The Chesapeake Log - Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum

a publication of the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum
The Chesapeake Log
Winter/spring 2013
contents
14
4
5
6
Winter/Spring 2013
18
chairman’s message
by CG Appleby
president’s letter
by Langley R. Shook
11
12
Museum receives donations at
OysterFest; Winner of the Oyster
Stew Competition; Shipwrights join
the Museum; New Bird & Decoy
Carving Group; Museum extends
living shoreline; Run for Team
CBMM at St. Michaels Running
Festival; New Waterfowling Exhibit;
What's Up? Donates to CBMM.
10 Curator’s corner
lifelines
Volunteer Profile: Lin Moeller
by Marie Thomas
research
Community Conversations:
State of the Oyster
by Robert Forloney
currents
What is the origin of ALL
those great ideas?
13
by Esty Collet
education
What’s Fresh?
Seasonal Selections from Education
by Kate Livie
14
Loaded with Meaning
by Pete Lesher
features
Navigating Freedom: The War of
1812 on the Chesapeake
by Kate Livie & Robert Forloney
2 winter/spring 2013
the chesapeake log
NEW! ADDED MEMBER BENEFITS
Show your CBMM membership card
and receive:
25
18
22
25
27
features
• FREE admission to the Dorchester
County Historical Society in
Cambridge, MD. Explore the
history and traditions of Dorchester
County and the Chesapeake Bay
region. The “Heritage Museums
and Gardens of Dorchester” feature
historic buildings, new exhibits, an
expanded Museum Store, and an
enriching program of events.
Located at 1003 Greenway Drive,
Cambridge, MD. For more info, visit
dorchesterhistory.org.
Mission Statement
The mission of the Chesapeake Bay Maritime
Museum is to inspire an understanding
of and appreciation for the rich maritime
heritage of the Chesapeake Bay and its
tidal reaches, together with the artifacts,
cultures and connections between this
place and its people.
Vision Statement
The vision of the Chesapeake Bay Maritime
Museum is to be the premier maritime
museum for studying, exhibiting, preserving
and celebrating the important history and
culture of the largest estuary in the United
States, the Chesapeake Bay.
Sign up for our e-Newsletter and
stay up-to-date on all of the news
and events at the Museum. Email
[email protected] to be added to
our mailing list.
CONNECT WITH US:
• REDUCED admission ($15) to the Philadelphia Antiques Show during
Museum Member Monday on April 15, 2013. Early admission at 10am includes
a guided show tour, panel discussions, and the opportunity to lunch in the Museum
Member dining room for an additional $20. Experience the finest examples of
17th through 20th century decorative arts, needlework, jewelry, furniture, and
important artwork. Advanced reservations encouraged by calling Ann Calvert at
410-246-3046. Located at the Pennsylvania Convention Center, Philadelphia, PA.
For more info, visit thephiladelphiaantiquesshow.org.
facebook.com/mymaritimemuseum
twitter.com/CBMMorg
youtube.com/CBMMorg1965
Beautifulswimmers.tumblr.com
Chesapeakeboats.blogspot.com
Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum
Navy Point, PO Box 636
St. Michaels, MD 21663
410-745-2916 • cbmm.org
Voices from the Past:
Hours:
Stories from Bronza Parks' Boatyard
by Dick Cooper
April to May, 9am–5pm
June to August, 9am–6pm
Sept. to Oct., 9am–5pm
Nov. to March, 10am–4pm
calendar
Programs, member events,
special events, and more.
on the rail
An update on the Rosie Parks
project and the Apprentice For a
Day Public Boatbuilding Program.
What does your
donation buy?
SAVE THE DATE
for the 16th Annual Boating Party Gala on
Saturday, September 14, 2013
On the cover:
“Admiral Cockburn burning & plundering
Havre de Grace on the 1st of June 1813,
done from a sketch taken on the spot at the
time.” Attributed to William Charles, circa
1813. Hambleton Print Collection.
Reprinted with permission from the
Maryland Historical Society.
Editors: Tracey Munson & Marie Thomas
Creative Director: Marie Thomas
Copy Editors: Mariana Lesher
& Emilie Knud-Hansen
Contributing Writers:
CG Appleby, Esty Collet, Dick Cooper,
Shane Elliott, Robert Forloney, Eric Hervol,
Kate Livie, Tracey Munson, Langley Shook,
Marie Thomas
The Chesapeake Log is a publication of
the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum.
the chesapeake log
winter/spring 2013
3
Chairman’s Message
by CG Appleby, Chairman of the Board
As we prepare for another busy season
here at the Museum, I can’t help but
look back with pride at all we’ve accomplished together over the past year—
a sold-out Boating Party, new exhibits,
robust educational programs, packed
festivals, engaged audiences, and a
record-breaking Charity Boat Auction,
to name a few.
Your enthusiasm for and support of
our work, coupled with the strong leadership of Langley Shook and a talented
staff of professionals, means the
Museum is charting a course toward
a bright and meaningful future. Your
Nancy & CG Appleby at the 2012 Boating Party.
support of the Museum, through your
generous donations to the Annual Fund, your membership, your involvement—
it all contributes to the success of this place and its mission to preserve the heritage
of the Chesapeake Bay and its people.
Almost a year has passed since the opening of Push and Pull: Life on Chesapeake
Bay Tugboats, and I still find myself drawn to the exhibit, fascinated by all of the
Bay’s stories. These are real people with authentic stories, and you help to make
sure they are acknowledged and appreciated.
This past September’s Boating Party fundraising gala was a shining example
of the dedication that keeps this place running. More than 550 loyal Museum
supporters, along with a dedicated corps of volunteers who host the annual fundraiser, braved torrential downpours and high winds, coming together undeterred
by the bad weather to support a cause close to the heart.
This year, as Nancy and I thought about our Annual Fund gifts to the
Museum, those rain-soaked Boating Party attendees and volunteers came back
to mind. Their dedication to supporting the Museum’s work is a true indicator of how worthy a cause the Museum offers. We can’t imagine a world where
the Chesapeake’s heritage and legacies aren’t shared and celebrated, much less
remembered. And so, Nancy and I increased our gift knowing the good our
donation does for the people served by this Museum.
On behalf of the Board of Governors, I thank you for supporting this
Museum in all the ways you can—whether by increased, continued, or first time
gifts to the Annual Fund; or as a volunteer, member, or visitor, you are a stakeholder in ensuring what future generations will know about the Chesapeake
Bay. Thank you for making our mission and vision important, and keeping the
Museum a part of your own legacy.
4 winter/spring 2013
the chesapeake log
Board of
Governors
2012-2013
CG Appleby, Chair
Tom D. Seip, Vice Chair
James P. Harris, Treasurer
Richard C. Tilghman, Secretary
Schuyler Benson
Paul Berry
Richard J. Bodorff
Harry W. Burton
William S. Dudley
David E. Dunn
Anna W. Fichtner
Dagmar D. P. Gipe
E. Brooke Harwood, Jr.
Christopher A. Havener
Francis Hopkinson, Jr.
Fred Israel
Pamela Jana
Richard H. Kimberly
Peter M. Kreindler
Frank C. Marshall
Geoffrey F. Oxnam
Bruce A. Ragsdale
Mitchell Reiss
Diane J. Staley
Henry H. Stansbury
Benjamin C. Tilghman, Jr.
Alfred Tyler, 2nd
Emeriti
Richard T. Allen
Margaret D. Keller
Breene M. Kerr
Charles L. Lea, Jr.
D. Ted Lewers, MD
Fred C. Meendsen
John C. North II
Sumner Parker
Robert A. Perkins
James K. Peterson
Norman H. Plummer
John J. Roberts
Henry H. Spire
James E. Thomas
Joan Darby West
Donald G. Whitcomb
President’s Letter
Museum Staff
President
by Langley R. Shook, President
Langley R. Shook, President, 4951
Cheryl Miller, Administrative Assistant, 4943
Breene M. Kerr Center
for Chesapeake Studies
Pete Lesher, Chief Curator, 4971
Richard Scofield, Assistant Curator of Watercraft, 4966
Rob Forloney, Director of the Kerr Center, 4959
Kate Livie, Director of Education, 4947
Eric Applegarth, Exhibits Specialist, 4945
Lynne Phillips, Collections Manager, 4972
Helen Van Fleet, Education & Reservations Assistant, 4941
Michelle Zacks, Museum Folklorist, 4961
Boatyard
Marc Barto, Rosie Parks Project Manager, 4967
Mike Gorman, Vessel Maintenance Manager, 4967
Jennifer Kuhn, Journeyman Apprentice
Shane Elliott, Shipwright Apprentice
Joe LaRochelle, Shipwright Apprentice
Eric Hervol, Shipwright Apprentice
Communications & Special Events
Tracey Munson, Vice President of Communications, 4960
Marie Thomas, Communications Manager, 4953
Melissa Spielman, Director of Events &
Volunteer Program, 4956
Ida Heelan, Events Coordinator, 4944
Development
David Crosson, Vice President of Development, 4984
Constituent Services
René Stevenson, Vice President of
Constituent Services, 4950
Debbie Collison, Membership Manager, 4991
Emilie Knud-Hansen, Mem./Develop. Assistant, 4955
Megan Fisher, Museum Host, 4945
Patti Meschino, Store Business Development Manager, 4954
Devon Duvall, Acting Store Manager, 4962
Finance
Jean Brooks, Vice President of Finance, 4958
Craig Atwood, Director of Finance, 4958
Digie McGuirk, Staff Accountant, 4957
Operations
Bill Gilmore, Vice President of Operations, 4949
John Ford, Facilities Manager, 4970
Lad Mills, Boat Donations Program Manager, 4942
Andrew Walter, Boat Donations Program
Assistant Manager, 4942
Sam Fairbank, Facilities Maintenance Assistant, 4969
Joseph Redman, Facilities Maintenance Assistant, 4969
To contact, dial 410-745, and the number listed.
The Museum’s 2012-2013 Annual Fund campaign
kicked off last spring with ambitions of setting a
new record for the fourth year in a row. With the
support of almost 900 of you—including over 100
first-time donors—I am pleased to report we are
more than halfway to our $600,000 goal.
One of my favorite wintertime activities has
been reading all the personal notes sent along with
your donations—scores of compliments, good
suggestions and occasional constructive criticism.
Each gift has had its own meaning and value—like
the $50 gift from a local school teacher that can be
used to buy fishing tackle and bait for a family to try their luck off Waterman’s
Wharf at the Chesapeake Folk Festival, or the $250 gift from an Eastern
Shoreman and wooden boat enthusiast to buy white oak for the world’s last
surviving original bugeye Edna E. Lockwood, or the $13,000 gift from a Board
member that paid for a much needed new roof on our boatyard’s pole shed.
Though CBMM is more fortunate than most of its peers to have a sizable
share of its budget funded by paid admissions and membership dues, charitable
gifts nonetheless provide the lion’s share of the Museum’s revenue support. If you
have not already done so, please consider donating to this year’s Annual Fund
that closes on April 30, or making a second gift. Take a look at what your donation buys, on page 27, and rest easy in the knowledge that we put every penny
to good use. Independent non-profit rating organizations like Charity Navigator
and GuideStar have commended our thriftiness. I invite you to check out their
reviews at charitynavigator.org and guidestar.org.
We have a lot to look forward to this coming season, including the new exhibit
Navigating Freedom: The War of 1812 on the Chesapeake, opening on May 11 in time
to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the skirmish in St. Michaels. This exhibit
explores the impact of the War of 1812 on the people of the Chesapeake—black
and white Americans, militiamen, Baltimore merchants, St. Michaels shipbuilders,
and British sailors who found opportunity or misfortune amid the conf lict.
(Read more on page 14).
Thank you to those who’ve already made donations to our Museum’s Annual
Fund, and to the more than 5,000 who renew your memberships year after year.
Please take a moment to visit our YouTube page and watch a personal thank-you
from our Museum staff. You also can find it at cbmm.org/give.htm. It’s just a small
token of our deep appreciation and gratitude for your continuing generosity that
remains the lifeblood of this institution we love.
Many thanks,
To email, use the first initial, full last name @cbmm.org.
the chesapeake log
winter/spring 2013
5
currents
Museum receives donations at OysterFest
Shipwrights join the Museum
T
S
he November 3 OysterFest brought
2,500 visitors to campus, despite
chilly weather and Superstorm Sandy
just a few days before. Four generations
of Parks family members once again met
at the Museum to celebrate the legacies
of brothers Bronza and Orville Parks,
and to see the progress of the skipjack
Rosie Parks restoration project.
Bronza’s grandchildren Pres Harding
and Brenda Goodwin donated several
hand tools used in boatbuilding by
Bronza, as well as campaign signs and
other items he used for running as
County Commissioner shortly before his
untimely death.
Fordham Brewing Company from
Dover, DE, served up their popular
oyster stout recipe. Fordham donated a
portion of the profits from the sale of the
Rosie Parks Oyster Stout to the Museum.
(top) Members of the Parks family and Museum
staff members gather for a photo at OysterFest.
(left) Chief Curator Pete Lesher, President Langley
Shook, Pres Harding, and Brenda Goodwin.
(right) Vice President of Communications
Tracey Munson, Chief Curator Pete Lesher,
President Langley Shook, President and CEO of
Fordham and Dominion Brewing Jim Lutz, and
Fordham Marketing Coordinator Lauren Bigelow.
Inn at Perry Cabin wins oyster stew competition
S
ix restaurants competed in the Museum’s November 3 Oyster Stew
Competition at OysterFest, with more than 300 participants taking part
in blind taste tests and voting by ballot for their favorite stew. Sherwood’s
Landing’s oyster stew placed first, and was served as stew ‘A’ in the tastings.
OysterFest participants also picked St. Michaels Harbour Inn’s Harbour
Lights oyster stew (stew ‘E’) as second, with third place going to Gourmet by
the Bay (stew ‘B’). All restaurants are located in St. Michaels, MD.
(right) Inn at Perry Cabin General Manager Stephanie Mehail, left, and Executive Sous Chef
Caleb Taylor of the Inn’s Sherwood’s Landing Restaurant, right, recently accepted a plaque
from the Museum for winning the Oyster Stew Competition at the 2012 OysterFest.
6 winter/spring 2013
the chesapeake log
hane Elliott of Knoxville, TN, Joe Larochelle of Quebec,
Canada, and Eric Hervol of Seattle, WA, have joined
the Museum as shipwright apprentices. Elliott recently
completed a nine-month diploma program at the Northwest
School of Wooden Boatbuilding in Port Hadlock, WA. He
holds a bachelor’s of architecture degree from the University
of Tennessee’s College of Architecture and Design in
Knoxville. Elliott’s apprenticeship began with the project to
restore the skipjack Rosie Parks. Elliott was introduced to the
Chesapeake Bay in 2005 while working an architecture job in
Fells Point, Baltimore. After sailing with a friend, he built a
12-foot plywood and epoxy dinghy, and hasn’t stopped building boats yet. Elliott continues as a longstanding volunteer
with the Living Classrooms Foundation’s shipboard programs
in Baltimore. During his one-year apprenticeship, he is
splitting his time between St. Michaels and Baltimore.
Joe Larochelle began his apprenticeship working on the
1889 bugeye Edna E. Lockwood. He also brings a unique
talent to his apprenticeship by offering interpretation of
the Museum’s historic vessels and restoration work to
French-speaking visitors. Larochelle recently earned his
Comprehensive Boat Building Certificate of Completion
from the Great Lakes Boatbuilding School in Cedarville,
MI. Prior to Great Lakes, he also completed a woodworking program at the L’École des Métiers du Meubles School
in Montreal. Larochelle became connected to the Museum
through the recommendation of a former shipwright apprentice, Bud McIntire. McIntire currently serves as Director of
Development & Student Services for the Great Lakes Boat
Building School. This past summer, Larochelle worked in
Shipwright apprentices Shane Elliott, Joe Larochelle, and Eric Hervol.
the Muskoka region in Ontario, working on classic wooden
runabouts. During his one-year apprenticeship, he is residing
in St. Michaels.
Eric Hervol began his apprenticeship with restoration
work on the skipjack Rosie Parks. Hervol recently completed
a nine-month diploma program at the Northwest School of
Wooden Boatbuilding in Port Hadlock, WA. He also holds
bachelor of arts degrees in computer science, mathematics
and biology from Washington University in St. Louis, MO.
Hervol was introduced to the Chesapeake Bay in October
2012, while helping a friend move a boat to St. Michaels. His
volunteer experience includes work with Friends of Trees in
Portland, OR, Creve Coeur Fire Department in Missouri,
and as a teacher on the schooner Adventuress out of Port
Townsend, WA. During his one-year apprenticeship, he is
living in St. Michaels.
NEW: CBMM Bird &
Decoy Carving Group
Instructor Larry
Parker, left, is
helping Bob
Herman, right,
learn techniques
used for decoy
carving.
A
group of volunteer bird and decoy carvers are now
meeting at the Museum on Thursdays and Fridays to
share the tradition with other CBMM members interested
in carving. For more information or if you’d like to join
the group, please contact CBMM Volunteer Gene Rall at
410-829-8368.
the chesapeake log
winter/spring 2013
7
currents
New Exhibit opens April 12:
Museum receives
grants to extend
Living Shoreline
Crisfield Carvings–Bird Hunting on Broad Waters
T
T
he Museum recently received a grant from
the Chesapeake Bay Trust (CBT), National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
(NOAA), Maryland Department of Natural
Resources, and the Maryland Department of the
Environment to extend its living shoreline from
Waterman’s Wharf to the property line bordering The Inn
at Perry Cabin. Additional funding was provided through a
generous Crystal Trust grant.
The $60,000 CBT grant is part of the total $800,000
awarded to 16 homeowner associations, non-profit organizations and municipalities throughout Maryland and Virginia,
designed to encourage the installation and understanding of
living shorelines throughout the Chesapeake Bay watershed.
Now in its seventh year, CBT's Living Shorelines program
has awarded more than four million dollars and leveraged
seven million dollars in matching funds from landowners throughout Maryland and Virginia. Living shorelines
employ a shoreline stabilization technique which uses
natural habitat elements, instead of bulkhead or riprap, to
protect shorelines from erosion while also providing critical
habitat for fish, crabs, and other wildlife. NOAA, a founding partner of the Living Shorelines program, has funded
68 on-the-ground projects in local communities, creating
to date 28,000 linear feet of living shoreline and 18 acres
of wetland habitat. The Museum completed the first two
phases of its living shoreline in 2009, and is eager to finish
the project.
“Our living shoreline has been a big success. It not only
helps to improve water quality, it also adds natural beauty.
We love to see both kids and adults looking for all of the
animal life it holds,” said Museum President Langley Shook.
For more information on the Chesapeake Bay Trust’s Living
Shoreline program, visit cbtrust.org.
Run for CBMM at the May 18 St. Michaels Running Festival
T
he Museum recently joined the St. Michaels Running
Festival as an official charity partner, and is looking for
runner and walkers to help build the CBMM Team for this
May 18, 2013 event. Every participant who signs up now for
the Festival’s Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum Team will
help raise much needed funds in support of our mission.
The event includes a USA Track & Field (USTAF) certified half marathon course, a 10k course, and a 5k course.
When you sign up, the St. Michaels Running Festival will
donate 10% of all team registration fees to the Museum. In
addition, runners can commit to raising additional funds
through the Festival’s online charity platform.
the chesapeake log
Lem and Steve Ward outside their shop in Crisfield, MD. Photograph
by A. Aubrey Bodine. Copyright Jennifer B. Bodine. Courtesy of
aaubreybodine.com.
such as mergansers and loons. Among the more unusual
species for decoys were flickers (locally “hammers”), which
were hunted widely in the area and carved by several area
decoy makers.
Crisfield’s waterfowling traditions are featured in
Crisfield Carvings—Bird Hunting on Broad Waters, a special
exhibit in the Museum’s Waterfowling Building with a
member’s preview opening on Friday, April 12, 2013. The
exhibit will open to the public the following day and remain
through Sunday, November 3, 2013. See the calendar of
events on page 22 for more information.
What’s Up? Media donates
proceeds to CBMM
For more information, visit:
runstm.com or email [email protected]
8 winter/spring 2013
he city of Crisfield, MD, lies amid the vast stretches of
marshland ringing Tangier Sound—an ideal habitat for
the migratory birds that pass through every fall on their way
south. Although well known as the seafood capital for the
oysters and crabs that were packed there, Crisfield is just as
well known for decoy carving in a distinctive local style. The
Ward brothers—Lem and Steve—were the most famous of
them, but Crisfield produced many more carvers, and hunters
purchased their decoys for use far beyond these local waters.
Crisfield's waterfowling and carving traditions are nearly
as old as the city itself. Founded after the Civil War, when a
railroad spur line was extended across the marshes to reach
the waters of Tangier Sound, downtown Crisfield is built on
oyster shells—the discarded byproduct of the fishing industry that built the city.
Will Sterling and Travis Ward, Sr., father of the Ward
brothers, were among the first generation of decoy carvers in
the community. They created a local style that was marked
by a broad, flat bottom, which gave the duck or goose decoy
maximum stability to minimize its wobble in the choppy,
open waters of Tangier Sound. Unlike other waterfowl
hunting regions, the local waterfowlers—and the decoy
carvers who supplied them—did not concentrate entirely on
these most popular ducks, but hunted almost every species
of bird that passed through the area, from herons (locally
“buncutties” and “wops”) on down to song birds. They
carved—and hunted—bird species that were widely enjoyed
as table fare, but also birds that fed on fish and shellfish,
What’s Up? Media publisher and president Veronica Tovey
(pictured left) presents a check for $2,000 to the Chesapeake
Bay Maritime Museum. The Museum was one of several
beneficiaries of What’s Up? Media’s annual Best Of Party,
celebrated in June. Also pictured are Museum President
Langley Shook and Communications Manager Marie Thomas.
the chesapeake log
winter/spring 2013
9
lifelines
curator’s corner
Loaded with Meaning
by Pete Lesher
by Marie Thomas
W
hen the British brig Conflict sailed up the Miles River
with 11 small boats in tow under cover of early morning darkness on August 10, 1813, they were expected. With
no regular Army units available, militia units from all over
Talbot County assembled in and around St. Michaels for
about a week in advance of the attack. The Royal Marines
landed just south of the town and overtook the battery on
Parrott’s Point at the mouth of the harbor.
After spiking the cannon to render it useless, they
returned to their boats and proceeded to turn their guns on
the town. The militia’s artillery batteries inside the town
returned fire. According to militia General Perry Benson’s
official report, “some of the houses were perforated, but no
Chief Curator Pete Lesher holds an early American military musket
injury to any living being.”
donated to the Museum last year. On the lock, its few markings
“HENRY” and “CP” make it identifiable as the work of William Henry II,
The British attacked again on August 26, landing at
of Nazareth PA.
Wade’s Point and advancing on St. Michaels by road from
the north, but they turned back again when they reached
a wooden section that made a column of troops vulnerable.
another account credited a different militiaman with the
The defenders of St. Michaels numbered perhaps 500, and
warning shot. Family history has not shed light on which of
they came from companies all around Talbot County, and
these defenders used the musket that survives. And for the
a few beyond. One of the largest companies was the
moment it remains a mystery why a Pennsylvania militia
St. Michaels Patriotic Blues, with just over 100 officers and
musket made it into the hands of a Maryland militiaman,
men. These were citizen-soldiers, local farmers, tradesmen,
but the stories reveal a rich history. Even with its history
even day laborers who were called up in the face of an emerclouded in mystery, the gun is emblematic of the citizengency. Among the defenders were ten men named Porter,
soldiers who were called to defend towns all around the
three of them in this company—John, Philip, and Perry,
Chesapeake—typically with less success than they had
and Perry himself lived on Mulberry Street in the heart
at St. Michaels.
of the town he defended. Of the other seven, James Porter
When the war ended, militiamen were generally allowed
served in a Miles River Neck company, Tibbels Porter
to purchase their guns, and that is probably how this musket
and Benjamin Porter in two different Bayside companies,
descended in the family. Although intended for military use,
William Porter and Woolman Porter from Miles River,
it was just as easily used with bird shot to bring home a duck
Isaac Porter from Wye Landing, and Robert L. Porter with
or a goose. When it came to the Museum, it still had an old
the Easton Fencibles.
black powder load with bird shot.
Last year, the Museum received an early American
Such muskets are not scarce, and most, like this one,
military musket. On the lock, its few markings “HENRY”
had the original flintlock replaced with a percussion lock for
and “CP” make it identifiable as the work of William Henry, more reliable firing. But what makes this gun special is its
II, of Nazareth, PA, who contracted to make 2,000 of these
connection with the efforts of American citizens to defend
guns for Commonwealth of Pennsylvania militia use. Porter
their homes on the Chesapeake Bay against the British
family legend purports the musket was used by a family
during the War of 1812. The musket will be a part of the
member who fought in the militia during the battle of
new exhibit, Navigating Freedom: The War of 1812 on the
St. Michaels, and may have fired a warning shot to alert
Chesapeake, which opens on May 11. Read more about the
the various militia companies to the British arrival—though exhibit on page 14.
10 winter/spring 2013
Volunteer Profile:
Lin Moeller
the chesapeake log
S
hortly after a 2009 move to the Eastern Shore with
husband Peter, Lin Moeller signed up to volunteer at the
Museum. As a science teacher in Annapolis, Lin frequently
brought students to the Museum on field trips and was
familiar with the educational programs offered, and
knew the value of docent volunteers intimately.
“As I was retiring from teaching, being a docent was
perfect in maintaining my interest in the Bay and working
with children,” explains Lin, who primarily leads students
on Bay History and Bay Bounty Tours, and the Oystering
Legacy Program. In addition, Lin is involved with the Crab
Cakes Program and serves as a crew member on the Mister
Jim during ecology cruises, as well as helping with kids’
summer camps and assisting the Director of Education with
developing special tours.
“My favorite part of volunteering is getting students
actively involved in what the Museum has to offer, to
imagine and experience living in various time periods and
taking on the roles of a Native American, a waterman, a
lighthouse keeper, and so on,” says Lin. “Along with this,
encouraging students to think about and become aware of
changes that have taken place over the last 400 years.”
Lin’s connection to history and the outdoors runs deep.
Originally from the small rural town of Canton, CT, Lin
grew up on a 1700s Colonial farm, close to where her
ancestors first settled in the area in the 1600s. After graduating from Eastern Connecticut State University with a degree
in education, Lin and Peter eventually settled in Maryland,
where she earned a master’s of education from the University
of Maryland at College Park, and their daughter Susanne was
born in 1989.
Over the course of her teaching career, Lin taught prekindergarten through 8th grade, spending 20 years at Holy
Trinity Episcopal School in Bowie, where she also served as
the Director of Admissions and Development. The last ten
years of teaching were spent at the Annapolis Area Christian
School, where she taught 6th grade science and 8th grade
math. Lin was responsible for reshaping the science curriculum into a combined hands-on study of life and environmental
sciences, with a primary focus on Chesapeake Bay studies.
Lin and Peter currently live in Arcadia Shores in
St. Michaels and raise oysters at their dock for the Maryland
Oyster Restoration Program. When she’s not at the Museum,
Lin also volunteers with the United Fund of Talbot County
and Christmas in St. Michaels, and enjoys kayaking, gardening, photography, drawing, Colonial history studies, genealogy, and bible study.
You too can volunteer at the Museum!
Support the Museum’s mission by:
• staffing special events
• guiding tours
• leading kids programs
• welcoming & educating visitors
• gardening
• helping in the boatyard
• answering phones
• helping with on-the-water programs
• assisting store staff
• supporting library & curatorial functions
• cultivating new members
Through a series of informative and hands-on orientation sessions,
the Museum provides volunteers with a wealth of knowledge
about Chesapeake culture, history, and its environment. All
volunteers participate in basic training sessions and have the
opportunity to expand their knowledge with specialized training
sessions, focusing on specific topics and programs. Contact
Melissa Spielman at 410-745-4956 for more information, or
email [email protected].
Docent Volunteer Training, Van Lennep Auditorium
These sessions are for docents who have completed the annual General Tour
Training. The two-part sessions offer background and content information,
as well as practical applied instruction in CBMM’s exhibits and campus. Both
sessions are mandatory for each program training to be successfully completed.
Contact Director of Education Kate Livie at [email protected] or 410-745-4947
for more information or to register.
Bay Bounty Tour Training: March 7 & 8 from 10am -12:30pm
Bay Discovery Tour Training: March 14 & 15 from 10am -12:30pm
Oystering Legacy Tour Training: March 21 & 22 from 10am -12:30pm
Crab Cakes Program Training: March 28 & 29 from 10am -12:30pm
the chesapeake log
winter/spring 2013
11
research
education
Community Conversations: State of the Oyster
by Robert Forloney
Seasonal Selections from Education
CBMM Summer Sailing Program
instructor & volunteers needed
by Kate Livie
T
T
he Museum’s Center for Chesapeake Studies, in conjunction with the Maryland Humanities Council, presents
the State of the Oyster Program—the first in an annual series
of public programming initiatives entitled “Community
Conversations,” that emphasize public discussion and
outreach to new audiences. The State of the Oyster Program
will focus on the status of the oyster fishery and its past,
present, and future significance to different Bay communities
over the course of four Sunday afternoons in late February
and early March.
These programs will pose the question of whether and how
oyster production can continue as a backbone of the region’s
culture and economy. While biological aspects of the “oyster
question” will be addressed, the primary focus will be on the
cultural and social dynamics of this issue. One of the most
significant goals of the project is to host public forums where
stakeholders holding different, and in some cases conflicting,
perspectives can have meaningful conversations.
The Maryland Humanities Council has provided the
seed money for this innovative project which will also
include an art exhibition, original video production, and
new research as part of the overall program. Each session
will examine a particular aspect of this complicated topic:
the social history of Chesapeake oyster production and
conservation; the causes of the oyster crash; the traditions,
expertise, and perspectives of watermen; and the possibilities and consequences for addressing the imperiled state
of oystering. Programs include presentations by historians
and scientists as well as oyster harvesters and processors. In
addition, questions and comments from the audience and mediated group discussions between the presenters and the public
will be emphasized. Throughout the duration of this project,
photographs and paintings depicting the daily activities of
watermen will be displayed in the Van Lennep Auditorium,
providing a stimulus for reflection and conversation.
Video clips of watermen engaged in activities such
as tonging, the inner workings of processing plants, and
scientists engaged in actual field work will be shown at
the beginning of each program in order to provide context
for the topics being discussed. There will be something to
engage all participants and learning styles. Please refer to
the calendar of events on page 22 for specific dates and times.
What is the origin of ALL those great ideas?
by Esty Collet
F
or nearly twelve years, the Academy for Lifelong
Learning (ALL) at the Chesapeake Bay Maritime
Museum has offered a wide variety of lectures, round table
discussions, workshops, and field trips. ALL’s 300 members
choose from 15 to 20 different programs each season. Have
you ever wondered where we get all those great ideas? Well the
answer is simple—we get our ideas from people just like you.
(left) Joan Katz and George Merrill regularly offer popular courses for the
Academy of Lifelong Learning. (Photo courtesy of Wilson Wyatt, Jr.)
12 winter/spring 2013
What’s Fresh?
the chesapeake log
his winter, as
campus cleared
of school children
and summer visitors, the Education
Department took
advantage of the
relative quiet to
offer a slate of fun
programs to keep
Museum members,
volunteers, and the
Look for information about the Summer
wider world engaged Sailing Program in the summer issue of
in our mission as the The Chesapeake Log.
bitter cold settled in
and even the geese on Fogg’s Cove hunkered down.
Looking ahead, we’ve got a spring and summer season
that’s bursting with every educational opportunity you
can imagine: training sessions, workshops, classes, camps,
lectures, paddles, and festivals. But you don’t have to be
on the Eastern Shore to take advantage of CBMM’s educational content—through our education blog, Beautiful
Swimmers, beautifulswimmers.tumblr.com, the compelling
stories, photographs, and history that make Chesapeake
Bay and this museum so unforgettable are at your fingertips,
wherever you are.
ALL is a learning cooperative, and the majority of course
ideas and instructors come from our membership. We are
not your typical continuing education program with a standard curriculum—our courses grow organically from the
interests and expertise of our membership.
If you live on the Eastern Shore of Maryland you know
the area is full of individuals with extraordinary life experiences, diverse points of view, and lots of know-how in
many different fields. From Shakespeare to American art,
from the Big Bang to health and well-being, from iPads
to boating, from political science to the history of God,
from quilting to writing, and more—our programs are as
rich and varied as our membership. ALL is a community
committed to the exploration of ideas, exchanging knowledge and sharing experiences. If you are not yet a member
Help the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum teach the
fun, excitement, and adventure of sailing on the Miles
River! We are seeking sailing instructors and volunteers
to assist the Education Department with teaching children and adults the fundamentals and technical skills of
sailing on our JY 15 vessels.
All instructors must be certified in Boaters Safety
and/or lifeguarding through the American Red Cross.
Applicants for the head sailing instructor position must
additionally be US Sailing Certified Level 1. Volunteers
must have prior sailing experience. Sailing Program
instructors and volunteers must be safe, patient, and
good at explaining concepts and techniques of sailing.
Candidates must have experience and skill working with
children and should be excellent communicators and
teachers. This has been a highly successful program for
our youth and family audiences.
Employment dates: June 10th – August 28th
To apply for an instructor position, please send resume
with references to Human Resources, Chesapeake
Bay Maritime Museum, P. O. Box 636, St. Michaels,
Maryland 21663 or e-mail [email protected].
we hope you will consider joining us. Whether or not you
are a member, we invite you to consider leading a course
or program. This coming May we are offering a workshop
to gather ideas for new course selections and to encourage
prospective course leaders. The workshop is an opportunity
to work together to consider potential new course ideas,
as well as a time for experienced course leaders to provide
support and training for new leaders. If you have an idea
but are not sure how to put it together, we can provide a
mentor to advise you on getting started.
Details on the May workshop will be forthcoming, but
feel free to address inquiries to the curriculum committee at
[email protected]. If you would like a copy of the current course
catalog call Helen Van Fleet at 410-745-4941. Visit us on
Facebook and/or check out our website at cbmm.org/all.
the chesapeake log
winter/spring 2013
13
Navigating Freedom:
The War of 1812 on the Chesapeake
The first of its kind, this new
exhibit explores the War as seen
through the eyes of the men and
women who lived through it.
Here is just one of their stories.
by Kate Livie & Robert Forloney
T
he barest finger of a breeze stirred
the sultry Chesapeake air that
summer day in 1814 on Doctor John
“State of Maryland Calvert County To Wit. On the 12th day of May Eighteen hundred and
twenty eight personally appeared Barbara Fowler who made oath on this Holy Evangely
Beall’s plantation. It whispered through
of Almighty God that at the time of the British troops acting under the command of Capt.
the acres of leathery tobacco leaves, and
Nourse, burnt the Court house in said County, that Negro Frisby the property of William
stopped the saline bead descending
Harris late of said County dead, were in company with said troops with a sword by his side
down Frisby Harris’ forehead.
and that she never understood that he has any surname and further saith not. Swornto
Frisby, “a slave of so useful abilities”
before, Levin W Ballard.” This eyewitness account and others are reprinted with permission
from the National Archives and Records Administration.
according to his owner’s agent D.A.
Hall, had been hired out in the thick
of the growing season to the tobacco
din of hundreds of voices, the odor of unwashed bodies in
and wheat farm on God’s Graces Point. The plantation’s
woolens permeated by sweat, billowed upriver magnificently
flat expanse of farmland opened its eyes to the river, lookand for plantation owners, malignantly, literally on the
ing downstream and out to the flowing main body of the
doorstep. This was a summer of heat but also of dread and
Chesapeake Bay, the economic lifeblood and highway of
hope. British ships like these crossed the tributaries of the
far-flung farms like these. The muddy oxbows and marshy
Chesapeake, burning, looting, blockading, and demoralizing
switchbacks of the Patuxent may not have looked like it,
the new Americans of the Bay country’s tidewater.
but they and other Bay tributaries were the most important
But the slaves of these lowlands saw possibility in the
connection the early Republic had with the outside world,
unannounced arrival of the British warships, which caused
carrying wheat, tobacco, and timber away and flooding back such a clamor and uproar amongst their masters. The
again with fine Madeira, ceramics, fabric, and human flesh.
British had proclaimed in April of that year that freedom,
To Frisby Harris, it must have seemed like an apparithe most desperately sought and terribly elusive goal, was
tion on the horizon—an enormous British frigate under
to be rewarded to any slave able to escape to such a warship.
sail, towering several stories above both the water line and
For many Chesapeake slaves, the 18 year-old Frisby Harris
the smaller native Chesapeake vessels that regularly trafincluded, that proclamation of freedom was a clarion call to
ficked the Patuxent River. A floating barracks, with the
action during the summer of 1814.
14 winter/spring 2013
the chesapeake log
“Admiral Cockburn burning & plundering Havre de Grace on the 1st of June 1813.” Attributed to William Charles, circa 1813. Hambleton Print
Collection. Reprinted with permission from the Maryland Historical Society.
When the British boots touched the
shoreline and picked their way inland
through the tuckahoe and cattail to
burn and loot, Harris cast off his toil
and joined their ranks. As the big house
burned at God’s Graces Point and the
fine Georgian paneling charred and
turned to ash, Frisby Harris helped loot
Dr. Beall’s furniture.
Less than a week later, as the British
soldiers torched the Calvert County
courthouse, Harris was observed by
eyewitness Barbara Fowler “in company
with said troops with a sword by his side”
and reportedly “acting as an officer”
according to another witness, Robert Yoe.
Frisby Harris’ dramatic turn from
Patuxent slave to corporal in the Royal
Marines is just one of the extraordinary narratives told by CBMM’s new
exhibit, Navigating Freedom: The War of
1812 on the Chesapeake. (Documentation
of Harris' account provided by the
Study of the Legacy of Slavery in
Maryland, Maryland State Archives.)
Harris represents the thousands of
slaves who escaped during the conflict,
spotting British warships approaching
in the distance and fleeing in small
craft and skiffs to the protection and
the liberty offered by the enemy of the
United States. He also represents the
untold, overshadowed stories that linger
behind and between the battles, the
patriotism, the “bombs bursting in air”
and the tales of bravery that permeate
most of our public concepts and stereotypes about the War of 1812.
In Navigating Freedom, we explore
the War of 1812 through these unlauded,
forgotten Chesapeake residents of many
creeds and colors who found opportunity
the chesapeake log
winter/spring 2013
15
or misfortune amid the conflict:
black and white everyday Americans,
militiamen, Baltimore merchants,
St. Michaels shipbuilders, and Quakers.
Their diaries, artifacts, portraits, and
articles reveal their personal stories,
and the new ways the War of 1812 on
the Chesapeake challenged American
ideas about freedom.
For Navigating Freedom, the Museum
received more than $110,000 in
support from the Maryland Heritage
Areas Authority and a Star Spangled
200 grant from the Maryland War of
1812 Bicentennial Commission.
This includes funding for the
outside expert consultants as well as
the exhibition development, innovative
interactives, on-line virtual exhibition,
a school curriculum with associated
teacher workshops and a variety of
public programming. Aside from the
physical exhibition itself, this War of
1812 initiative will have a series of
long-lasting and diverse products for
a number of audiences.
The Exhibition
16 winter/spring 2013
Partner s
•
•
•
•
Study of the Legacy of Slavery in
Maryland, Maryland State Archives
Center for Environment
and Society’s GIS Program,
Washington College
Dr. Alan Taylor
Dr. Jennifer Dorsey
Talbot County Public Schools
•
National Park Service
•
Image courtesy of the Library of Congress.
Navigating Freedom: The War of 1812
on the Chesapeake is a groundbreaking
exhibit, both here at the Chesapeake
Bay Maritime Museum and on a
national scale as well. While traditional
interpretations of the conflict tend to
focus on major land and naval battles,
illustrious American and British
heroes, and the political machinations
of nation against nation, Navigating
Freedom explores the transformation,
impact and legacy of the War of 1812
through the lives of the men and
women directly affected by the political,
economic, and emotional upheaval.
The sources of these intimate
accounts of a national struggle are the
product of new research from a variety
of collaborators including CBMM’s
own Center for Chesapeake Studies
(CCS): Study of the Legacy of Slavery
in Maryland Program at the Maryland
State Archives, Pulitzer-prize winning
historian Dr. Alan Taylor, and Dr.
Jennifer Dorsey, professor and author
of Hirelings: African-American Workers
and Free Labor in Early Maryland,
among others.
A team of expert curatorial and
design professionals led by Rick Beard,
Laura Friedman and Ken Yellis helped
translate the extensive original research
into an exhibit that dynamically
connects the visitor with the War of
1812 as seen through the perspectives of Bay folk across the social
and economic spectrum—slaves who
became free and settled in Nova
Scotia as British citizens, shipbuilders in St. Michaels, a captured Quaker
mother and her small children, British
Fu nding
•
•
Maryland Heritage Areas Authority
Star Spangled 200 Grant from the
Maryland War of 1812 Bicentennial
Commission
DON'T MISS:
and American naval commanders
broad of skill in sail and chance,
plantation owners who traded with
the enemy under the protection of
a white flag, and their slaves who
guided the British through the
Chesapeake’s swampy inlets. In addition, CCS partnered with the GIS
the chesapeake log
lab at Washington College to generate
a 3D virtual flyover of the Battle of
St. Michaels, as well as maps highlighting the cultural landscapes of the area.
Through their own words and artifacts,
Navigating Freedom allows voices of
the past to explain how no one in the
Chesapeake was protected from the
echoes of war. Navigating Freedom opens
on Saturday, May 11, 2013. Members
are invited for a special guided tour
with CCS Director Robert Forloney,
beginning at 11am.
Additional stories, research, and
activities will be shared with the public
beyond CBMM’s campus through an
interactive online exhibit, curriculum
materials, teacher workshops, and a wide
variety of public programs for all ages.
For more information about this
initiative, contact Robert Forloney at
[email protected] or call 410-745-4959.
More information is also available
online at cbmm.org.
How Escaped Slaves
Liberated the British
Wednesday, April 10
6-8pm, Van Lennep Auditorium
$8 members, $10 non-members
Pre-register with Helen Van Fleet
at 410-745-4941.
Read more on page 23.
the chesapeake log
winter/spring 2013
17
feature
Voices from the Past:
Stories from
Bronza Parks’ Boatyard
by Dick Cooper
Photos courtesy of
Mary Parks Harding
& Trudi Jones
18 winter/spring 2013
the chesapeake log
T
wo decades ago, Trudi Jones of
Cambridge, MD, was a young
mother looking for insights into
family legends surrounding the life
and times of her famous boatbuilding grandfather, Bronza Parks. She
was just three years old in 1958 when
Parks was shot to death in his Wingate,
Dorchester County, boatshop by a
deranged customer during a dispute
over a bill. Jones has no memory of
her grandfather but grew up listening to her mother, grandmother and
family friends tell stories about the
big man with the rough hands who
left an indelible mark on the history of
Chesapeake Bay watercraft.
“I don’t know why I needed to know
more about him, but I felt moved to
do so,” Jones recalls. “I am a spiritual
person and a Christian and I just felt
moved by God to do this.”
So in 1992, armed with little more
than her drive to learn more, along
with her children’s plastic Fisher Price
tape recorder, she tracked down two
of Bronza’s protégées, who were by
then getting on in years themselves.
She started her project by calling the
family friends whom she had known
most of her life, Tom Dean and F.
O’Neal Dean.
“I told them at the time that I was
thinking about writing something and
I wanted to make sure it was accurate.”
Tom, who passed away in 2001 at the
age of 83, and O’Neal, who was 78
when he died in 2006, were both from
Wingate but not related. Each of them
spent more than an hour in separate
telephone interviews with Jones. They
recalled their first jobs working for
Parks, his work ethic, his demand for
the highest quality and his occasional
light side. (“Bronzy could be quite
comical, once you got to know him,”
O’Neal Dean is heard saying.)
(left) Tom Dean, O’Neal Dean, Ralph Ruark
playing music while waiting for the tide to
come up before launching a new boat.
Circa 1950, Parks Family Collection.
They talked about the hard work
in an era before electricity and the
camaraderie of life in a small tidewater
town. And they talked about the life
skills and personal kindness Bronza
Parks imparted to them. Looking back,
Jones says what she learned from the
men seemed to satisfy her quest.
“I just never felt moved to pursue it
further.” She gave copies of the tapes
to family members, including her
cousin, Pres Harding of Chestertown,
who was collecting Parks family
memorabilia.
And that’s where the tapes sat.
But like other aspects of the legend
of Bronza Parks, there has been a
renewed interest in his life and work
since the Chesapeake Bay Maritime
Museum began the restoration of
one of his most famous vessels, the
skipjack Rosie Parks. Now in its final
year, the project directed by Master
Shipwright Marc Barto, will see
the Rosie relaunched and reborn in
November, 2013.
Jones’ tapes bring to life the voices
of the men who worked side-by-side
with Bronza Parks from the 1930s start
of his company right up to his untimely
death. Tom Dean was one of Bronza’s
first crew members. O’Neal Dean, who
was almost 10 years younger that Tom,
started working for Bronza right after
World War II. Here are some of Tom
and O’Neal Deans’ responses to questions posed by Jones in March, 1992:
“Now, Tom, can you tell me when
you first started working for Papa?”
“That was one of my first jobs. We
were making gasoline boats, workboats. I was making $6 a week.
We were workin’ 60 hours a week
and we were selling workboats,
all completed with motors and
everything for $600 ready for the
man to go crabbin’ in. I worked
with my father on the water but
as far as building boats, I had no
knowledge about building boats
at all. He (Bronza) taught me to
do good work and I always prided
myself in the work that he taught
me to do.”
Jones asks a similar question of O’Neal
Dean who says,
“I had just come out of the Navy
and the first job I got I worked for
a guy there in Cambridge and we
had to ride the buses back then
and I thought why can’t I find a
job here locally so went down and
asked him if he had any work.
He says, ‘Well, what can you do?’
And I said, ‘Just about nothing.’
He says, ‘Well you’re just the man
I’m lookin’ for. Cuz I tell ya just
about everybody I hire, if they’s
done carpenter work, they want to
do it the way they want to.
This way, I get someone like you
says you don’t know anything
about it, then you’ll learn my way
and that’ll be the way I want it
done.’ So that’s the way it started,
right there.”
Both Tom and O’Neal Dean talked at
length about the long hours and hard
physical work, but they did so with a
sense of pride and accomplishment.
As Tom Dean put, it “You either did
the work or someone else would.” Tom
Dean’s experiences, however, started in
the days long before South Dorchester
County received electricity. In one
exchange, he talks about boatbuilding
in the early 1930s.
“It was hard work. You didn’t get
a ten minute break. You didn’t get
a smoke break. You worked from
7am until 11:30 and you had lunch
and then you worked from noon
to five. That was a time when
everybody worked.
The hardest work was when we
got a whole log in and we hewed
the keelson out with an axe.
There would be two of us with
axes and chop that keelson out
and shaped it up.
the chesapeake log
winter/spring 2013
19
feature
“There was no Skil Saws back then, we didn’t have
electricity. You had to do it all by hand. We had to
saw everything with a plain old handsaw.”
Among the early boats he helped build were the
Martha, the dove-tailed workboat in CBMM’s floating
fleet, and the skipjack Wilma Lee. By the time O’Neal
Dean came to work at the Wingate boatyard, Bronza
Parks had established a reputation for not only being a
workboat craftsman, but also for building fine yachts for
the more distinguished gentleman sailor and sportsman.
To build finer vessels required more exotic woods than
the Eastern Shore forests could provide. O’Neal recalls
one trip to Baltimore to find wood that could hold a shine.
He starts to tell the story about a trip but his telling is
interrupted by a chuckle.
“When we were working, he [Bronza]
always liked to get the boats looking
better and styled better and have the
fare lines. Fare lines means there aren’t
any little bumps. Fare lines means they
are pleasant to the eye. Fare lines is not
spelled f-a-i-r, it is spelled f-a-r-e.
It all paid off because when a boat went
out it caught your eye, like a car that is
all shined up that makes you want to
turn around and take that second look,
you know, sort of like a pretty woman.”
- O’Neal Dean
“It was kind of funny. Bronza was comical, once you
got to know him. He’d have his spurts, he could fly
hot on somethin’ right quick, but he was the other
way too. We went to get some lumber and Bronzy
told him we was looking for some good mahogany.”
Dean says the salesman showed them wood that “wasn’t
very wide and wasn’t very long and it wasn’t very pretty.
“Bronzy says, ‘My gosh Captain, ain’t you got no
better mahogany than this here?’ The salesman says,
‘Don’t that suit ya?’
Bronzy replies, ‘I’ll tell ya, when I was down in the
Philippines, this is the kind of stuff we used to build
our damn hog pens out of.’
Well I got snickerin’ and had to turn around because
I didn’t want the man to see me laughing.”
(All his friends knew Bronza had never been to the
Philippines.) They were escorted to another shed where
they found mahogany planks 24 to 28 inches wide and
24 to 26 feet long.
“We loaded that truck up that day and bring ‘em back.
Prettiest stuff you ever laid your eyes on. Bronzy says
‘See, if you don’t know how to speak out for yourself,
you know he’d a made me take that other stuff.’ That
was pretty stuff; we used it for a couple of years.”
Trudi Jones asks O’Neal if there was anything that set
Bronza Parks’ boat apart from the others being built at
the time.
(top) “Papa” Bronza Parks rocking four of his grandchildren, Patti
Hall (daughter of Martha Parks Todd), Trudi Jones (daughter of Joyce
Parks Wiley), Cande White (daughter of Martha Parks Todd), and Pres
Harding, (son of Mary Parks Harding).
(bottom left) Thomas G. Dean. (bottom right) F. O’Neal Dean.
20 winter/spring 2013
the chesapeake log
“He always emphasized keen lines. He was just
a good sharp boatbuilder. He had a good eye. If
you ever done something wrong don’t ever think
he wouldn’t see it.” He goes on to tell about one
worker who didn’t finish the woodwork in a cockpit
just right.
I told this guy, ‘You know you got
some kinks in there and I don’t
think Bronza’s going to like that.’
He says, ‘They don’t look all that
bad to me.’
That evening I stayed later.
So (Bronza) come home from
Cambridge and climbed up inside.
‘He says, ‘You wouldn’t have a
hatchet in that tool box would ya?’
I said, ‘Ya, I got one.’
Well he went up in there and
I hear all this choppin.’ He cut
every bit out of there that that
guy was all day long puttin’ in
there. He cut every daggone piece
of it right out. He says, ‘I don’t
understand it. Some people can’t
see right. He knew I wouldn’t like
it and I tore every piece of it out.’
When we were working, he always
liked to get the boats looking
better and styled better and have
the fare lines.
Fare lines means there aren’t any
little bumps. Fare lines means
they are pleasant to the eye. Fare
lines is not spelled f-a-i-r, it is
spelled f-a-r-e. It all paid off
because when a boat went out it
caught your eye, like a car that
is all shined up that makes you
want to turn around and take that
second look, you know, sort of
like a pretty woman.”
Tom and O’Neal Dean were more
than just master boatbuilders, they
were accomplished musicians as well.
Along with Charlie Parks, another of
Bronza’s best workers, they made up
the Wingate Ramblers, a traveling
band that played all around Dorchester
County and even went on the radio
in Annapolis.
“We were advertising for him,
playing music,” O’Neal Dean
says. “It had to be about ’49
because Tom Dean had a brand
new 1949 Ford. We played on
the Cambridge station for a while
and then Bronzy wanted us to go
to Annapolis. So we went and all,
and that was part of the advertising that the boats had the fare lines.
And I think he got some boats
from us being on that station.”
O’Neal says that Bronza Parks
boats of the time were distinctive
because of the attention to every detail.
“It was just a process of working
at it and it paid off because when
the boat went out and you looked
at it, it would catch your eye. Like
a car all shined up, you just turn
around and take that second look.”
By the mid-1950s, B.M. (the ‘M’ stands
for Malone) Parks Boat Builders was
turning out 25 work and pleasure
boats a year. “I am sure that there were
10, 11 or 12 boats going there at one
time,” O’Neal recalls.
One family legend that Trudi Jones
tries to track down with O’Neal is an
oft-told story of how Bronza would
make a grand entrance by first throwing
his hat into a room and then cartwheel though the door. O’Neal is first
confused by the question, thinking she
has asked if he ever made a wheel for
a cart.
“You mean like a calisthenic?”
O’Neal asks.
“I was always amazed that with the
size of Papa he would be able to do
one,” Trudi says.
O’Neal replies, “When you are
young, it makes a lot of difference.
He was full of foolishness like that,
you know.” O’Neal Dean concludes
his interview by saying
“I was grateful that he took me
in and I was able to accomplish
things that I learned by him.
He was a good teacher and he
needs to be mentioned and the
work that he done. He treated me
good. It’s a poor person that can’t
praise the bridge that carried
him across.”
For Tom Dean, one of the great
memories of the boatyard days was
the launching time.
“That was a great day. Oh that
was fun. We always had a great
celebration. I was in a band
at that time with Charles and
O’Neal. We used to play music
under the boat waiting for the
launching time. Everyone was
jolly and always this favorite song.
He always got us to sing and play
it for him. ‘Just a Closer Walk
With Thee.’ That was his favorite
song. After that, we would have
a half-day off and then come
Monday mornin’ we were back
putting a keel down.”
Near the end of the recording,
Trudi pauses and asks “Tom, I have
one request. Would you sing, ‘A Closer
Walk With Thee?’”
Dean, who was then 73, doesn’t
miss a beat and slips into an a cappella
rendition of the old hymn.
I am weak, but Thou art strong;
Jesus, keep me from all wrong;
I’ll be satisfied as long
As I walk, let me walk closer to Thee.
Just a closer walk with Thee,
Grant it, Jesus, is my plea
Daily walking close to Thee,
Let it be, dear Lord, let it be.
Parks family members still recall
hearing that favorite song, sung with
a mournful tone at the close of Bronza
Parks’ funeral, 55 years ago.
c
A note from Trudi Jones:
“I am truly honored to know that
the recorded conversations I had
with two of my grandfather’s long
time employees will be shared.
These conversations have been
deeply treasured by me and it is
my hope that these will continue
to tell the story of Bronza Parks’
legacy and how much people
loved him.”
the chesapeake log
winter/spring 2013
21
calendar
feb/march/april/may/june
Community Conversations: State of the Oyster
Upcoming member events:
Oysters and People
An Evening with Marc Castelli
Sunday, February 24
Free, from 2-4pm
Van Lennep Auditorium
Space is limited, RSVP to Helen Van
Fleet at 410-745-4941
Tuesday, March 12
Free. 5:30pm in the Van Lennep Auditorium
RSVP to Debbie Collison at 410-745-4991
This discussion focuses on the social
history of oyster production in order
to address the long-term relationships
Chesapeake Bay inhabitants have with
oysters. The panel includes a historian,
folklorist, and an oyster biologist.
How Did We Get Here?
Sunday, March 3
Free, from 4-6pm in the Van Lennep Auditorium
Space is limited, RSVP to Helen Van Fleet at 410-745-4941
This session addresses the various factors contributing to the
decline of the Chesapeake oyster populations and features
excerpts from the SeaGrant film “Who Killed Crassostrea virginica,”
as well as presentations by researchers and watermen.
Renowned artist Marc Castelli will share a unique slide presentation featuring his annual show of photographs collected while out
on the water in all the fisheries for the year (August to August).
Light refreshments served and space is limited.
Blessing of the Fleet
Wednesday, April 17
Free. 4:30pm under the Hooper Strait Lighthouse
RSVP to Debbie Collison at 410-745-4991
Help launch this year’s boating season with members, volunteers,
and boatyard staff for an official ceremony honoring our own floating fleet of Bay boats, as well as local work boats. Ceremony will
be performed by Reverend Kevin M. Cross. Refreshments served.
Members Preview – Crisfield Carvings
Watermen, Traditions & Perspectives
Friday, April 12
5:30pm, Waterfowling Building
Free, refreshments served. Pre-register with Cheryl Miller at
410-745-4943 or email [email protected]
Sunday, March 10
Free, from 2-4pm in the Van Lennep Auditorium
Space is limited, RSVP to Helen Van Fleet at 410-745-4941
Join CBMM Chief Curator Pete Lesher for a special member's
preview opening of the new special exhibit Crisfield Carvings—
Bird Hunting on Broad Waters.
A panel of watermen and women present their experience-based
perspectives on the history and future of Chesapeake oystering.
Hear directly from these men and women about what it’s like to
make a living under today’s difficult circumstances, the changes
that they’ve seen in their lifetimes, and their ideas about the
future of the industry.
Member Guided Tour – Navigating Freedom:
War of 1812 on the Chesapeake
Possibilities & Consequences
Sunday, March 17
Free, from 2-4pm in the Van Lennep Auditorium
Space is limited, RSVP to Helen Van Fleet at 410-745-4941
In the final session of this series, a panel of watermen, oyster
researchers, and oyster farmers will discuss the future of oysters.
This discussion will cover aquaculture, reclaiming oyster shells and
moving seed, disease research and mitigation, and sanctuaries.
Visit our online calendar at cbmm.org
for the most up-to-date information
on all upcoming events.
22 winter/spring 2013
the chesapeake log
Saturday, May 11
Free. 11am in the Steamboat Gallery
Join Director of the Center for Chesapeake Studies Robert
Forloney and for a special member's preview opening of the
new exhibit. Refreshments served.
Concert: United States Naval Academy Band
Commandant’s Combo
Tuesday, June 4
Free. 6pm at the Tolchester Beach Bandstand
Sit back and enjoy the music from one of the most requested
groups the USNA offers. Led by Senior Chief Musician Blake
Cramer, the five-piece ensemble infuses elements of traditional jazz, New Orleans reggae, and Brazilian music into its
own arrangements of time-honored jazz, classic, and popular
music. The Combo’s varied programming includes music from
Leonard Bernstein to John Lennon and Stevie Wonder to Pearl
Jam. Museum members enjoy free refreshments served at a VIP
hospitality area during the concert. Bring a chair for seating.
Leashed pets and picnics welcome.
programs/member events/special events
Model Guild: Build a lapstrake skiff
Lighthouse Overnight Adventures
Friday, Saturday & Sunday, February 22, 23, 24
Fri., 6-9pm, Sat. & Sun., 9am-5pm. Tools and materials supplied.
Select Friday & Saturday nights in April, May, & June
Starting at 6pm and ending at 9am the following morning
Contact Director of Education Kate Livie at [email protected]
or 410-745-4947 for more information and to register
$80 members, $95 non-members. Pre-registration required
by Monday, Feb. 18 to Helen Van Fleet at 410-745-4941
Led step-by-step by skilled modelers, participants create a 10-inch
wooden rowing skiff with lapped side planking and a flat bottom.
Model Guild: Build a half-hull model of
the Pride of Baltimore II
Saturday & Sunday, March 23 & 24
9am-5pm, $80 members, $95 non-members
Tools and materials supplied. $80 members, $95 non-members.
Pre-registration required by Monday, March 18 to Helen Van
Fleet at 410-745-4941
Led step-by-step by skilled modelers, participants create a half-hull
model of the clipper Pride of Baltimore II.
CBMM's Model Guild welcomes anyone 12 years of age and
older and encourages new members of all skill levels. A special
rate for a parent-child team can accommodate younger children.
Contact Model Guild Director Bob Mason at 410-745-3266 for
more information or email [email protected].
How Escaped Slaves Liberated the British
Wednesday, April 10
6-8pm in the Van Lennep Auditorium
$8 for members, $10 for non-members
Pre-register with Helen Van Fleet at 410-745-4941
Join Pulitzer Prize-winning author Alan Taylor as he speaks on his
current book-in-progress about the impact of the War of 1812 on
slavery in the Chesapeake region, the role of British soldiers as
liberators, and the invaluable services runaway slaves provided to
the British campaign.
Boater Safety Classes
April 17 & 18, May 15 & 16, June 12 & 13
July 17 & 18, August 15 & 16
6-10pm, $25 per two-evening session
Pre-register with Helen Van Fleet at 410-745-4941
Individuals and families with children over 12 are welcome to
participate in our Boater’s Safety certification program and learn
the basics needed to operate a vessel on Maryland waterways.
MD boaters born after July 1, 1972 are required to have a
Certificate of Boating Safety Education. Graduates of our
two-day Department of Natural Resources-approved course are
awarded a certificate that is good for life.
Your group can spend the night in our 1879 Hooper Strait
Lighthouse. Travel back in time to experience the rustic life of a
lighthouse keeper with hands-on, interactive activities, games, and
stories. The program is designed for youth groups, children’s organizations, and scouts, ages 8-12 (and their chaperones). The cost
is $600 for up to 15 participants and chaperones and includes
the overnight program fee, two day’s admission, an official lighthouse patch, a copy of “From a Lighthouse Window,” and a Miles
River boat ride on the Mister Jim (subject to seasonal availability).
Maritime Model Expo
Saturday, May 18 & Sunday, May 19
Sat., 10am–4pm & Sun., 10am–3pm
Free for members or with Museum
admission
Held in conjunction with the Museum’s
Model Guild and the North American
Steamboat Modelers Association, this
expo includes radio-controlled models
powered by steam, battery, and wind.
Static displays of highly-detailed and
realistic models by the Washington Ship
Model Society and others will be featured, as well as activities for children.
The Elf Classic Yacht Race
Saturday, May 18
Race finish 4pm at the Museum (time subject to weather and
sailing conditions). Free for members or with Museum admission
Join Elf and other classic sailing yachts for the Elf Classic Yacht
Race—a true yachtsman’s race. The Eastport Yacht Club in
Annapolis will serve as the departure point. This event is organized
by the Classic Yacht Restoration Guild to recreate the sensibilities
of yacht racing of the 1880s when the races began on shore;
including the row to the boat on mooring or anchor, making sail and
reversing the process at the finish—in this case signing the race log
at the Tolchester Bandstand on the grounds of the Museum.
For more information, contact Rick Carrion at elf1888@earthlink.
net or visit cyrg.org/elfclassic.htm.
the chesapeake log
winter/spring 2013
23
calendar
on the rail
Free Daily Events
Memorial Day through Labor Day (with paid admission,
free for members) *free events do not include Sailing Saturdays
or Mister Jim Cruises, listed below in RED.
Public Tours
What: 45-minute highlights tour
When: Friday & Saturday Time: 11am & 2pm
Waterman’s Wharf
What: Docent interpretation
When: Everyday Time: 11am-3pm
Chesapeake People
Summer Sailing Program
June 24 – August 16
More information to be announced. Contact Director of
Education Kate Livie at 410-745-4947 with questions or
email [email protected]
Explore the Miles River and learn maritime skills in our Summer
Sailing Program, where new sailors and old salts gain the confidence
to sail a small boat in a fun, safe, and encouraging environment.
Kids Club
June 24 – August 2
More information to be announced. Contact Director of
Education Kate Livie at 410-745-4947 with questions or
email [email protected]
The Museum’s weekly Kids Club is a half-day, hands-on
Chesapeake-focused camp for kids ages 4 to 7, where children
learn about the Bay firsthand through activities, stories, games,
and crafts.
Save the Date! 2013
June 14-16
July 6
July 27
Antique & Classic Boat Festival
Big Band Night
Chesapeake Folk Festival
August 11
Watermen's Appreciation Day & Crab Feast
August 31
Charity Boat Auction
September 14
Boating Party Gala Fundraiser
October 5 & 6
Mid-Atlantic Small Craft Festival
November 2
OysterFest & Rosie Parks Launch
24 winter/spring 2013
the chesapeake log
What: Visit with authentic Chesapeake people
who share their stories
When: Saturdays Time: 11am-3pm
Family Drop-ins
What: Kid themed, hands-on activities (crafts or tours)
When: Thursdays & Fridays Time: 2-4pm
Boatyard Skills Demonstration
What: Learn traditional boatyard skills from a trained shipwright
When: Monday - Friday Time: 1:30pm
Community Work Days: Skipjack Restoration
What: Work under the guidance of a master shipwright to help
rebuild the skipjack Rosie Parks
When: Saturdays Time: 10am-3pm
Sailing Saturdays
What: Try your hand at sailing one of our Apprentice For
a Day boats. Boats range in size and are perfect for
one or two people, with instructions provided for
beginners. Space is limited and pre- registration is
recommended. Call 410-745-4965 to reserve,
otherwise, it’s first-come, first-served.
*Dates subject to change due to weather.*
When: June 22, July 13, August 10, September 7
*Cost: $10 per session
Mister Jim Cruises
What: Climb aboard the buyboat Mister Jim for a 30-minute
scenic cruise on the Miles River.
When: Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays, Mondays
Time: 12noon, 1pm, 2pm & 3pm
*Cost: $10 per person, free for kids 16 and under with
Museum admission.
Skipjack Rosie Parks Restoration Update
by Eric Hervol & Shane Elliott
R
estoration of the skipjack Rosie Parks continues with
topside work after the completion of caulking and sealing the deck. The skipjack’s topside configuration includes
one main forward hatch built in two sections, a small hatch
aft, and a deckhouse large enough to shelter three to four
people. In the fall of 2012, the shipwrights began work on
the Douglas fir and white oak forward hatch. This work
consisted of installing the hatch sides, or “trunk,” an oak
ledger, oak beams and fir top strakes. The hatch was built
as one unit, and then cut into two pieces while in place to
ensure a tight fit.
After the forward hatch was completed, the deckhouse
was built in a similar fashion. The existing deckhouse was
too rotten to salvage, but was intact enough to measure for
replication. The sides were built with the rough window
and companionway openings in place, to be finished later.
With a consistent rough opening, the cabin windows were
then built all at one time on the bench and installed after
varnishing.
Next came the monkey rails, or low rails, along the
sides of the boat, aft of the oyster dredges amidships. The
rails were patterned from the shape of the existing boat,
cut out from oak stock, and installed with ½” galvanized
rod. The rail was then sanded smooth after installation.
As the topside work nears completion, shipwrights will
move on to rudder installation and preparation for spring
painting and varnishing. Stop by on Saturdays during the
Community Work Days Program and help shipwrights
restore the Rosie.
SAVE THE DATE:
OysterFest & the Rosie Parks Launch
Saturday, November 2, 2013
(first row, left) Sharon Parks Weber and her husband Rob help Shipwright Apprentice Shane Elliott glue bungs into the forward hatch.
(first row, right) Shipwright Apprentice Ken Philips and Volunteer Cliff
Stretmeyer drill fasteners in the chicken beak.
(second row, left) Shipwright Apprentice Shane Elliott drills for galvanized iron pins in the monkey rail.
(second row, right) Elliot continues to drill for galvanized iron pins while
building the main cabin, or the "doghouse."
(third row, left) The overall view of progress on the Rosie Parks
restoration, as of January 2013.
(third row, right) An overhead view of the Rosie from January, 2011.
the chesapeake log
winter/spring 2013
25
$210
Extending the Living Shoreline
on the rail
AFAD building replica
Ghost skiff
transcribes
one hour of
a recorded
oral history
Make the Chesapeake
Part of Your Story
$1
buys one of the grasses
(we need 2,750 plants)
$17
$37
w e d d i n g s  c o r p o r a t e re t re a t s 
private special events
buys one ton of sand
(we need 1,030 tons)
buys ONE ton of stone
(we need 480 tons)
Waterman’s Wharf 300 boards
Steamboat Dock 350 boards
Steamboat Deck & ramp160 boards
Fogg’s Cove to Navy Point 320 boards
Journeyman Shipwright Jenn Kuhn and AFAD participant Eugene Severens.
$65
P
articipants in the Museum’s Apprentice for a Day
(AFAD) public boatbuilding program have begun work
building a replica of the deadrise bateau skiff, Ghost. Built
circa 1916-1920 in Shadyside, Maryland by Captain Charles
Edward Leatherbury, the 15’9” x 5’10” skiff is noted for its
herringbone planking and sharp deadrise increasing at the
bow and stern.
AFAD participants began the process by taking the
lines off the historic skiff. They will continue step-by-step
on select Saturdays and Sundays through May, 2013, with
drop-in and scheduled participants welcome. The new
boat will be planked in cedar and decked in sassafras, with
frames of oak. Most of her other structural members will
be constructed of white oak, with the forefoot made up of
“chunks” with the grain parallel to the herringbone planking.
A single, 146-square-foot leg-of-mutton sail will be created
at the museum during the program, and will later be carried
on a raked mast.
Donated to CBMM in 1966 by Mrs. Milton Offutt,
Ghost sailed the Severn River extensively until WWII, and
later traveled with the bugeye Richard J. Vetra to log canoe
races and other regattas along with log canoes Island Bird
and Magic.
AFAD's Journeyman Special continues through May.
Choose any four classes for $150 for members and $200 for
non-members. Single drop-in classes are $45 for members
and $55 for non-members. Must be 16 or older unless
accompanied by an adult. Email questions to [email protected]
or call Jenn Kuhn at 410-745-2916.
26 winter/spring 2013
the chesapeake log
Replacing
ONE board on
our docks
costs $25
buys one foot of the new stone wall
in front of the administration buildings
The Museum needs
3,700
visitors at full price
to pay the electric
bill each year
$5,000
sponsors a
Members Reception and
Exhibit Opening
PRICELESS
Chief Curator
Pete Lesher
$110
preserves
50 historic
photos in
archival
materials
$350
prints and
mounts an
interpretive
panel for
Push and
Pull: Life on
Chesapeake
Bay Tugboats
What does your
donation buy?
$1800
provides stipend funds
for a college student
in CBMM’s Summer
Internship Program
$500 buys ONE
$500
buys a spool
of 1/2” dacron line to
$50 buys the bait-and-tackle family fishing ne w JY jib for t he
replace worn
rigging
[ P hoto c r e dit s ] top clockwise:
( 1 ) B r a in Ra y S t u d io s ( 2 , 5 & 6 ) Me lissa Gri mes- Guy
P h o t o g r a p hy ( 3 & 4 ) Mich a e l K r ess
$400
$250
buys 60 board feet of
white oak for restoration work
$1,000 buys192 board feet of
covers the cost
of first aid
certification for a
sailing instructor
$350
Summer Sailing Program
covers the cost of ar t materials and craft
supplies for two weeks of Summer Kids Club
$100
The 18 waterfront acres of the Chesapeake Bay
Maritime Museum in St. Michaels, Maryland are
yours for making memories. Whether in sandals
on our docks or formally dressed atop the 1879
Hooper Strait Lighthouse, you and your guests
will share an unforgettable experience.
For more information, email [email protected]
or call 410-745-4944
activity at the Chesapeake Folk Festival in July
$23
for a
DNR
permit
to allow scientific oyster
sampling during the
ECOLOGY CRUISE
purchases
10 Stearns Youth Life Jackets
white cedar to plank a rowing skiff
$300 buys four
gallons of red primer
for wood protection
on collection boats
$100
fuels our trucks for one week
the chesapeake log
winter/spring 2013
27
Non-Profit Org.
US Postage
PAID
Chesapeake Bay
Maritime Museum
Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum
P.O. Box 636
St. Michaels, MD 21663
cbmm.org • 410-745-2916