The 24th day of the 10th month of Emergence

MINDING THE ROOTS AT TAVERN CREEK - 9

Emerging from the creek, one is likely to notice a decomposing vessel left to face posterity alone in a marsh.  One can only imagine the stories that could be told about such a boat if only the previous owners could be found.

This is an old Skipjack sailing boat.  Stripped and left in the marsh to do the dust to dust thing.  Watermen, when their boats got to old to use, would simply sail them up a ditch in the marsh and leave them to rot.  Cheapest way to dispose of them.

The Skipjack type boat was introduced into the Chesapeake somewhere in the late 1800's.  It was used strictly for dredging oysters.  Prior to the introduction of this way of oyster fishing in the bay, watermen had to wield long and heavy hand tongs to extract the tasty morsels from the bars on the bottom of the bay.  But the Skipjack had a hand winch amidships that would allow two dredges to be cast into the water, dragged along the bars, and hand cranked one again to the deck.  Oysters and other debris were then sorted and the dredges thrown overboard and the whole process started anew.  This was the primary boat of the famed oyster wars conducted on the Maryland Virginia line between the watermen of those two states.  Fighting for space on the bay.

While there are probably a dozen of these boats still around, the trouble lies in finding a crew who knows how to handle a "Working" sail boat.  Furthermore, the abundance (or lack there of) of oysters in the bay is not sufficient to support a thriving industry.

Back in the day, the skipjacks would leave port on Monday morning and sail all week.  Some would have little boats with a single cabin and a couple of bunks where the sailors would spends the nights.  The catch would be off loaded each day to a ship called a "Buy Boat" seen in the distance in this image. 

The buy boat would simply off load the oysters from a number of skipjacks each day and return to port to sell the load once they were full.  This enabled the fishermen to stay on the water for extended periods of time and not have to sail back to port each day.

Here the "Wilma Lee" carries oyster spat, or young oyster seed, to a bar where the watermen will seed in order to provide a future generation of oysters.  This gives the watermen a bit of extra income in the off season as well as aids in the propagation of the oyster.

Once the tasty morsels made it to shore, the "Shuckers" would take over.  While not a dangerous job, it is tedious.  The knives used to open the shells could, if mishandled, put a significant hole in one's hand.  Believe me, I have visited an emergency room or two while pretending I knew what I was doing.  These folks know what they are doing and are super fast as well.  They get paid by the quart.  And you thought you had a tough job!