My friend Keith White lives near the Sassafras
River in Galena, MD. He has messed
around and on boats for decades.
Keith loves the history and culture of the Chesapeake Bay. Recently he shared this glimpse into
history of Skipjacks and Buy Boats.
I thought my boating friends might enjoy might enjoy a step into the
past.
By Keith
White
When the
first Europeans showed up in America, the oyster reefs in the Chesapeake Bay
were widespread and almost countless. Many nearly dried out at low tide. There
were so many beds that they constituted, if not a hazard, a navigation
consideration. Oysters could be harvested by simple means. The Eastern oyster
proved an unlimited, boundless resource any who wanted them.
 |
Skipjack under sail on Chesapeake Bay. Photo by Marion E. Warren (Marion E. Warren Collection, MSA SC1890-BP7506, Maryland State Archives).
Oysters feed
by drawing in water and extracting the nutrients they need, thus filtering the
water as an additional benefit. Marine naturalists have estimated that in those
pre-colonial times there were sufficient oysters in the bay to filter all of
the water in the bay once a week. By the 1980s it would take about 350 days to filter it once.
In those colonial days things looked good and oyster supplies seemed limitless. Around 1700 oyster “tongers” began to harvest oysters. By1800 oystermen from New England arrived with dredges, looking for new fishing grounds, having exhausted their own oyster beds by rapacious dredging without thought to any form of conservation.
Time passed. Half-hearted
legislation was put in place. Dredging was prohibited then restored, but only
under sail. Competition was stiff
and oyster wars were fought between newcomers and those who lived in the
area. Maryland watermen fought
Virginia watermen. The
Oyster Navy was established after the civil war to bring conflict under
control.
 |
| Nellie Crocket circa 1926 |
Time spent
dredging oysters was time spent making money. Time sailing back to shore to
deliver oysters for sale was not time that produced income. Thus the buy boat concept was born. These
boats went out to the oyster beds and brought the catch to shore, leaving the skipjacks
to dredge uninterrupted.
Buy boats were built for the job, or were
converted vessels. Purpose built boats varied from 40 to 100 feet in length,
although most were in the 45 to 60 foot range. The mast and cargo boom were
used to transfer the sorted oysters from the deck of the skipjack to the deck
of the buy boat.
Buy boats, or run boats, were worked hard throughout the years. The boats
that lasted were the were well built and had owners and captains who took pride
in the condition of their boats and kept them up.
When oystering was fast declining many of the oyster boats were used for
different careers. New owners
sometimes did not maintain the boats and many were threatened by time and
neglect. Some of the received
better care and survived to grace the waterways of today.
 |
| Nellie Crocket today |
Two of these survivors live on our river, the Sassafras. The Nellie
Crocket lives on the Cecil County bank, just above the Route 213 bascule bridge
in Georgetown, you can see her as you drive north towards Elkton.
The Nellie Crocket was launched in 1925, built by Charles A. Dana of Crisfield
for Andrew A. “Shad” Crocket of Tangier. She was named for one of Crocket’s
daughters. She was operated by Crocket until 1942, carrying oysters in season
and produce and lumber in the off-season.
In 1942 she was purchased by the US Government and operated as a fire boat
in ports around the Chesapeake. In1945 Shad Crocket bought her back and
continued to operate her as a buy boat. She then had a series of owners until,
at the end of her working career,in 1990, she was bought by Theodore “Teddy”
Parish of Georgetown.
Now the Nellie Crocket enjoys Grand Old Lady status on the Chesapeake
among her peers in the Chesapeake Bay Buy Boat association.
