Four Chesapeake Bay wooden buyboats, also referred to as deck boats, turned 100 years old this year and birthday celebrations were held throughout the bay region.
The arrival of gasoline-powered deck boats was part of a nationwide maritime switch from wind and sail power to gasoline and diesel engines. As early as 1905, marine railways around the bay began servicing these new motor-powered wooden boats.
On first arrival, the news often made the local newspaper:
“The gasoline boat Crescent owned by Messrs. Clarkson, Garrett and Hunt of Bowlers (VA.) is on Chowning’s Railway having her bottom coppered. Young Mr. Garrett is overseeing the job.” Southside Sentinel, Urbanna, Va., Dec. 15, 1905.
Over time, these large deck boats took over the work of sailing schooners and bugeyes, including hauling freight; serving as platforms for buying oysters, crabs and fish; working in the pound net fishery; and dredging for oysters and crabs.
By the 1930s, thousands of these boats had been built at bay boatyards; more deck boats were built in the 1920s than at any other period. Today there are only about 30 of these deck boats left on the Chesapeake, and most have been converted to recreational cruisers or educational boats by museums and other maritime non-profits.
Nellie Crockett
Perhaps the most noted of the birthday boats is the Nellie Crockett. The 61.7’ x 20.4’ x 6.5’ vessel was built by Charles A. Dana in Crisfield, Md., in 1925, and was named to the National Historic Landmark Register in 1994. She was originally built for Andrew A. “Shad” Crockett of Tangier Island to work as an oyster buyboat and was conscripted in World War II by the War Shipping Administration. After the war, she went back to work as a commercial fishing boat and was worked into the 1990s in Virginia’s oyster replenishment program planting seed and shell. Ted and Mimi Parish of Georgetown Md., own the boat today and use her as a cruising yacht. The Parishes, however, have maintained her original physical workboat appearance.
East Hampton
The 56.4’ 15.7’ x 4.4’ East Hampton was built in 1925 at Eldridge Digg’s railway in Mathews County by Freeman Hudgins and Boney Diggs of Laban, Va. She was originally built for waterman Curtis Hodgins of Mathews as an open “trap” boat built with a unique V-shaped stern and used as a working platform in Virginia's pound net fishery. She was later converted to a deck boat with a round stern by boatbuilder Frank Smith of Perrin in Gloucester County, Va.
Benny Williams, Jr. of Gloucester County was dredging crabs with her in Virginia's winter crab dredge fishery in 1999 when wooden boatwright David Rollins of Poquoson, Va. bought the boat and converted her into a cruising yacht. The vessel is currently owed by Barry Buckley of Chestertown, Md.
PropWash
The 58.9’ x 18.3’ x 5.4’ PropWash also turned 100 years old this year. She was built in 1925 by noted boatbuilder Linwood Price of Deltaville, Va. for John E. Sterling of Crisfield, Md. Price also built the largest deadrise deck boat in the history of the boats - the 97.6’ x 28.2’ x 7.7’ Marydel in 1927.
PropWash was originally named the Agnes Sterling after Sterling’s granddaughter. The vessel has had three name changes over the years. She was named Agnes Sterling from 1925 -1966; Wayne Christy, 1966-1990, Old Squaw, 1990-2006 and PropWash, 2006 to present.
She was converted in 1995 by Ralph W. Stanley Boats and Hinckley Yachts in Southwest Harbor, Maine from her oyster buyboat configuration to a cruising motor yacht. She is owned today by David Wright and Brenda Cariose of Dumfries, Virginia.
Peggy
The 55’ x 12.6’ x 4.2 Peggy was built in 1925 by Harry A. Hudgins of Peary, Va., in Mathews County for pound net fisherman Captain Walter Burroughs. She was named Peggy after his daughter. The vessel was originally built as an open trap boat and was decked over in 1950 with a pilothouse aft installed to work in Virginia’s winter crab dredge fishery.
The Burroughs family owned the Peggy for 36 years before selling her in 1961 to 23-year-old Edward Grinnell. Grinnell worked the boat in the bay’s pound net and crab dredge fishery until 2001, when he sold her to Kim and Gretchen Granberry.
The Granberrys converted her into a cruiser yacht before donating the vessel in 2008 to the Mathews Maritime Foundation Museum. The foundation converted the Peggy back to her traditional buyboat shape and style and uses her today for educational purposes.
As a tribute to the bay’s maritime past and to the boats, often referred to as the tractor trailers of Chesapeake Bay, birthday celebrations were held this year at Gwynn’s Island, Port Haywood, Yorktown and Poquoson, Va. and Leonardtown, Md.
