MARYLAND MY MARYLAND

THINKING BACK ON THE CHESAPEAKE BAY

By Mike Descheemaeker, captain aboard the goodship SV WHIRLWIND

I moved to Washington State over 20 years ago and when people ask, “is their anything you miss about back east?” I have one simple answer: the Chesapeake Bay. The Chesapeake Bay was formed by the southern extent of the polar ice cap depressing the ground.  The mighty Susquehanna River and the lesser rivers dredged the rest over a long time.  The Bay has been home to diverse and abundance of flora and fauna and the setting for so many stories in the founding of the United States of America.   I grew up motorboating and sailing on the Bay from the age of nine until I graduated high school. Most of my mucking about was on the Elk River in the northern Bay but a few times a year we would cruise to Baltimore or Annapolis with stops along the way at Worton Creek or Fairlee Creek.  At least once we went all the way down to Crisfield and really got to experience the magic of the Eastern Shore and the Bay.

The Eastern Shore is a place where time seems to stand still and older traditions are still alive.  If you come in by water, especially if you come in by water…the magic is can be found.  Stop and talk with a waterman and try to understand his mix of old English and southern draw combined; their dialect sounds old; it is very unique and difficult to understand if you speak modern day English.  If you are lucky, maybe you can see the last of a working sailing fleet, like a Skipjack, the Maryland State Boat, dredging for oysters.  In the 1800’s Chesapeake Bay oysters were considered a white gold and people flocked to the bay to make their riches on this resource.  As with many a gold rush, there was a fever mixed with greed, hard work, and turmoil.  A range of harvesting techniques was followed by substantial depletion and attempts at regulation to preserve the stocks in the Bay.   Maryland made it a law back in the 1900’s that oysters could be harvested by dredge under sail or hand tongs.  On a recent trip back to see my dad we stopped at Harris Crab House at the Kent Narrows for crab cakes and hush puppies.  We asked the young waiter about the Skipjack fleet and he looked at me like I was speaking about a ghost he’d never seen.  Fortunately, the old watermen unloading crabs at the dock knew. They said there was only one or two still working from Kent Island but the upkeep cost and lack of crew was making it difficult to operate. It’s not surprising and really amazing that these old sailing oyster dredges are still at it.

Another piece of bay magic: the Drake Tail work boat.  This narrow, long, open motor boat has a small cuddy cabin and wheel house forward. These boats also date to the early 1900s and were used for going out to the oyster grounds.  One or two guys with long tongs would lean out over the edge of the boat to work the bottom, usually 5-10 feet below, and tong up oysters.  This was back breaking work.  In the summer months lacking the letter ‘r’ oysters are not in season these same boats were used to run trot lines for the Blue Crab, also a local delicacy.  Even today, looking around the docks up a backwater you can see an old classic workboat tied to the dock or better yet out working an oyster bar or running a trot line.  Trot lines are long lines between two buoys with eel bait tied in with a clove hitch every 4-6 feet.  When the trot line was loaded you dip the crabs with a wire net on a long handle. When it’s happening it’s happening fast and can be a dangerous thrill.  The danger is in the jellyfish, which come up with the net and inevitably get flung about with the dip netting.  When I was a kid, my neighbors ran a trot line and we got to go with them sometimes.  They did not use a classic workboat to run their lines but a 16’ Jon boat trailered down to the middle eastern shore from our elk river home waters. The most memorable day for me was a great day when the crabs were coming fast.  Well, when the crab are coming in fast the jelly fish are getting flung all over the place.  In a quick moment amidst the bumper harvest, my friend, Billy, actually had a jelly fling right into his open mouth!  Billy’s day, Bill, ran the boat and always had a cooler of Busch beer and Mountain Dew to fuel the crew.  In this instance, we kids had already drank all the Mountain Dew so Billy got to drink Busch beer for the rest of the day.  Needless to say we were jealous but glad not to have chewed on a jelly.

Eventually crabbers moved up to crab pots which called for a bigger boat which gave rise to the now more common dead rise workboat.  These workboats typically have a large cover over the open cockpit. The narrow beam was widened eventually a lot and the elegant drake tail was flattened out the beam carried aft. These boats were first built in wood and some of these are still around.  Time marches on, designs and materials for fabrication have changed.  In the case of old wooden crab boats: many have been replaced with fiberglass and single screws have been doubled which is handy for turning a boat into the slip.  This video offers a glimpse at the history of workboats in the Chesapeake Bay: https://www.soundingsonline.com/news/chesapeake-working-girls

There are lots of fun traditions that live on and commemorate the ways of water life for those that live on the Chesapeake Bay.  For example, the docking competition at Crisfield and Pocomoke city.  If you feel like you are timid coming along side a dock check out a docking competition where captain and a crew member are judged and timed coming in hot turning and backing down into the slip.  The timer stops when four lines are on the pilings. This is a place where paint and piling really get to know one another.  Annual docking competitions happen in Pocomoke City in the end of August or in Crisfield in the beginning of September. A lot of boats, watermen, and water women come together to compete so this a great time to check out different styles of bay boats prideful water people.

A visit to the bottom of the eastern shore of Maryland in the end of summer or the beginning of fall is a great time to explore the tidal tributaries that make the bay so unique.  The Pocomoke River is one of the most northern places where cypress trees grow in the United States. The Pokomoke River Canoe Company rents boats and provides a shuttle service.  The River can be paddled from its headwaters all the way to the mouth at the bay.  The Pokomoke River Canoe Company rents boats and provides a shuttle service for and small boat adventure meandering through a cypress forest lined creek.   Because of it’s long life of living in swamps, Cypress is extremely rot resistant and therefore ab important wood for boat and ship builders. The tannins from the trees dye the river waters a dark ice tea hue giving the water a mysterious and haunting look.  This is prime wood duck habitat and their whistles can be heard often before they disappear bending and twisting in flight to screen themselves with the trees.  Again, in my youth, I remember paddling along the lower Pocomoke one spring morning.  I pulled into a wooded inlet and slipped quietly under some over hanging limbs on a point.  Two river otters were playing on the bank a short distance up in the woods.  When they saw me they bolted for the water.  They shot down the bank right at me to dive into the water beside my canoe.  The first one did this in style. The second one ran right into a tree needing a moment to shake off the daze before escaping in the tea colored waters.  As one paddles out of the thick cypress forests the creek slowly widens and shifts from a meandering creek to a tidal river.  The forest gets broken by sections of marsh grasses and reeds.  A low bridge marks the town of Pokomoke City where you may have rented your craft.

Tidal tributaries are what make the Chesapeake Bay so unique.  Rivers that are navigable ,especially with shoal draft vessels, have their starts in beautiful northern hardwood forests.  Sassafras, beech, walnut, oaks, and white pines are some of the trees you might see on these wild waters. The Sassafras, Bohemia, Chester and other rivers on the bay give you an opportunity to see some truly spectacular landscapes slowly changing from forest to marsh.  While draft and bridges will limit river exploration with the big boat, there are many dinghy adventures that can be taken once anchored in a sheltered cove.

Speaking of draft: the Chesapeake has lots of places to experience soft groundings as the Bay is known for it’s mud bottom and shallow depths.  It is always best to explore on a rising tide so the tide can assist with refloating. There are definitely some hard sandbars and oyster bars but a lot more mud shoals and shallows. Growing up on the Elk River gives me a different perspective of shallow.  We used to go into some secret spots by running on plane in the Jon boat with the motor set to kick up and skid across mud flats and then drop into deep water on the other side motoring on.  I wouldn’t try that in the big boat!

Mariners who love history will find much to explore.  On the head of Elk in the Scotland Marsh Trojan Yachts were built not far from Fort Defiance.  Fort Defiance is where there was a small gun emplacement visited by George Washington as he escaped from the British and headed south.  The Chesapeake has been used by others to escape as it was a main artery of the Underground Railroad, it’s marshes and wooded tributaries excellent for escaping to the north. Both the Elk River and the Susquehanna flow from the hills of Pennsylvania the Susquehanna actually coming from New York.. This of course was a major route for indigenous communities to move from the north and south trading frequently occurring between the northern woodland tribes and the tidal tribes of the Chesapeake.

As a mariner, an outdoor adventurer, and history enthusiast, the Chesapeake Bay stole my heart at a young age.  I look forward to getting back there someday.  Hopefully, the magic lives on!