Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum Spring 2007

Watermen’s Recollections • Blackwater’s Fragile Marsh Boating Party Invitation Help us ensure that the Chesapeake Bay’s historic heritage endures. Leave a Legacy at CBMM

Have you considered extending your membership gift beyond your lifetime by naming CBMM in your will? A bequest of a specific amount or a percentage of the residue of your estate allows you the flexibility to support CBMM while providing for your loved ones.

For more information contact John Miller, VP of Advancement at the Museum, 410-745-2916. BensonMangold.FP.1-2/05 11/30/04 1:53 PM Page 1 What’s in a Name?

You have noticed (I hope…) that this issue of the CBMM Quarterly sports WaterWays a new masthead. WaterWays is the new name for our members’ publication, Spring 2007 and is the result of some considerable discussion here on campus. We did not hire corporate identity consultants to advise us on the psychological and Volume 5 Number 1 financial implications of the new brand because we had pretty definite ideas of what we wanted to achieve: First, we wanted a real name for the publication—Quarterly just didn’t Editor excite many of us. Dick Cooper Second, we wanted a name that sounded like us and wouldn’t be con- [email protected] fused with the scores of other Bay-related publications and journals. Although I have to admit that we did momentarily consider Baywatch. Graphic Design/Photography Third, and most important, we wanted a name that would signal a focus Rob Brownlee-Tomasso for the magazine, and ultimately for the Museum itself. We liked the double entendre that WaterWays provided. This is about water and the watery routes Contributors of trade, transportation and leisure on the Bay; but more than that, this is also Cristina Calvert about the customs and practices of those who live along the Bay’s shores. Julie Gibbons-Neff Cox We are a museum that explores, preserves and presents the uniqueness of life Rachel Dolhanczyk along these waters and celebrates the maritime traditions that continue to en- rich our communities. Robert Forloney The varied contents of this first issue of WaterWays all reflect this core Pete Lesher interest, but the focus will immediately extend beyond the pages of this maga- Stuart L. Parnes zine, with new offerings to visitors and members this season. Kathleen Rattie On Saturday, April 21, we will be hosting Bay Day, an environmentally- Richard Scofield focused festival and exposition of products, services, and initiatives designed Michael Valliant to care for the Bay’s fragile ecology. Family-oriented demonstrations, speak- ers, and exhibits will fill two huge tents and the Museum’s auditorium, and visiting ships will line the waterfront. The health of the Bay has always af- Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum fected life along the shore, and will certainly impact all of our lives. I urge you to attend. Navy Point, P.O. Box 636 Though the CBMM’s exhibits do St. Michaels, MD 21663-0636 a pretty good job describing to our 410-745-2916  Fax 410-745-6088 visitors the life of watermen, nothing www.cbmm.org  [email protected] comes close to actually getting out on the water. Beginning this June, Mu- seum visitors (including members, of course) will be able to include a cruise The Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum is a private aboard Mister Jim or a sail aboard the not-for-profit 501(c)(3) educational institution. A skipjack, H.M. Krentz, as part of their copy of the current financial statement is available experience here. The way of a vessel on request by writing the Vice President of Finance, P.O. Box 636, St. Michaels, MD 21663 or by calling on the water—under sail or power—is 410-745-2916 ext. 238. Documents and information the ultimate maritime experience, and submitted under the Maryland Charitable Solicitations I am delighted that we will be able to Act are also available, for the cost of postage and share it. It’s a tough job, but someone copies, from the Maryland Secretary of State, State House, Annapolis, MD 21401, 410-974-5534. has to do it.

On the Cover The number of bald eagles in Blackwater is increasing, but the marshes are in trouble. Stuart L. Parnes, President (See story, page 10) Photograph by Bob Quinn. Contents

Features (Above) Six loblolly pine logs await shaping into skipjack spars. (See story, page 22.) In Watermen’s Words 6

Working the water has been as much a way of life as a way to make a living. Two watermen share some of their stories. By Ken Castelli, illustrated by Marc Castelli Departments The Fragile Marsh 10

Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge in Dorchester County is a critical To the Point 27 habitat for tens of thousands of animals. It has been in steady decline. Can it be saved? By Dick Cooper Wood Works 29 A Monster’s Bay Visit 18 Around the Bay 30 The steamship Great Eastern was the largest vessel of its day. When it churned its way into the Chesapeake Bay in 1860, it became a tourist Mystery Photo Answers 31 attraction. By Robert H. Burgess

Events Calendar* C 1-8 Inner Beauty 22 Looking for skipjack spars in the middle of Maryland’s Pocomoke State Forest takes a trained eye. Coastal Heritage Alliance workers * Events Calendar is a special pull-out harvest future masts. By Dick Cooper section that can be found between pages 16 and 17. Freedom and Faith 24

Free blacks struggled against racism and hoped to find equality with whites in the church pew. Facing opposition, they formed a church apart. By T. Stephen Whitman

5 Recollections and Reflections in Watermen’s Words By Ken Castelli, Illustrations by Marc Castelli

The Eastern Shore of Maryland has always held a spe- a bateau go out Fairlee Creek; had an air-cooled motor in it, cial place for my family and me. While living outside Phila- didn’t have an outboard. Nine horse, pull-started, didn’t have delphia, we would come down on weekend trips and watch an electric start on it. the log canoe races on the Miles, Choptank, Tred Avon, and Didn’t have a truck, had a station wagon, so we hauled Chester Rivers, and afterwards we would stay with friends everything up the road in a station wagon, but back then you at their houses at various places on the Shore. All of us fell didn’t catch many crabs either; we only had fifty crab pots. in love with the rural atmosphere and relaxed attitude of the All the pots was pulled by hand, and he would take me when I locals, and it was the perfect antithesis to living just outside got eight years old and I’d just steer the boat from pot to pot the City of Brotherly Love. and sometimes I’d sit there and fall asleep. The Eastern Shore was open, quiet, and incredibly pic- One time he woke me up cause he was cullin’ crabs and turesque. My father, Marc Castelli, is an artist who paints we were supposed to go to the next pot; I’d fallen asleep and mainly watermen and their boats, as well as log canoes and we’d gone a mile away from where I was supposed to be go- other maritime traditions and lifestyles of the area, so it made ing ‘cause he had his head down cullin’ crabs. sense to move here. He woke me up, asked me where we were going, I said, “I I would have to say that I love the Eastern Shore more than dunno where we’re goin.” I was eight years old; you’re not any other place I have visited. The main attraction for me is supposed to be getting up four o’clock in the morning to go the sheer amount of water. Rivers and creeks and guts pervade crabbin’. I’d’ve liked to have gone after I’d gotten up, you every aspect of the region, and for hundreds of years, the most know, but I didn’t like bein’ woke up in the morning to go, efficient way to get around on the Eastern Shore was by boat. you know? The water is not only great for commercial traffic and recreation, but it also provides a living for many people, especially commercial fishermen. They rely entirely on the bounty of the Chesapeake and its tributaries for their income, We went fishin’ one day and that’s how I cut my finger off. and have seen the Bay undergo massive changes. If we lose Down to the Bay Bridge, we were pullin’ anchor nets up our connection with the water, we lose a distinctly Eastern out of the hunnerd foot deep water down there, and it was Shore way of life. blowin’ and we had dropped Matty Crags and Bucky Collier, I interviewed people whose livelihoods and families are he was Billy Collier’s brother, and you know Matty. He was directly linked to the water, and got stories of how life used to workin’ with Bill Collier, and Matty and Bucky would get in be on the Shore. They all told incredible stories about the dis- the bateau; we’d take the big boat, tow two bateaux down the appearing lifestyles. I felt it was important to get these memo- bay, anchor the big boat, then you could go fishin’ nets out ries of bygone days down on paper for future generations to of the little boats. This was out in the shippin’ channel, that’s read, so they could know how life used to be. To lose these where you’d get the hunnerd foot a water from, and we’d memories would diminish the ‘flavor’ of the Eastern Shore. leave the nets out overnight and fish ’em later. What follows are some recollections of two of those men, So we went down there one morning and it was blowin’ Jerry Creighton, a life-long waterman from Rock Hall and about 30 miles an hour, and I come outta the cabin. I had Sonny Hampton, the son of a schoonerman, who grew up on pulled the bateau up the side of the boat and I was waitin’ Kent Island and now lives in Church Hill. for the captain to come out of the cabin, and the boat was Let’s hear what they have to say: bobbin’ up and down and I’m standing there holdin’ it, and the bow stem of the bateau come up and caught my finger Jerry Creighton— Interviewed in his house in Rock Hall, between it and the moldin’ on the big boat… so I’m stan- August 13, 2003. din’ there holdin’, and its cold standin’ there so you don’t feel much and after about three minutes or so I say “Daggone, My first memory of bein’ on the water is probably, well I that feels like my finger’s wet, I musta torn a hole in my glove. started steerin’ the boat for my father when I was eight. Had I gotta get another glove before we leave.” 6 I looked and saw that “no, my glove doesn’t have a hole in 20-foot bateau over pullin’ nets in the middle of the Chesa- it, I wonder why my finger feels all wet,” so I pulled my glove peake Bay and its blowin’ harder and harder the whole time off and I’m standin’ there lookin’ at my hand. There wasn’t and he just leaves them there, don’t say nothing to them, and nothing wrong with it so I put the glove back on, standin’ takes off up the Bay and leaves them there pullin’ net in the there holdin’ it and after a little bit I’m thinking “Daggone, ship channel. it still feels like its wet,” pull my glove off again, stand there He calls and gets Hubbard Kendall and meets him off lookin’ at my hand, “nope, nothing wrong,” lookin at my Love Point and Hubbard brings me up the Bay. He just wasn’t glove, “ain’t no hole in it, why’s my hand all wet?” I take my gonna leave his spot, that’s how he was. finger and bent it back a bit and it was just like bloop, flopped down. The only thing holdin’ it was the skin on top, so when I was holdin’ it at a certain angle it was stayin’ in place. I let go a the bateau and I walked up the cabin and said I don’t remember what the year was but Artie Kendall, “Cap’n, I think I got a problem.” which is my next door neighbor right now, his father has a He says, “Wha’d you forget?” couple boats, oyster boats that we worked out of, and the “I didn’t forget nothing, I think you gotta take me home.” whole fleet of oyster boats would leave here and we’d be wor- “Why, you sick?” kin’ down below the Bay Bridge. Artie and I were working to- I say, “No, think I need to go to the doctor,” and bent my gether and we had a double rig on the boat. She was probably finger back and it fell down, and a course he, you know, he forty-two foot maybe, twelve-and-a-half foot wide…. started cussin’ cause that day he couldn’t a made a fortune. Anyhow, sometime during the course of the day, it started He was mad, so he got to cussin’ and all this, and he said cloudin’ up, wind started breezing up, and it was probably “Now why’d you do that?” 12 or 15 boats from Rock Hall gone down there workin’ and I said, “Well I didn’t mean to do it, it just you know, I had to be after lunch ‘cause they were talking about leavin’ didn’t go back there to do it just so I could go home,” ‘cause ’round lunchtime while we were in the cabin. that’s the way he thought, you know, any time you didn’t want It ended up all the other boats left and Artie and I stayed. to work you come up with an excuse. Like I just been waitin’ I tried to talk him into leaving but he said, “No we’re going for a day it was blowin’ so I could cut my finger off… so this to stay,” so after even his father tried talking him into leav- is how much he cared about just makin’ a dollar, and it was ing, so when he wouldn’t leave with the fleet, if it got nasty, blowin’ 30 miles an hour. we could turn around and just go into Annapolis, which we He drops the anchor on the bateau, we got two head in a was only a mile off shore from, and just spend the night in 7 there, which wouldn’t have bothered me, so I didn’t think So after that when if it was too nasty, I wouldn’t go. It was much more on it. like I saw my future, and drownin’ workin’ for somebody else Long about 3:30, 4 o’clock it started getting right nasty wasn’t gonna be it. and we didn’t have any drag weights left to hold the boat and he says, “We better leave,” and I’se thinking, “Oh boy, go into Annapolis early get cleaned up, you know, go out.” Well that didn’t happen. Sonny Hampton—Interviewed sitting outside his house, He started goin’ up the Bay and as he started goin’ under- Church Hill, July 10, 2005. neath the Bay Bridge I told him, “I think we better go back to Annapolis,” and he said, “No we’ll make it,” so as we got up My grandfather was a waterman, of course my father the Bay we got off what they used to call Ranch House down sailed schooners, he started sailin’ when he was real young. there between there and Love Point. Well it really started He started when he was 21, and he didn’t come ashore til blowin’ then, the waves were, I don’t know how tall they were, he was 39. but you could stand in the cabin and when the bow of the boat I was born in 1932, he came ashore in 1930, 31, some- would go down in the trough of the sea, I would stand there thing like that. He sailed with Cap’n Earle Long, and moved and look up, you know, right straight up out the cabin and see stuff all over the place. The old schooner’s name was the Lee nothing but water, so that had to’ve been 15-, 20-foot seas we Martha Phillips, I don’t know if she was a new one when he were in, and they were comin’ over the boat. went aboard her or whether she was rebuilt… he was drafted Somewheres up around Love Point the bilge pump quit. I into the service and was wounded at Verdun, and they held got out, took the deck up, and got out there and stayin’ down in the schooner until he came home after 11 months. the bilge with a five-gallon bucket washin’ you know, throwin’ I guess he must’ve been good at it ‘cause they say he was water out the boat and the set of tongs fell overboard. a hard sailor and an ornery captain. See, they only had a We thought we had ‘em tied down good enough, but they captain and a first mate and a cook aboard her, and he al- still fell overboard, and at that time they had chains that ways said she was too big for a two-masted schooner and too they hooked up to the front of the motor … so we had to shut small for a three-masted. She was a in-between, but he said the motor off and lay there dead in the sea while he hooked she was a good sailing boat, she just weren’t big enough for a his chain up to pull the tongs back up on board, and that three masted… she was a good sailer, handled well. was a job. This one time they had seven schooners they were loadin’ So we got that done, we were comin’ back up. I mean, I up with wood and lumber at Quantico, loaded right up, solid was tired of bailing water and it was getting so bad that I just wood all over, and they were under way goin’ to Baltimore. decided that’s where I was gonna die. The boat was gonna Cap’n Earle had everything on her, she would stand tops up sink and it was cold and I was gonna freeze to death, drown and everything and when a gale started he bowed down, took or something, so I took piece of paper outta my wallet and I her upwind a little bit, let her catch herself up and then got sat down on the floor of the cabin and left everythin’ I had to right back on. somebody. I wrote my own will out, but we made it to shore; My father asked him if he was going to take the tops I mean we got back in but ever since that day, whenever I down, and he said “Naw, leave it,” like those Gloucestermen get anxious or nervous, I get a pain in my back, my nerves you read about, put it all up and run it straight on through. So tighten up. when they got down to about Colonial Beach the five schoo-

8 ners that were ahead of him were beatin’ to westward around ta Baltimore, had a picture of a little girl on the side of the big Colonial Beach, they were goin’ in to anchor, while Cap’n trucks. You could get all sorts of ‘em, pineapple… I loved that Earle just kept on goin’ through, and by that time it was dark pineapple pie, I eat a million of ‘em, I’m sure. and they’d made the mouth of the Potomac while everybody else was way upriver. He wouldn’t slack her an ounce, started her up the Bay, running her rail in the water, all the time, and there were That old man went to Baltimore one time with some other people standin’ in it like it was business as usual. Father said old fellas, took a train that went to Love Point, then go across Cap’n Earle was on first watch and he said, “We’ll make on Smokey Joe, put in right to Baltimore City, ‘bout four or Roosevelt Beach by tonight.” five of them old fellas. By the time mornin’ came, Cap’n Earle come on deck Smokey Joe was the ferry, the railroad owned it, and she somewhere down by Thomas, Sandy Point Light and he took ran outta Baltimore and went to Love Point. They had a ter- the wheel and by sunrise they were on the Patapsco, with the minal down at Love Point, the train cars’d go on the ferry light shinin’ on the rocks in the Patapsco, and he said, “Now too. They’d put the cars down on the lower level ‘cause they that’s what a sailor does.” had track all on the inside of the ferry, and they’d match it right up when they pulled in so the cars could get pushed out onto the next line a track and continue on their way. But anyway, they get up there and they’re walkin’ through I sold crabs, when I started crabbing, for $5 a bushel, had one a them markets, and the old man had never seen a grape- to be six-inches long, two biters, and hard. If he wasn’t two fruit before. He said, “That’s the biggest orange I ever did biters he went in the trash. see,” asked the man how much it was, said ‘three cents,’ gave When I was 10 I’d be getting six, seven bushels a day outta the man the money, started peeling it, took a bite and said, that 22-foot tuck stern my father had. I could make $20 to $25 ‘Well I’ll be, it’s bitter too…’” dollars a day, that was big money, I tell you what. Gasoline Them old antique fellas, they didn’t get out much. When was 16 cents a gallon, I could buy two gallons a gas, a Cooster they did get out, it was on the water, and to go huntin’. Rab- pie, and a Coca-Cola for less than 50 cents. Oh yeah, I got that bit, duck huntin’, all that, they lost a lot of time because of Coke and that Cooster pie every day, and that thing was about bad weather, you know, if it’d blow bad or squall, ‘cause they seven inches wide. Made by the Cooster Baking Company out- was small those boats they worked out of, I mean they lost a certain amount of time in rough weather. So they’d just give up on goin’ out that day and they’d go huntin’ instead.

All this talk about us overharvestin’s just plain wrong. You know them boys talking about us overharvesting, if they’d seen the amount of crab pots, drop pots those chickenneck- ers had overboard yesterday down at Kent Narrows, every colored cork in the world, there was as many corks in one quarter acre as there was shot in a gunshell. Saturday morning we went down there was three in Marshy Creek when we got there, three chickenneckers, and we left. And we had got to the dock at like 3:20, 3:30 in the morning. They had a big battle around Cox Creek Saturday, I think, between the recreationals and a commercial fisherman, …. they had a oar swingin at him and he had a butcher knife swingin’ at them I think. They don’t have no respect for nobody… I tell ya, they think you’re stupid. If I had any education, I’d burn some of those people in the letters in the paper so bad. I saw one in there, “What’s the big hurry to plant the Asian oyster?” Well, maybe you don’t draw any of your nickel outta the oyster industry, you’re getting a check every other week, you don’t give a damn about nothing but that check… Its just un- real. The do-gooders think they know everything, you know, and I tell ‘em, “I’ve backed up more than you’ve sailed for- ward,” and I have. w

Ken Castelli is a recent graduate of St. Mary’s College of Maryland. Marc Castelli is a Chestertown artist.

9 Blackwater A Fragile Imbalance of Nature

By Dick Cooper, Editor

Blackwater. The very name has a damp, swampy, almost petition asking then-Gov. Robert Ehrlich to step in. itchy feel to it. Maryland and the developer are in negotiations, but the As a place, the Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge is oth- plan to build several thousand homes, a resort, a retail center er-worldly. Its shallow lake undulates with a windborne tide. Its and a golf course on 1,080 acres next to the Little Blackwater marshes ooze. Its wildlife abounds. Its skeeters are legendary. River in Cambridge has been scaled back. The housing de- The vast marshes of Dorchester County are what the East- velopment will be about 650 homes, with no resort, no retail ern Shore used to be, untamed, rough around the edges and center and no golf course. The state wants to buy 750 acres of not always fit for human habitation. They are on a cul de sac the land and keep it natural. at the end of a path not often taken. Blackwater contains a third of Maryland’s marshland and The refuge’s 28,000 acres are some of the last remaining scientists say that each year hundreds of acres are sinking wild lands in the region and, in many ways, its history is a below the surface of Blackwater Lake. The stresses on the study of man’s mishandling of nature. The marsh is disap- marsh, both natural and manmade, include sea-level rise, ero- pearing at an alarming rate. A 12-square-mile lake of open sion from storms and runoff from development, subsidence, water covers the center of the salt-water incursion and in- refuge where a sea of tall grass vasive species. once hid the meandering banks While the loud public of the Big Blackwater and Lit- outcry has been recent, a tle Blackwater Rivers. small group of scientists, Last year, a struggle over environmentalists, conserva- development in Cambridge tionists and folks who love thrust Blackwater, downstream the refuge, have been work- from the town, into the public ing for decades to attract at- eye. Fears that runoff would tention to the fragile marsh further endanger the refuge lit and its steady decline. a fire. It became a cause cele- J. Court Stevenson, a Uni- bre for conservationists and versity of Maryland professor drew 35,000 people to sign a who has studied Blackwa- Chesapeake Bay Foundation Photo by Bob Quinn ter for almost 30 years, says

10 Blackwater sunset, Photo by Pete Pichaske

when he first started writing ter,” Birch says, looking out the large windows of her office papers on the dangers fac- at the marsh. “It is all a matter of timing. If we don’t do some- ing the marshes, they were thing, Blackwater will be lost. The way things are going, it considered “oddities.” could even happen by 2025.” A science conference The Dorchester marshes have long been an integral part on the marsh attracted a of the Chesapeake’s pulse. The grasses feed tens of thousands little over two dozen at- of migrating waterfowl each year. They are the home of the tendees when it started four largest population of bald eagles on the East Coast, north of years ago. The session, held Florida, and they are rich breeding grounds for fish and crabs. in Cambridge in March, The refuge has become a recreational destination for hikers, J. Court Stevenson looks for brought together 129 prac- kayakers, bikers, birders and hunters with more than 165,000 ways to heal Blackwater. titioners of a wide variety visitors recorded last year. of disciplines to share their But a look at the history of the marshes brings the concerns and findings about Blackwater for a daylong series phrase “Sins of the Fathers” quickly to mind. The marshes of presentations on marsh-related studies. are struggling because of decisions made 50, 100 and al- Their talks focused on the things that are going wrong— most 200 years ago. constant land loss, population pressures—and things that Birch and her Fish are improving—extermination of the invasive nutria popu- and Wildlife colleague, lation and plans to rebuild and replant marshland. Roger Stone, said that in “I think Blackwater is finally on the map,” Stevenson the 1830s, Stewarts Canal says. “Blackwater is the canary in the coal mine.” was dug, using slave la- He said marshland is failing all along the East Coast, with bor, to connect the marsh Blackwater being the biggest and most obvious. with Parsons Creek off the Dixie Birch, supervisory wildlife biologist for the U.S. Little Choptank River to Fish and Wildlife Service at Blackwater, who put the confer- make it easier to get the ence together, said in an interview, that left unchecked, much timber out. of the refuge will be underwater in less than a generation. Dixie Birch hopes to rebuild “The marsh used to “By 2050, much of what you see today will be under wa- parts of the lost marsh. be a fresh-water system,” continued, page 14 11 Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge

Aerial survey photos supplied by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service show the loss of marsh over 51 years as the open Fast Facts water of Blackwater Lake expands to 12 square miles.

• 28,000 acres in Dorchester County • 165,000 recorded visitors in 2006 • Largest bald eagle population on East Coast (150), north of Florida • Home to 350 species of birds, including 30 types of wading birds • 35,000 Canada geese and 15,000 snow geese and swans winter there • 8,000 acres of marsh lost since 1933 Hundreds of homes are under construction upstream • 40 white pelicans winter there from Blackwater with more residential and commercial • Underground Railroad Conductor Harriet construction in the works. Photos by Cooper Media Tubman (1820-1913) was born nearby • Once was a muskrat fur farm • Home to some of the meanest insects on the East Coast Blackwater NWR

Blackwater’s bald eagle Altered Hydrology Stressed Marsh population has been and Salinity Wildlife Damage increasing for years. More Increased Nutria than 150 of them live in the Wave Energy Resident Geese marsh. Photo by Bob Quinn

Increased Marsh Erosion Breaching of Open Water Peat Layer

Wave Action Sediment Loss Destruction of Natural Levees Altered Hydrology Stressed Marsh and Salinity Wildlife Damage Increased Nutria Wave Energy Resident Geese

Increased Marsh Erosion Breaching of Open Water Peat Layer

Wave Action Sediment Loss Destruction of Natural Levees

About 10,000 nutria Stresses on the marsh have been exterminated in Blackwater, all but • Sea water rise eliminating the threat from the voracious plant eaters. • Erosion from storms and runoff from farms and development • Subsidence, gradual sinking of the land • Salt-water incursion into fresh-water marsh • Invasive species and resident Canada geese Experiments have been • Nearby population growth conducted to find the best ways to rebuild the marsh. Photo USFWS. Plans to rebuild • Restoration of 27 acres of marsh • Planting of 70,000 grasses • Experimentation with Chesapeake channel dredge material as fill • Eradication of invasive nutria The marsh is home to rare and endangered species, • Reduction of resident Canada goose including the Delmarva fox population squirrel. Photo by Bob Quinn

Source, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service from page 11 Birch said. “Because of the canal, that has changed and it is now brackish.” Stone said the salinity caused a rip- pling ecological change as species that live in salty water replaced the fresh water flora and fauna. Almost 170 years later, the Fish and Wildlife Ser- vice built a weir on the canal to check the flow of salty water from Parsons Creek into the marsh. Stevenson said that as late as 1990, water lilies grew in parts of the marsh, now they have vanished. In the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s, when the tomato was the region’s king cash crop, canneries around Dorches- ter County used vast amounts of fresh water. Birch said research is being con- ducted to determine if that water loss may still be contributing to the gradual subsidence of the marshes. Photo by Bob Quinn Stevenson said long-time residents of the area recalled that when they dug wells, they hit arte- In the early 1940s, nutria were brought to Blackwater sian water that gushed up without the need of a pump. as an experiment to see if their pelts could be used in the “There is no longer any artesian flow in the area,” he said. fur trade. But the nutria fur proved to be less than luxurious Without a constant flushing of fresh water, plants and and, in the process, some of them, at least one male and one animal cannot easily adjust to the changes caused by in- female, got out and into the marshes. In a food-rich envi- creased salinity. ronment with no predators, the nutria population started out “Plants can maintain themselves but they can’t take up slow and then burst into the wetlands. any nitrogen,” he said. “Once they can’t take up nitrogen, Timothy White of the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health they start to have lower productivity, when they have lower Inspection Service, said at the Blackwater science meeting productivity, they can’t keep up with sea-level rise and if you in March, that Blackwater nutria population was about 150 have a grazer or two working on the marsh, things start to go in 1968. The natives of South America did not winter well in down hill really quickly.” the colder, Mid-Atlantic climate and they were almost wiped The grazers he referred to are the native muskrat, and out in the cold winters of the late 1970s. later the much-dreaded, yellow-toothed nutria. Not quite. In the early 1900s, what is now a major part of the ref- White said that by 1989, the Blackwater nutria popula- uge was a fenced muskrat fur farm. Stevenson said when the tion had exploded to as many as 50,000. He said nutria be- owners wanted to increase the muskrat population, “they just come sexually active at six moths and breed year round. A threw more rats over the fence.” female nutria can give birth to three to four litters of four or When the Great Depression hit the nation, one of the more a year. casualties was the fur-coat business and the muskrat farm The 18-pound rodents began eating failed. The federal government bought the marsh during its the marsh to death. massive parkland acquisitions of the 1930s. Areas called

14 “eat outs” showed up as the herbivores chewed up every root ments in building and planting marshes have proved encour- in their path. aging. The tests are being conducted in the hopes of finding a To emphasize the danger of the nutria, the Friends of method of restoration that works best without further adding Blackwater, a corps of 800 volunteers who support and help to the manmade problems that have plagued the region. maintain the refuge, built a special section on their website One proposal that has Blackwater advocates excited is www.friendsofblackwater.org/nutria.html . the prospect of pumping dredge materials from the Chesa- “Nutria are a primary force in accelerating marsh loss peake shipping channel into the refuge and replenishing the in the Blackwater basin by attacking the very structure that land that has been slipping under the surface of Blackwater holds the marsh together, the vegetative root mat,” accord- Lake. The dredge material is being used to rebuild Poplar ing to their nutria section. “The root mat is especially critical Island in the Bay. because much of the marsh in the Blackwater basin is a type At the March conference, Jeffrey Cornwell, also a Univer- of floating marsh above a layer of fluid mud. Once the nutria sity of Maryland professor, said the dredge material is from the chew through the mat and expose the mud, tidal currents and shipping channel and not from the Inner Harbor of Baltimore. wave action lead to erosion. The marsh surface sinks and the “It is the fine grains of the Susquehanna River that wash vegetation is lost to flooding. These areas destroyed by nutria over the Conowingo Dam,” from the farmlands of become permanent, open water ponds.” Pennsylvania and Upstate New York, he said. USDA “technicians” began to go after the nutria in ear- “It is really a great substance for building nest about six years ago, trapping and shooting about 10,000 marshes,” he told the audience. of the critters. The most effective predator of nutria turned Birch said the goal of the restoration is out to be man. to return the great marshes of the Blackwa- “The only thing killing them is us,” White said. ter back to what they were in the 1930s when The scourge of gnawing nutria appears to have ended, but the federal government took over manage- White said the area is systematically surveyed for signs of ment of the area. nutria, and stragglers are shot on sight. While the area has been in slow decline, it With the nutria under control, Birch said that the refuge was a far different place than when author Hul- management is studying ways to rebuild the marsh. Experi- bert Footner toured it by boat and car just over 60 years ago. Footner, the author of 50 books, visited the marshes in the early 1940s while researching his book, “Rivers of the Eastern Shore.” Here is what he wrote in his chapter about the Dorchester marshes: “The scene before us was one of great beauty un- der the hot summer sun. It had the thrilling quality of boundless space; it was without a single break; on one hand the deep, narrow yellow river comes curving out of the marsh, and on the other hand it immediately curved out of sight again; in front of a vast empty sea of green domed by the sea of blue without a fleck of cloud.”w

Contact Dick Cooper at [email protected]

For more information, visit: www.fws.gov/blackwater and Photo by Bob Quinn www.friendsofblackwater.org

Blackwater marsh, Photo by Bob Quinn

15 © N. Hammond 2007 This is your only Boating Party invitation! The Board of Governors of the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum Cordially Invites You To Our 10th Anniversary Boating Party Rockin’ the Boat! Saturday, September 8, 2007 at 6:00 pm on Navy Point

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 See calendar insert for raffle ticket Nautical Mon By Robert H. Burgess

Editor’s note: The late Robert H. Burgess wrote several books Annapolis Roads chart detail from “Map of Chesapeake about Chesapeake history. This story is excerpted from one Bay, From Head of the Bay to the mouth of the Potomac of them. Part of his extensive collection of all things Chesa- River.” published 1857. CBMM Collection peake, Their Last Passage, is on display at the Museum.

In the summer of 1860, Chesapeake Bay played host to the entry. New York was selected as her first port of call. largest ship built up to that time. Such a colossal vessel was For this momentous voyage, she carried but 43 persons she that she exceeded anything in size on the seas in displace- as passengers and 418 crewmembers. In mid-Atlantic a half ment tonnage until the ill-famed Lusitania was built in 1906. gale was encountered and despite ominous warning from Known as the Great Eastern, she was five times the size of the many that she would break in half in heavy weather, she only largest vessel then afloat. rolled and pitched and continued on her westward passage. As she lay at anchor off Annapolis, countless Baltimoreans On June 28 the ship sailed up New York harbor and was were excitedly making preparations to go on one of the many given a rousing welcome. There she was thrown open to the excursions offered to take them down the Bay to see the giant public for exhibition and the metropolitan area seemed to go British iron-hulled liner. mad over the monstrous ship. The Great Eastern was called a screw and paddle bark, In late July 1860, the ship advertised a two-day cruise to having a combination of paddle wheels, propeller, and six Cape May, New Jersey, for $10. Two thousand passengers masts carrying 6,500 square yards of sail. One engine turned took advantage of the opportunity to go to sea on the iron the 58-foot diameter paddle wheels and another drove the 24- monster. But on the first night out they discovered that there foot diameter propeller, both developing 2600 horsepower. were sleeping quarters for only 300. Actually, the ship came Her massive propeller was only matched in 1958 when a super down to Chesapeake Bay and anchored off Old Point Com- tanker was launched with one of equal size. Lloyd’s Register of fort, Virginia, where she proved to be a great attraction. Shipping indicated that she had a length of 679.6 feet, 82.8 feet Upon her return to New York, it was advertised that she in breadth, and 31.6 feet in depth. Over her side-wheel guards was to make an excursion to Annapolis Roads. This was she measured 120 feet. She was of 22,500 tons displacement. pushed by a group of Baltimore merchants who wanted to The Great Eastern was launched in England in January have the huge vessel make Baltimore a port of call. 1858 after several years of building. She was the heaviest ob- This second American cruise drew only 100 paying ject ever moved by man on land up to that time. When she guests. At 6 P.M. on August 2, the Great Eastern departed resisted several attempts to get her afloat under normal launch- from New York and reached Hampton Roads the next eve- ing procedures, she was finally pushed into the Thames River ning after a pleasant run down the coast. Anchored off Old by the use of hydraulic rams. Point Comfort, she again created great excitement. The ship was designed to carry 4,000 passengers, almost After a successful stay in Virginia waters, the Great twice as many as the liner Queen Mary can accommodate today. Eastern left Old Point Comfort on August 5 for her historic Before putting to sea, she was opened to sightseers. It was passage up Chesapeake Bay to Annapolis where she was to not until September 1859 that she was actually ready for her receive the greatest reception awarded her in American wa- maiden voyage, but a severe explosion on board delayed her ters. Under the watchful eyes of a Baltimore pilot, the ship initial sailing. While repairs were being effected, the vessel steamed out through the Virginia Capes again in order to turn was again thrown open to the paying public. around and get into the proper channel to continue her voy- In May 1860, the Great Eastern lay at Southampton ready age to Annapolis. to cross the Atlantic. Eight large American cities, including She had many consorts up the Bay but none could keep Baltimore, were vying for the honor of becoming her port of apace with her as her huge paddle wheels and propeller 18 ster of an Age

A photograph of the Great Eastern showing the tremendous size of the ship. Photo: The Mariners’ Museum

threshed the quiet waters of the Chesapeake. Off the Patux- and rail to Annapolis. ent River the steamer George Peabody, one of the latest and The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad ran three trains daily fastest steamboats of that time, met the great ship with a large to Annapolis from Baltimore. It also issued round-trip tickets number of passengers and a welcoming committee made from all points on the route from Washington and Wheeling up of dignitaries. But the Great Eastern, making 15 knots, at one-half the usual fare, adding thereto $2 for the boat trip passed the Peabody and left her far astern as she proceeded from Annapolis to the Great Eastern and admission aboard up to Annapolis Roads. the ship. At Annapolis the passengers were transferred to the No Chesapeake maritime event, before or since, has at- steamboat Lancaster which was gaily decorated with flags tracted the number of people as did the visit of the Great and streamers. A company of strolling harpers and other mu- Eastern. During her stay off Annapolis, the Baltimore news- sicians were aboard to delight the passengers. The North Cen- papers, the Sun and Baltimore Daily and Commercial Ad- tral Railroad also issued round-trip tickets between Baltimore vertiser, devoted their lead columns to the ship. Numerous and all points on their run at half fare. advertisements were inserted to tell of excursions by water Numerous steamboats took viewers from Baltimore down

19 the Chesapeake. The steamers George Peabody, Pocahontas, Juniata, and Belvedere of the Powhatan Steamboat Company charged 50 cents for the trip down to Annapolis Roads, cir- cling the Great Eastern several times, and return to Baltimore. The steamers Star and St. Michaels were also employed in this manner. The steamboat Cecil had special excursions at 40 cents a round trip, featuring a brass band, and advertised the privilege of their passengers to view the “second wonder of naval architecture,” Winan’s cigar-shaped steamer then under construction in Baltimore. The Great Eastern was considered the “first wonder.” The steamboat Virginia advertised the “Great Eastern Concert” with the Union Cornet and Orchestral Band on board, leaving Light Street for the Great Eastern and Winan’s steamer. Even sailing vessels got in on the act. The fast sailing packet Joe Hunter left Brown’s Wharf daily at 7 A.M. for the Great Eastern at 50 cents a round trip. No consideration was announced in the event of a head wind or calm which might delay its passage. The best trip offered was that of the Baltimore Steam Pack- et Company on their steamers Adelaide, Louisiana, Philadel- phia, and Georgeanna for Baltimore. That company had the sole franchise to permit passengers from Baltimore steamboats to board the Great Eastern—all for the total cost of $1.50 the round trip. Five trips were made each day from Baltimore by these vessels. To transfer the passengers to the giant liner the steamboat would lie alongside the ship and place a gangway into one of the lower gangway ports of the Great Eastern. As soon as the passengers landed on the big vessel, they were left to shift for themselves since there were no guides. On August 7, it was reported that between nine and 10 thousand persons had visited the steamer. A contemporary newspaper describes the scene: “. . . the spacious decks and saloon were as lively as Baltimore Street upon a good prom- enading afternoon in autumn.” Actually, there appear to have been poor regulations concerning the movements of the pas- sengers when they were aboard the ship. The captain was not held to blame but the directors of the company were held liable as they “. . . displayed the ship as would Barnum an elephant.” Accommodations were lacking and only warm drinking water was available. Provisions could be secured at advanced rates and ice could be had only if drinks were purchased at the bar. were made all along the route and the heavy load delayed the Each day the number of visitors increased. The excursion engine. At Annapolis there was only one place to discharge steamers were uncomfortably crowded. Trains that left Camden and a panic ensued as the passengers rushed for places on the Street had standing room only. One, with 13 cars attached, had steamer to take them out into Annapolis Roads. 9 of those cars destined for Annapolis with sightseers. Stops The master of the Great Eastern, Captain J. Vine Hall, came up to Baltimore on the steamer Philadelphia. His first visit in the city was to the top of Washington Monument, at “ . . .the spacious decks and his request, so the he could see Baltimore. During his stay there he visited Coleman and Bailey’s establishment and saloon were as lively as Winan’s boat. From Baltimore he went over to Washington to call upon President James Buchanan and invited him to Baltimore Street upon the Great Eastern. a good promenading On August 9, the President of the United States and his suite journeyed to Annapolis by special train where he afternoon in autumn. “ was greeted by President Garrett of the Baltimore and Ohio 20 The Great Eastern had a lengthy career but a tragic one . . . she killed her designer, drowned her first captain, bankrupted seven companies, collided with seven ships, started international quarrels . . .

In an attempt to entice the large ship to make Baltimore her American port of call, local capitalists and the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad offered the Great Eastern 2500 tons of coal. Of this amount President Garrett of the railroad prom- ised 1000 tons. A fleet of scows and sailing craft were em- ployed to transport the coal to the ship from the port. Laborers then carried the coal aboard the liner in baskets. But the ship never did come to Baltimore. At 6 A.M. on August 11, the Great Eastern departed from Annapolis Roads for New York City. After a brief stay there the steamer left for Halifax, Nova Scotia, a port clamoring to see the big vessel. But port charges there were so excessive the Great Eastern departed for England the morning after her arrival. The Great Eastern had a lengthy career but a tragic one. Through the ensuing years, according to a best-seller book about the vessel published in 1953 and entitled The Great Iron Ship,* she killed her designer, ruined her builder, drowned her first captain, bankrupted seven companies, survived one of the Atlantic’s weirdest storms, lost 2,000,000 British pounds, injured hundreds and killed 35 men, laid the first Atlantic cable and five other submarine cables, caused 13 major law- suits, attracted 2,000,000 visitors, gave New York one of its wildest parties, collided with seven ships, sinking four, started international quarrels, made six knights, was not outbuilt for Looking aft on the spacious deck of the Great Eastern. From Illustrated London News, 1859: The Mariners’ Museum 49 years, was auctioned off six times and ended her days as a floating circus. She was finally sold for breaking up and the dismantling be- Railroad. Then the party proceeded to the Naval Academy gan on the first day of 1889, a month short of 31 years after her to board the steamer Anacostia for the Great Eastern where launching. About two years were required to reduce the vessel they were received by Maryland’s Governor Hicks. Captain to scrap. She was a vessel too far advanced for her day. w Hall conducted a two-hour tour of the ship before the Presi- dent departed for Washington. * “The Great Iron Ship,” by James Dugan; Harper & Row, Publishers, The visit of Buchanan had a tendency to draw more visi- Incorporated. tors to the ship. Daily the ads in the papers increased in num- ber. Page 2 of The Sun for August 8, 1860, was a complete ______ad headed by the slogan-”Ho! For the Steamship Great East- ern.” Other ads proclaimed the Great Eastern “The Great Maritime Wonder of the Deep,” “The Nautical Monster of Nautical Monster of an Age is an excerpt from “This was the Age,” and “Possibly the Marvel of an Era Never to Be Chesapeake Bay” by Robert H. Burgess. Published by Tidewater Equalled Again.” Publishers, 1963. www.cmptp.com. Reprinted by permission. 21 Inner Beauty In search of the perfect spar

By Dick Cooper, Editor

To the untrained eye, the dense stand of 125-foot-tall lob- lolly pines in the Pocomoke State Forest looks pretty much like your average dense stand of 125-foot-tall loblolly pines. The high canopy of long green needles blocks out most of the bright sun of a clear, crisp late winter morning. But when shipwright Mike Vlahovich and forester Sam Bennett look into the woods, they see vertically stacked skip- jack spars. Thorns pull at their pant legs as they walk through the thick underbrush, their heads cocked back, looking in- tently for that perfect mast or that living boom. “We need to find a straight tree that is clear of branches about 70 feet up from the ground,” Vlahovich explains. “We don’t want one that has too many knots and we want one that has close annual rings.” Vlahovich, founding director of the Coastal Heritage Al- liance, and Bennett, the manager of the 15,000-acre state for- est northwest of Snow Hill, Maryland, at the head waters of the Pocomoke River, are looking for the right trees to rig the Stanley Norman, and possibly the Caleb W. Jones. Coastal Heritage is overseeing the refitting of the Stan- ley Norman, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation’s flagship, after (Below) The closer the growth rings, the stronger the mast. After a having repaired a 12-foot section of rot in the mast two years giant loblolly pine was felled, workers count the rings and examine the heartwood. Photos by Cooper Media ago. The Jones, a privately owned old Virginia-built dredger, is getting a new life dockside at the Chesapeake Bay Mari- time Museum. Vlahovich and Bennett had walked these woods earlier in the year and tagged two potential trees with pink plastic ribbons. With a team of boat builders and Coastal Heritage interns, they set out on a brisk mile hike along a logging road into the forest where they meet up with loggers Clyde Ste- venson of Salisbury and John Smith of Snow Hill near one of the marked trees about 50 feet off the roadway. Standing next to the working end of a huge mechanical tree harvester mounted on shoulder-high tires, Stevenson, a barrel-chested outdoorsman in a hardhat, gives a safety lec- ture to the crew. “You want to stand well off to the left of this machine, several hundred feet,” he says. “This blade (he points to the circular saw with 18 carbide-steel tips at the front of the har- vester) spins at 200 miles an hour and it throws chunks of tree off to the right. I know from personal experience that if you get hit by one of those chunks, you will be hurt.”

22 (Left) Logger John Smith and his harvester. (Right) Stanley Norman skipper Dave Gelenter, Vlahovich and CHA intern Shawn Janutz check for faults in a slice of pine.

With that, Smith climbs into the caged cab his harvester to the spot near a sharp ravine running with of the harvester and fires it up. The harvester is cold, clear water from a recent snow. The tree is down in reticulated at its waist, allowing it to turn and seconds. This time Vlahovich and Bennett know they have twist as is moves through the underbrush. Its two found their mast. claws bear hug smaller trees in its path as the “This is the best one yet,” Vlahovich says as he studies spinning saw slices them off at the base. Moving the density of the rings and the center placement of the heart- like a slow, steady predator, the “Treeranosaurus wood. He jumps up on the fallen tree and paces off more than Rex” of the forest, rips up everything in its path 70 feet of trunk before he reaches the first branches. The tree on the way to its first prey. has grown straight and true because it was in the middle of The claws grab the 120-foot loblolly and in the woods and it constantly pushed its upper branches higher five seconds, the 75-year-old tree is cut through and higher to catch the sun. and crashing into the ground, landing with a Through the morning into the afternoon, three more trees thud on the forest floor. are felled. The six are unceremoniously trimmed and dragged Vlahovich, Bennett and the boatwrights by machine out of the forest and stacked like cordwood along gather at the shattered stump and examine the the road. Early the next morning Stevenson trucks the logs to fallen giant. They are not pleased. The growth CBMM’s St. Michaels campus, negotiating tight turns and rings show that, while the tree was tall and calculated angles with the eye of professional. The logs are straight, its rings are not tightly compacted in- off-loaded next to the marine railway with a specially de- dicating that it will not be as strong as they want signed mobile crane. to fly a skipjack’s expansive mainsail. Vlahovich says the craft of mast making will unfold over “These trees were planted by the CCC (Civil- the spring as his crew begins the labor-intensive process of ian Conservation Corps) on old farms back in the stripping and shaping the logs. The logs will be treated with ‘30s,” Bennett says. “There is a home site just a borate solution to help preserve them. He said the solution over there with a gravestone of a young girl.” keeps insects out of the wood “and is no more toxic than Less than 100 feet way, daffodils pushed Joy detergent.” up through the forest floor next to the marker Using a variety of power and hand tools, the crew will of Emma C. Jackson who was two-years-old work the logs into the elongated cigar shapes needed to rig when she was laid to rest near her parents’ a skipjack. home in 1853. As Vlahovich explains the shaping process, his passion The crew set out again, eyes focused up as for preserving workboats picks up a tempo of its own. He they walk, looking for better spars. talks about passing on skills and teaching a craft to apprentic- “You can’t really tell until you cut the tree es whom he has seen “catch fire and help change the world.” down,” Vlahovich says. He says he founded the non-profit Coastal Heritage Alliance The next tree felled has a heart that is off to keep those skills alive and to help families continue their center, exposing potential structural problems if fishing traditions. it used as a mast. “The best way to preserve something is to maintain it.” w Number three is the charm. The team finds it well back in the woods and directs Smith and Contact Dick Cooper at [email protected]

23 Freedom and The Birth of the Black Church By T. Stephen Whitman

The decades between the close of the Revolution and the arrival of Judgment Day. War of 1812 witnessed both the emancipation of thousands For all their significance, neither Gabriel nor Turner epit- of African Americans in the Chesapeake and the creation of omized the complex, intertwined nature of the black struggle black Christian communities springing from conversions to to achieve both temporal and spiritual freedom. evangelical sects, especially the Methodists and Baptists. If anyone could do so, it would surely be Richard Allen, These two crucial developments reinforced each other. whose life touched on all the major elements of Christian- Whites attracted by evangelical spiritual messages played an izing the black Chesapeake. Allen’s religious conversion in- initially important role in proselytizing and freeing slaves. formed and facilitated his manumission. After paying off his African Americans for their part seized the opportunity that purchase price in 1783, Allen left Delaware for New Jersey, conversion to Christianity afforded to assert one’s humanity where he met the charismatic preacher Benjamin Abbott. and spiritual equality, joining churches, forming congrega- Traveling with Abbott as an exhorter, Allen preached to tions, and preaching to the unconverted. Indians in the Carolinas, to Germans in Lancaster County, When white evangelicals pulled back from their religious Pennsylvania, and to white and black audiences in and around challenge to slavery and demanded black subordination in Philadelphia and Baltimore. By 1785 he had joined a group biracial churches, blacks took matters into their own hands of Methodists in Fell’s Point, Baltimore’s ship-building area, and formed the first African American–led churches and con- and had taken part as an observer at the 1784 Methodist con- gregations, bulwarks that would help the black community ference in that city. to survive the post-1815 hardening of proslavery senti- ment in the region. The congregation of Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church The flowering of black Christianity and converts’ in Baltimore presents Robert Breckenridge, a Presbyterian minister, with a gold snuff box, in token of his support for black relations with whites followed a path parallel to that of emancipation. Lithograph, 1846. Maryland Historical Society the secular liberation of slaves. The process began with individual black actions taken in alliance with princi- pled whites, to achieve manumission on the one hand, or conversion on the other. The next step involved blacks attempting to bend institutions to their ends—using the law to file freedom petitions in the secular world, or asserting black rights to preach or to organize congregations in the spiritu- al world. Finally, the withdrawal of white support for black objectives created conditions that fostered out- right black assertiveness to achieve what had been per- ceived as shared goals. Gabriel’s Rebellion [an unsuc- cessful slave uprising in 1800] to achieve political and social equality would find a spiritual counterpart thirty years later in Nat Turner’s fateful attempt to hasten the 24 Faith

Allen had already attracted attention from white leaders, too. No less a person than Bish- op Francis Asbury asked Allen to accompany him as an exhorter on a jour- ney to the South. Asbury perhaps saw Allen fol- lowing in the footsteps of other early black preach- ers such as Harry Hosier, who had achieved fame speaking to white audi- ences in Virginia, or Ja- cob Toogood, a onetime slave from Frederick Black Methodists in Baltimore established their own congregation at Sharp Street, near the County, Maryland, who harbor, in the 1790s and built a church by 1802. Engraving from the 1840s or 1850s. Maryland Historical Society became a notable itin- erant in that state in the 1770s and 1780s.36 delphia, expanded their church, they insisted on segregating But Asbury also made it clear that white sensibilities black worshippers in a second floor gallery. would circumscribe Allen’s ability to preach to slaves, and that Unaware of the new rules, Allen, Jones, and other blacks social convention would deny Allen hospitality in the white took their accustomed places on the main floor at a service in homes where Asbury slept, requiring him to bed down in the June of 1792. The trustees demanded that they leave: Absa- bishop’s carriage. Even in the 1780s, the marriage of white lom Jones was pulled away while kneeling to pray. As Allen and black enterprise in Methodism was an uneasy one.37 reported, “we all went out of the church in a body, and they Allen turned down Asbury’s offer and continued to travel were not more plagued with us in the church.”38 the mid-Atlantic, eventually settling in Philadelphia, where the Blacks now bent all their efforts to establishing their own blacks he brought into Methodist congregations and religion chapel with their own ministers. White Methodist leaders dis- classes included many ex-slaves from Delaware or Maryland. approved of this course as well. The hierarchy did not trust But the success of Allen and men such as Absalom Jones, blacks to provide spiritual guidance or manage church affairs another freedman from Delaware, made white church leaders without white supervision. uneasy. Black efforts to create a separate African chapel in Over the next twenty years, Allen and his parishioners the late 1780s were rebuffed. Yet when the white trustees of would struggle to assert their autonomy within the Methodist St. George’s chapel, the principal Methodist church in Phila- church, fending off efforts by whites to seize legal control 25 of the black-funded chapel and thousand black members, roughly defeating attempts to place white double the number of black Meth- preachers in the pulpit. The issue odists in the state. Black Baptists would be resolved only by sepa- actually outnumbered whites in ration. In 1816, black Methodists these associations, and the same in the mid-Atlantic convened in pattern of rising dissension be- Baltimore and created the African tween the groups prevailed. Methodist Episcopal church with Racially-mixed congregations Richard Allen as its first bishop. broke up over seating arrange- Throughout the Delmarva re- ments, arguments about whether gion, whites who had welcomed blacks could preach to mixed au- the first black converts reacted neg- Jarena Lee (1783-post 1849) evangelized and diences, and challenges to black atively to dramatic increases in the preached against slavery on the Delmarva participation in church gover- peninsula in the 1830s. Engraved frontispiece, number of blacks in their congre- 1849. Library of Congress nance. One mark of slavery’s gations. Wherever blacks attained dominance in Virginia society was what whites deemed a “critical mass,” segregation was im- that fewer independent black congregations emerged or posed in Sunday worship, religious classes, and love feasts.39 survived the strains of separation from whites in the early Scenes similar to those played out in Philadelphia spurred nineteenth century.42 the formation of independent black churches. Ezion Church in The growth of the black church remains the single most Wilmington, Delaware, came into being in 1805 after blacks remarkable social phenomenon of African-American life in in the Asbury Methodist Episcopal Church were restricted to the post-revolutionary era. gallery seating. In the 1770s, Baptist and Methodist itinerants had preached In Maryland, blacks formed a substantial part of the to handfuls of blacks, mostly in isolated rural meetings on the Methodist movement from the beginning. English mission- Delmarva peninsula. By 1816, tens of thousands of blacks ary Thomas Rankin estimated in 1774 that five hundred had formed congregations, built churches, conducted Sunday blacks belonged to Methodist societies, about 25 percent of school classes, and licensed their own exhorters and preachers. the colony’s total. As spiritual sanctuaries, social rallying points, and a pow- By the 1780s, itinerants were meeting with black classes erful element in defining African-American identity, church- in Dorchester County, on the Calvert County circuit, and in es would anchor the effort to create and sustain free black Prince George’s County. There William Colbert encountered communities in the face of slavery’s surprising resurgence in a “very numerous and very orderly” black congregation op- the Chesapeake. w erating its own meetinghouse, near today’s Oxon Hill.40 In Baltimore, Jacob Fortie and Caleb Hyland led a class that met Freedom and Faith: The Birth of the Black Church, is in Hyland’s boot-blacking cellar. excerpted from “Challenging Slavery in the Chesapeake: Repeatedly, white insistence on segregated seating led to Black and White Resistance to Human Bondage, 1775- black demands for their own churches. In 1793, black Method- 1865” by T. Stephen Whitman. Copyright 2007, by the ists leased a building on Sharp Street near the Baltimore har- Maryland Historical Society. Reprinted by permission. bor for their own use and two years later sent a delegation to Sources Bishop Francis Asbury, asking to build a church that would be 36. For Hosier, see Dee E. Andrews, The Methodists and Revolutionary America, 1760– under their own direction, with no white stewards or trustees. 1800: The Shaping of an Evangelical Culture (Princeton: Princeton University Press, Though Asbury rejected this proposal, by 1802 blacks 2000), 139–40; Sylvia R. Frey and Betty Wood, Come Shouting to Zion: African American Protestantism in the American South and British Caribbean to 1830 (Cha- owned the Sharp Street building and lot, and, led by black- pel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1998), 124, and Christine Heyrman, smiths Jacob Gilliard and Richard Russell, had established an Southern Cross: The Beginnings of the Bible Belt (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1998) 219–29. For Toogood, see Andrews, The Methodists, 35. independent congregation that retained its formal affiliation 37. Andrews, The Methodists, 139–42. with the white-dominated Methodist Episcopal Church.41 38. Richard Allen, The Life, Experience, and Gospel Labors of the Rt. Rev. Richard Other black dissidents would join in creating the African Allen (Philadelphia: Martin and Boden, 1833), 13–15. Methodist Episcopal Church, from their base at Bethel 39. Andrews, The Methodists, 133–34, 137. Church, also active since the 1790s. 40. Ibid., 137–38. Virginia’s African Americans chose to affiliate with Bap- 41. See Phillips, Freedom’s Port, 129-35; Andrews, The Methodists, 150-52; and Frey tist congregations. In 1809, the Dover, Ketocton, and Ports- and Wood, Come Shouting to Zion, 179. mouth associations of Baptist churches reported over nine 42. Frey and Wood, Come Shouting to Zion, 150-59.

T. Stephen Whitman is an associate professor of History at Mount Saint Mary’s University. He writes on the history of slavery and eman- cipation in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. His first book, “The Price of Freedom,” focused on how enslaved people in Maryland gained freedom through manumission. That book shared the Maryland Historical Society’s book prize in 1997. He has worked as a histor- ical consultant with the Maryland State Archives, the Maryland Historical Society, and the Reginald Lewis Museum of African American History and Culture. In 2004, he held a Fulbright Fellowship in Italy as a lecturer in American History at the University of Genoa. 26 To the Point

New Faces on Campus Trust for Historical Preservation’s Decatur House Museum Shop where, as a member of a small staff, would occasion- Tony Blake began his apprenticeship in the Boat Yard ally lead a group tour through the house when a docent in February. Tony has lately been living in Baltimore. He wasn’t available. built himself a couple of small boats in the past and has re- cently been restoring an older bateau. He contemplated an apprenticeship six months ago, and after taking Apprentice MemberPerks Enhances For a Day (AFAD) for several months, has decided that this is what he wants to do for a living. Member Benefits Dan Sutherland has accepted the position of Program A new package of membership benefits will debut in Manager for the Boat Yard, primarily running the AFAD May when the Museum unveils its CBMM MemberPerks program. MemberPerks allows Museum members to save money on a variety of purchases including hotel, or bed and breakfast lodging, reduced-price meals at some of the Shore’s finest eateries and discounts at the unique shops that line the streets of St. Michaels. The introduction of MemberPerks coincides with the cre- ation of a Sustaining Membership category at the $1,000 level, and the merger of the former Associate Membership category into the Supporter category. Tony Blake (left) is our new apprentice. Dan Sutherland (right) is May also marks the addition of other member benefits the Museum’s new Boat Yard Program Manager. including new Moonlight Mixers, which will debut in June; St. Michaels Harbor tours aboard the Museum’s replica buy- program. Pete Schmaus has done a great job helping us keep boat Mister Jim; skipjack cruises from Navy Point aboard the AFAD going since late summer. Dan has been a regular for H.M. Krentz; and the ability for members to use the Museum many years at the Mid-Atlantic Small Craft Festival. He has grounds for birthday parties, weddings, meetings and family run his own boat shop in the Finger Lake region of New York reunions. The new hugely popular Culture & Cocktails social for over 20 years specializing in beautiful lap-straked sailing events, which debuted in January, will return to the Museum’s canoes. Dan does incredible work as a boat builder and he calendar of events later in the year. has been teaching part time at the 1,000 Islands Museum of In addition, premier level members (Benefactor level and Clayton, N.Y. He has really begun to enjoy the teaching side of the business and he is excited to be coming here as a vis- ible and important part of what is done in the boat shop.

—Richard Scofield,Boat Yard Manager

Tucker Hager is the new manager of the Museum Store. Tucker has over 20 years of extensive retail background in both commercial and non- profit. Most recently, he managed gift retail for both The Four Seasons Hotel and Mandarin Orient Hotel in the Washington, D.C., area. Previously he was manager and special- ty buyer for nine specialty bookstores for the Parks and History Association. Susan Blankner of St. Michaels, dances with Ed McGowan, bagpiper Tucker Hager is the new He was also the retail for Ray Murphy and the Wild Rovers, at CBMM’s St. Patrick’s Day Museum Store Manager. director of the Natural Party, the third Culture & Cocktails event of the year.

27 To the Point

above) will receive an evening of free overnight dockage dur- lived on farms.” ing the peak boating season, a CBMM burgee, invitations to When she is not planting and tending to the grounds exhibition opening preview parties and enhanced discounts at the Museum, Jody says she likes to play softball—she on Museum store purchases. plays first base on a coed slow-pitch team in Easton—ride In line with the new membership benefits and reorganiza- horses and “gardening, if you can believe that” at her home tion of membership categories, the Museum Board of Trust- in Claiborne. ees approved a nominal increase in membership dues, the first In the last few years, she said she has taken up hunting. increase in over three years, which will take effect on May 1. “I like to shoot,” she says with an almost shy grin. Under the new dues structure, Introductory/Individual dues Friend and coworker Donna Fairbank says when the will be $55 annually, Family dues will be $70, Contributor/ Museum was looking for a groundskeeper, she recom- boater dues will be $100 and Associate/Supporter dues will mended Jody. be $200. (Introductory through Contributor level dues are “I think they were looking for a guy,” Fairbank says. 100% tax deductible and support the Museum’s mission to “They wanted some one tough who could drive tractors and I preserve and celebrate the culture and heritage of the Chesa- immediately thought of Jody. She used to work at the Christ- peake Bay and to engage children and adults in the steward- mas tree farm in Wittman and I always used to see her driv- ship of one of America’s most important maritime regions.) ing a big tractor.” For more information about CBMM MemberPerks, or Fairbank says she first met Jody when she was a young teen to renew your membership, please contact the Membership hanging out with Fairbank’s daughters, Stacia and Ashley. Services Department at 410-745-2916, ext. 113 or renew on- “She went to school with my girls and she was always line at www.cbmm.org. in our house. She was like another daughter,” Fairbank says. “Jody likes to be the tough little girl, she works with dirt, but she has a soft side to her that not everybody sees.” Spring Courses at ALL “She loves her little girl (Abigail, 3),” Fairbank says. “Jody likes to come across as hard core, but when she is with The Academy for Lifelong Learning has began its Spring her daughter, she is this sweet little mother.” 2007 schedule featuring a diverse series of courses that in- Jody says she worked as “the gas girl” at the Knapp’s clude the History of European Art, Baseball: A Fan’s Per- Narrows Marina and in a seafood plant before joining the spective, and canoeing on Broad Creek. ALL membership is CBMM staff. required. Course fees vary. After staying home for a year following Abigail’s birth, ALL offers the opportunity to continue learning experi- Jody says she “went out looking for the perfect job. Wouldn’t ences, both in and out of the classroom. The courses have an you know, it was right here.” w informal format and are a mixture of discussion-group meet- ings, round-table presentations, lectures, and social events. Classes are held at the ALL Building, 103 Railroad Ave., St. Michaels, or other nearby locations. For further information, call 410-745-2916, ext. 111 or visit www.cbmm.org/all.html.

Profile: Jody Frank With her arms deep in peat, and a smudge on her cheek, Jody Frank has a hard time keeping her smile down. She likes her work and it shows. As the groundskeeper for the Museum, her job is to make things look nice. Jody, who has tended to the Museum’s outward details for the last three and a half years, says one of the things she likes best about her job is that she never knows what to ex- pect when she comes to work. “Everyday, it’s always something new,” she says. A 2000 graduate of St. Michaels High School, Jody has lived in Talbot County since she and her mother moved from a Baltimore County horse farm to Neavitt when Jody was 11. She says she is used to working outside. “I’ve always Groundskeeper Jody Frank gardens with a smile.

28 The restoration of the tug Delaware has been a challenge, even for the craftsmen of the Boat Yard crew. As they began taking the rotted wood off the fantail of the Tent framework is going up over the skipjack Rosie Parks. 1912 workhorse, they found more than they were looking for. They had to cut the rot off the ends of the frames and build The Gray Marine 671 diesel that was installed in the Del- in new supports. aware in 1947 at Crockett Bros. Boatyard in Oxford is being “They were just floating in there,” Vessel Maintenance rebuilt thanks to a grant from American Cruise Lines. The Manager Marc Barto says of the frames. crew had to take the cabin roof off to get the engine out. The Delaware has been part of the Museum’s fleet since “That was a real job,” Barto says. “We had to tip it upright it was donated in 1991. The tug was built in Bethel, De., and to get it out.” spent most her career working along the Upper Eastern Shore. Barto said the work would be completed in April. When the restoration began, the crew knew they would have to replace much of the stern, and because they did not have plans of the original construction, they had to use the old  planks as patterns. “It took a lot of investigation,” Barto says. “We had to The “skyline” of the Museum is undergoing a open her up surgically, a little at a time.” change. A 60-foot by 30-foot tent is being built over the Rosie He says that the frame repair is being done with white oak Parks along the water behind the Boat Shop. The 52-year-old and the new planking is yellow pine. skipjack is being rebuilt from stem to stern and the tent will “Part of the object of a historic reconstruction is to put it protect Rosie and the workers from the elements over the next back together the same way it was built,” Barto says. “When three to four years, Boat Yard Manager Rich Scofield says. someone rebuilds it again in 50 years, we what them to know “The tent will be big enough to build a gallery so visitors how it was originally constructed.” can watch the work,” Scofield says. The Rosie Parks was built in Wingate, Dorchester County, by famed boatbuilder Bron- za Parks, for his brother, Orville. She was named for their mother. Rosie Parks was one of three skipjacks—the Martha Lewis and the Lady Ka- tie are the other two—built side-by-side in a lot next to Parks’ home. Large-wheeled carts were used to roll the finished boats from Parks’ yard to the water, a quarter-mile away. Scofield says the rebuilding will be done by the Boat Yard crew, workers from the Coastal Heritage Alliance and volunteers. Most of the 51-foot boat’s planking and some of its support members will be replaced. In her day, the Rosie Parks was known for being one of the fastest skipjacks in the oyster fleet, winning several Chesapeake Appreciation Marc Barto and Mike Gorman rebuild the stern of the Delaware. Day and Deal Workboat races. w 29 Visitors to the USS Monitor Center can walk the deck of the full-scale replica of the history-making iron warship.

personal accounts, interactives and environments—that will USS Monitor Center Opens peak all five senses. The strategies, people, technology and sci- at Mariners’ Museum ence behind the historic circumstances surrounding this story will be displayed in a way the public has never before seen. In March, on the 145th anniversary of the historic clash Visitors will be able to navigate a wooden frigate in heavy between the Civil War ironclads USS Monitor and CSS winds and walk down a mock dock between a wooden sailing Virginia, The Mariners’ Museum in Newport News, Va., and frigate and CSS Virginia. its partner, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Adminis- The center allows visitors to step inside the “battle the- tration (NOAA), opened the $30 million, 63,500-square-foot ater” and experience the action during the Battle of Hampton USS Monitor Center. Roads. They can tour the living quarters of the sailors, poke At the heart of the USS Monitor Center is the exhibi- their head inside the real turret or walk on the deck of a full- tion—a melding of artifacts, original documents, paintings, scale reproduction of the vessel that changed naval warfare. The state-of-the-art conservation facility provides visitors with a front-row seat in watching the delicate process of pre- serving the turret, steam engine and more. The exhibits blend the art and science of conservation The USS Monitor Center will be a national repository, bringing together hundreds of artifacts from the Monitor and a voluminous collection of archives, all being made available for research and study to the public.

The USS Monitor Center will offer: • A wide array of educational programs for school children, adults, families and scholars. • Conferences, seminars, and workshops. • Internet access to a voluminous collection of histori- Detail from a lithograph of the first battle of the “iron” ships. cal narrative, archives, and resources for students and The Mariners’ Museum teachers at www.monitorcenter.org. w

30 Mystery solved, it’s St. Michaels

St. Michaels Harbor, 100 years ago. St. Michaels Harbor, today.

The first Mystery Photo drew 48 responses, 31 of them houses, one owned by the Caulk Twins and one by an African correctly identified St. Michaels as the site where the photo American named Jewitt. This picture was probably taken in was taken 100 years ago. Ten readers thought the shot was the 1920’s. Brings back memories.” a short ferry ride away on the Strand in Oxford. Bob Fairbank noted, “The white house on the left is See the new Mystery Photo on the back page of this is- known as the ‘Tarr House.’ The grassy area on the right is sue of WaterWays and tell us when and where it was taken. Muskrat Park. The general direction of the view is looking Submit you answer by e-mail to [email protected]. across the harbor toward ‘Navy Point.’ My ancestors settled in this area ca 1740. I’ve only been here since 1928.” Readers who got it right are: “I do believe that if I were standing in front of the Tarr 1. Penny Rhine 17. Fred Masterman House on Willow Street a hundred years ago I would have 2. Jane Roe 18. Vincent K. Bellman been in the photo. This was taken a few years before my 3. Ken Bridges 19. Dean Raymond birth,” wrote Barbara Reisert. 4. Bob Fairbank 20. Dick Tanczos 5. Paul Ray 21. Lisa Ann Felts Robin Ball remembered a previous use for the site. “Road 6. John Shore by old Fire House that extends into what is now called Green 22. Davis Wood 7. Raymond E. Albert Jr. Street, St. Michaels. The right is Muskrat Park.” 8. Barbara Reisert 23. August Tolzman 9. Elizabeth Scofield 24. Margaret Young Terry Griggs was by far the most expansive. “The loca- 10. Robin Ball 25. Jeff and Sydney Podraza tion of this photo is in St. Michaels. The picture was taken 11. Carol Elliott 26. Fred Hecklinger from the right-hand side of Willow St. and looks toward the 12. Steven J. Murfin 27. Melissa Guinness intersection of Locust St. and the beginning of Green St. from 13. Terry Griggs where Willow St. ends. To the right, but not fully seen, is the 28. Charlie Willimann 14. Nancy Appleby park where on Saturdays in the summer there is a farmers’ 29. Rick Covell 15. Charles Kohls market held, and where you must walk through to frequent 16. Joyce & Carlton 30. Beth Spurry Keller the Town Dock, and/or the Crab and Steak House restaurants. Stambaugh 31. Bob Shockley To the right, and not seen in the photo, are cannons pointing out from the park. In the background and to the left appears to While most readers sent in one-line descriptions of the be where the CBMM Wood Shed and Boat Shop are now lo- Mystery Photo’s location, several shared memories and gave cated on Navy Point. Further to the left would be the famous expanded answers. Here is a selection of their responses: Hooper Strait light. Hope this is enough identification of the area of the photo.” “Your mystery photo is a view of St. Michaels Harbor taken from what is now Willow Street. Willow Street inter- Fred Hecklinger looked deep in to the photo to figure sects with Locust St. as shown,” wrote Ken Bridges. “The out the timing. “We are looking about north from the south right side of the picture is Muskrat Park, now known as side of St. Michaels Harbor. The Town Dock Marina would Church Cove Park. Church Cove was used as a mooring lo- be on this side and what we see to the right of the tree in the cation for local workboats. In the distance is the property of foreground is Navy Point where the CBMM is now located. CBMM, which formerly housed several seafood processing It is autumn and fairly early in the morning.” w

31 Mystery Photo

B. Frank Sherman Collection, CBMM

Can you identify the time and place where this photograph of a busy Bay harbor was taken? The names of the readers who get it right will appear in the Summer issue of WaterWays. Send your answers to [email protected].

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