oyster sloop, log canoe, value placed on maritime traditions and icons. He died in bugeye, skipjack, and Bay schooner. The other departs Easton in 1991. w from Moll’s maritime themes to explore the agricultural aspects of Eastern Shore life as a family reaps their har- Bibliography vest among farm animals, with a rural landscape in the Reid, John P. “The Art of John Moll, 1908-1991.” Reid, 1995. background. July 31, 2007. In 1970, John Moll painted a pair of commemorative watercolor paintings for Gus and Vida Van Lennep in Turbyville, Linda. Bay Beacons: Lighthouses of the Chesapeake honor of their work in the formation of the Chesapeake Bay. Annapolis: Eastwood Publishing, 1995. Bay Maritime Museum. The painting for Vida Van Len- Vojtech, Pat. Chesapeake Bay Skipjacks. Centreville: Tidewater nep features multiple icons of the Bay and its folk life—a Publishers, 1993.

Laurence G. Claggett Collection, CBMM

28 Happy Holidays to our CBMM members! Use this coupon at our Museum Store to receive

all regularly priced merchandise, 25% OFF one-time use.

You must be a Museum member to redeem this coupon. Offer good through December 15, 2007. Offer applies only to regularly priced merchandise. One-time usage. Cannot be combined with any other offer or discount. You must present this coupon to receive the discount. CBMM Museum Store

Sea Bags, handmade from recycled sails, are fashionable, durable, and earth friendly.

Bogan crab stoneware, hand-thrown locally, is not only Jim Wortman, model shipwright/restorer, has created a limited-edition functional and decorative, but is lead free and oven, collection of traditionally built ships-in-bottles. microwave, and dishwasher safe. A fantastic selection of jewelry, books, clothing, fine art, pottery, and model kits.

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Colorized postcard (above) showing the aftermath of the 1904 Baltimore fire. John Paul Jones interment ceremonies (below) at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, July 24, 1905. Laurence G. Claggett Collection, CBMM pinner racks full of glossy “wish you were here” postcards greet Stourists at gift and card shops around the world. Glorious tropical sunsets, white sandy beaches, snow- capped mountains, and log canoes racing under full sail are captured on the fronts of the familiar notecards. Postcards, for the most part, are scenic photographs purchased and mailed as mementos of places visited and sites seen. But in an age before rapid, mass communications, postcards were also used to spread photographs of events. With no nightly news to broadcast images of breaking news, or even newspapers that could rapidly disseminate 31 photographs, the lowly postcard was frequently used to send photos, far and wide. While postcards had been in use since they were invented in the 1860s as a quick way to exchange short messages by mail, in the United States the postcard was monopolized by the U.S. Postal Ser- vice from 1878 to 1898, according to the Smith- sonian Institution’s chronology of postcards. Only cards printed by and purchased from the Postal Ser- vice could be mailed in the country. In 1898, Con- gress passed a new law allowing “Private Mailing Cards” as long as they had a one-cent U.S. stamp affixed. At half the price of a regular envelope and letter, the public went for the bargain. What followed was the rapid evolution and use of the postcard that, by 1907, had begun to take its familiar shape and form. As the postcard evolved, so did its uses. A quick examination of the boxes that contain over 15,000 postcards given to CBMM by Dr. Laurence G. Claggett shows that postcards were used to record history, from fires, major and mi- nor, to parades and community events, and even as early forms of direct-mail advertising. The photos of the aftermath of the great fire of 1904, that destroyed 70 blocks of Baltimore, are some of the more dramatic postcards in the collection. The Claggett Collection also shows that timeliness was not always required when sending out postcards in the early 1900s. A colorized photograph on the front of a card entitled “Scene after the Big Fire, Baltimore, Md.” was sent to Flicksville, Pennsylvania, on July 13, 1913, nine years after the fire. The back of another card showing a fire engine crushed by a falling building during the fire was used as an advertising piece for a café that In 1914, Baltimore (above) celebrated the centennial of the writing boasted “Pure wines and Liquors for family use.” of the “Star-Spangled Banner.” The card also noted “Ladies Admitted.” Easton High football team (below) won the Eastern Shore The cards were used to Championship in 1909. Laurence G. Claggett Collection, CBMM mark major celebrations as well as document catastro- phes. Annapolis photographer Eugene W. Otto took pictures of the ceremonies surrounding the entombment of the body of John Paul Jones at the U.S. Naval Academy on July 24, 1904. A 1914 postcard shows a massive American flag and crowd gathered to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the writing of the “Star-Spangled Banner” by Francis Scott Key in Baltimore harbor. An undated card printed in Germany shows the construction of the new Naval Acad- emy chapel. It was postmarked 1905 and mailed from Annap-

32 olis to Manchester, New Hampshire. On the Eastern Shore, fire was also a popular subject for postcards. Flames leap from a building in one entitled “FEDERAL ST DURING THE FIRE EASTON MD SEPT 6 09.” But in general, the East- ern Shore postcards tend to reflect a different pace and place than the western shore cards. The Easton High School football team posed on the steps of the Hanson Street school with a ball inscribed “Eastern Shore Championship by EHS ’09.” The Talbot County Fairgrounds, now the site of Idlewild Park in Easton, was a popular subject. Several cards in the Claggett Collection ing vehicles. An undated card shows the arrival of an Avery show details of the auto and horse races on the fairgrounds as tractor in Easton. In 1912, Shannahan & Wrightson published well as shots of some of the livestock on display. a card showing the arrival of a carload of brand-new Buicks The visit of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s yacht at the Easton train station. That card was mailed from Easton Potomac to Cambridge is frozen in time as it passes the to Denton that year. drawbridge in downtown Cambridge. The only address was her friend’s name and “Denton, In Easton, the Shannahan & Wrightson Hardware Co. was Caroline Co., Md.” w an early adopter when it came to using postcards as advertis- —Dick Cooper

FDR’s yacht Potomac (above) at the Cambridge Creek drawbridge in the early 1950s. New Buicks (below) being unloaded at the Easton train station in 1912. Laurence G. Claggett Collection, CBMM

33 Floating Fleet is Shipshape Old Point was up on the marine railway this fall for a thorough cleaning, painting, and general going-over, says Vessel Maintenance Manager Marc Barto. He installed new chain plates to secure the rigging on the 1909 Vir- ginia crab dredger. Barto says that when the work on Old Point is finished, the Boat Yard crew will have completed a full cycle of repair work on all 10 vessels in CBMM’s floating fleet. Cliff Mumford and Tony Blake prep Old Point for a new paint job on the marine railway. “By next spring, for the first time in 10 years, all of the floating fleet will be- work ing mechanically, thanks to (Boat Yard Systems Specialist) preparing to bring it back to St. Michaels the next day when James Boicourt,” Barto says. the accident occurred. “That is important because we are using the boats more “A Shields (sailboat) left the dock under sail, got a puff around the harbor,” he says. “It is good for people to see the of wind, its mainsheet caught, and it t-boned Mister Jim,” he boats moving.” says. The bow of the sailboat broke two planks just under the Boat Yard Manager Rich Scofield says Boicourt also re- rail near the stern of Mister Jim. paired the old Ford six-cylinder flathead engine in the dory Work continues on the tugboat Delaware’s Gray Marine boat, getting it going for the first time in years. 671 diesel, and he says he expects it will be installed and He says the Boat Yard crew had to make some unex- powering the 1912 workhorse over the next few months. pected repairs to Mister Jim after a sailboat ran into it while Scofield says the Apprentice for a Day program has the buyboat replica was tied to the dock in Oxford. He says made good progress on the Delaware ducker being built in Museum staffers had taken Mister Jim to Oxford for the fer- the Boat Shop. ryboat races on the Tred Avon on September 22, and were “It’s coming along; she is out of the mold,” he says. “We are concentrating right now on the two Perry Cabin boats (rowing skiffs that were cus- tom-built for the Inn at Perry Cabin) and the two-masted crabbing skiff.” Barto says the major winter project for the Boat Yard crew will be the repairing of the deck of the nine-log bugeye, Edna E. Lockwood. “That should take four to five months and should be a pretty high-profile project,” he says. Barto says the floating fleet is in better shape than it has been in years. “I am very proud of the work we have done on the The Delaware ducker takes shape in the Boat Shop. fleet,” he says. w 34 Mystery solved—it’s Crisfield

The Mystery Photo on the back of the Summer issue only drew seven correct answers. It was Somers Cove Marina in Crisfield. Reader Ed Thieler spent a fair amount of time studying the details of the photo. See his response below.

See the new Mystery Photo on the back of WaterWays and submit your answer by e-mail to [email protected].

1. The Summer 2007 Mystery Photo is Somers Cove, Crisfield, Md.

Richard Michael

2. The photo on this quarter’s magazine is of the Somers Cove Marina located in Crisfield. The photo was proba- Crisfield, c. 1965. Laurence G. Claggett Collection, CBMM bly taken sometime around 1965. The large yacht docked on the T-head was the governor’s yacht at the time.

Bob Alexander to 1968 and the Governor’s yacht is the large vessel at the end of the pier in the center. Governor Tawes was from Crisfield. 3. The Mystery Photo on the back cover of the Summer 2007 issue shows the Somers Cove Marina in Crisfield, Fred Hecklinger, Annapolis, Md. Md. As the city turned control of the cove over to the (Editor’s Note) Fred sent a reply to the Spring Mystery state in 1979, I suspect the photo is from that time. There Photo that was eaten by the spam filter. It was so accu- are a number of sedans and station wagons and people rate that it is being printed in this issue. in light-colored clothing milling about, and more cars are coming in the road. I do not see any pickup trucks. We are over at Annapolis during the 1920s or 1930s near where the Halsey Field House now stands at the I think there are two rows of chairs in the parking lot U.S. Naval Academy. This used to be a section of An- and some decorative flags hanging from the light poles. napolis known as Hell Point. We are looking southwest From the shadows I think it must be late in the morning. towards where the Annapolis Yacht Club now is. St. By the rake of the mast there appears to be a skipjack in Mary’s Church is up on the hill on your right hand. In the dock. The state skipjack Anna McGarvey was built the foreground we see Bay freighters, some of which in 1981. Is that her? Could this be a dedication cere- have carried lumber up from Virginia to Johnson’s mony of some sort? For the marina? For the skipjack? Lumber, which was at the foot of Prince George Street. I hope someone will be able to identify the yacht at the You can see a pile of lumber to the right. The vessels in “T” pier. This feature is terrific—keep it coming. the background are, of course, oyster dredge boats at Many thanks. the City Dock. I believe that the large number of vessels in harbor is because of ice in The Bay. We can see the Ed Thieler shadows on the ice between the vessels. The vessel in the left of center foreground is a motorized bugeye.

4. I think this is a photo of Crisfield, Maryland, look- 6. Somers Cove at Crisfield, Md. Picture probably taken ing almost directly East along Main Street. Of course, during the governorship of Millard Tawes. Somers Cove Marina has now built up most of the pic- tured area. Philip R. Beigel, Severna Park, Md.

Bob Baker, Annapolis

7. The Mystery Photo in the Summer 2007 WaterWays appears to be Crisfield, Md. 5. We are looking about northeast over Crisfield, Md., and looking over Somers Cove. It would be about 1960 Clinton Salt Brown 35 Mystery Photo

Can you identify this location? The answer and the names of the readers who get it right will appear in the winter issue of WaterWays. Send your answers by e-mail to [email protected]. Herman Hollerith, Jr. Collection, CBMM

Non-Profit Org. Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum U.S. Postage Paid Navy Point w P.O. Box 636 Chesapeake Bay St. Michaels, MD 21663 Maritime Museum