In Deadrise and Cross-planked, author Larry S. Chowning takes readers on a journey into the history of wooden deadrise boat building, highlighting its role in Chesapeake Bay culture, and providing deeper insight into the builders who created these works of nautical ingenuity. More than 150 photographs complement this insiders view of the traditional watermens lifestyle and offer a glimpse of the history that spans the thousands of nautical miles of the Chesapeake Bay. Written by one of the most notable bay historians, Deadrise and Cross-planked is a must-have for all maritime and Chesapeake Bay enthusiasts.
David C. "Bud" McIntosh was a designer, builder, and sailor of large and small wooden cruising boats for more than 50 years, and wrote about it for over 10 of those years. He made his home on New Hampshire's Piscataqua River, where he was teacher and friend to both amateur and professional boatbuilders.
Reprint of the Chapelle (Search for Speed Under Sail) original published by Norton in 1941. Now printed on acid-free paper and with a new foreword by Jonathan Wilson. Annotation copyright by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR
In the early 20th century, the communities previously recognized as Sandy Bottom, Enoch, Stingray Point, Ruark, Amburg, Stove Point, Horse Shoe Bend, Paces Neck, and Grinels became part of what is known today as Deltaville. Strategically located between two major rivers and the Chesapeake Bay, Deltaville has been center stage to many events that have shaped the nation. During the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812, friend and foe visited its shores. Six decades later, both Union and Confederate blood was spilled on its ground. Throughout the early 20th century, Deltavilles shores played a large part in local industry. Common occupations included wooden boatbuilding, freighting, oystering, crabbing, and fishing. By the end of the century, the community had grown into a waterfront resort and served as a playground for recreational boaters and visitors.
During the 1880s, Chesapeake Bay boatbuilders began constructing small wooden open boats, referred to as deadrise boats, out of planks with V-shaped bows. As boatbuilders created larger deadrise boats, decks were installed to provide more work and payload space; these deck boats also had a house/pilothouse near the stern and a mast closer to the bow of the boat. Deck boats were powered by gasoline engines but also utilized sails and wind. From the 1910s to the 1940s, auxiliary "steadying" sails were raised to help steady the boat when encountering adverse seas. More deck boats were built in the 1920s than in any other decade. Over the history of the boats, several thousand worked the bay in the freight business, were used to buy and plant oysters, worked in the bay's pound net fishery, and dredged for crabs and oysters. Approximately 40 boats are left on the bay. A few still work the water. Some have found new life as recreational yachts, and others are education boats owned by museums and nonprofits. In 2004, boat owners formed the Chesapeake Bay Buyboat Association, which holds an annual rendezvous at different ports as a way to educate the public about this unique aspect of Chesapeake Bay maritime history.
In the years since Larry Chowning's book, Harvesting the Chesapeake: Tools and Traditions, was published, the author has fielded many questions from readers about why he didn't include a particular fishery or tradition in his collection. Chowning answers these questions in this second volume relating to the fisheries in his continuing effort to document the heritage of the Chesapeake Bay. "The truth of the matter is," he confesses in his preface, "I like most watermen and I like what they stand for. I appreciate their tradition and their struggle to survive in an occupation that does not fit well in today's fast-paced urban society. Chesapeake Bay watermen are a carryover from earlier days when people had to be self-sufficient just to take care of their basic needs." It's easy to share this appreciation for those who make their living on or around the water when reading this volume. It is a treasure trove of little-known gems about life in the Chesapeake region: tales from the days of fishing under sail, reminiscences from women who survived in the waterman's world, recipes for salting herring and cooking muskrat, descriptions of distinctive fishing vessels from bygone eras and their modern equivalents, and even an account of a very special tradition--the harvesting of human souls through baptism by immersion!
"A ... synthesis of African and African-American history that shows how slavery differed in different regions of the country, and how the Africans and their descendants influenced the culture, commerce, and laws of the early United States"--
Buyboat is the most familiar term for a particular style of traditional Chesapeake workboat, but it suggests only one of many jobs done by these versatile craft. As buyboats, they bought seafood from watermen working small boats, then transported and sold the catch to packing houses or city merchants. As run boats or runners, they were the company-owned vessels that transferred the catch to the company docks. As freight boats or bay freighters, they hauled many things from here to therewatermelons, lumber, coal, canning suppliesoften doing the work that would later be taken over by trucks. As packet boats, they carried mail, supplies, and passengers between the mainland and the bays island communities. They served under the U.S. Coast Guard in World War II, at least one was officially a school boat, and an untold number of them may have run rum in the days of Prohibition. If those were not enough names, their builders called them deck boats, because the hulls were decked over to create cargo holds, allowing the boats to work in many bay fisheries. In Chesapeake Bay Buyboats, Larry S. Chowning has produced a marvelous record of these boats. He introduces the builders, the owners, the captains, and the families and extended families of all. Much of the text is told through interviews with the men who built the boats and the men and women who workedand sometimes playedaboard them. The illustrations are an eclectic selection. The authors photographs, spanning his twenty-year career as a newspaper reporter living and working in the heart of buyboat country, are supplemented by the contributions of many individuals who were directly connected to the boats.
The Chesapeake Bay has been home to many unique craft designed to work the estuary. Beginning with the Native Americans and continuing to this day, these boats have been used for everything from fishing to transporting people and cargo.
