The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1893-09-28
CHESAPEAKE BAY CANOES.


Dugouts Thirty Feet Long and Made OF
Five or Six Logs.
Chesapeake Bay tongmen are proud
of their boats, their wives, their chill.
dren and their homes. Most of them
own their homes and the boats in which
they earn their livelihood. The aver
age tongman will make about three
hundred dollars year and can save
nearly one hundred dollars out of the
fish, crabs and oysters he takes home
when there is no market. For several
weeks before the annual regatta these
boats maybe seen, some bottom upward,
others bottom downward, so-ae on their
sides, some being sand-papered, others
still further advanced with coat of
paint-white or flesh-colored. After
the hulls are reduced to the point of
perfection and launched, then arises
the question of sails, ropes and so
forth. These having been adjusted
satisfactorily, the owner selects his
captain, for the owners of boats, like
the owners of fast horses, seldom sail
them. Then the captain chooses his
crew, from six to ten active youths,
and having finished this part of the
preparation, captain and crew invite
some other captain and crew, and they
go out into the river for little brush
at each other.
Canoe racing has been INDUCED in
about here for more than thirty years.
The old canoe War Eagle was one of
the first and greatest racers. She was
brought here from York river, Va, by
Capt. Joseph Sewell about thirty years
ago, and when he landed at the foot OF
Chestnut street the whole populace
turned out to see such big canoe, for
she was about twenty-seven or twenty
eight feet long, and the people had
never seen one longer than fifteen or
twenty feet. The regatta did not be-
come a permanent institution until
about twenty years ago, when the
Sadie, which was twenty-eight feet
long, was the mistress of the waters,
especially in rough weather, but it was
not long before the wind was taken
out of her sails by the Minnie, Ches-
ter river boat, which was fatter and
much thinner and lighter than the
Sadie, and could fly under a light
breeze. The owner of the Sadie, which
was built at Pocosin, Va, was James
w. Plummer and the owner of the
Minnie was Samuel Chopper. About
1870 the Edward Lloyd, owned by Mich
olas Plummer, commenced carrying
the victor's flag, and about this time
another fast sailer came into existence
called the Doshaway She was built
for the late John C. Harper by Robert
ID. Lambdin, and she won races in both
Miles river and Tired Avon river. She
was as sharp as a wedge and as cranky,
and about twenty-eight feet long. In
the course of few years boats were
built thirty feet long or more.
Formerly canoes were built of one
log, in the course of time two logs, and
and now five and six are used Thirty
years ago u tongman could find all the
oysters he wanted within mile of
town; now he goes every day from
seven to ten miles from town in quest
of livelihood. In fact, large per-
centage of them have cabins on their
boats or tents on the shore, and stay up
at Wye or down at Poplar Island all
the week, coming home to their families
on Saturdays.
The old-time canoes had keel, now
they have a centerboard, the Albatross,
at Tilghmans Island, having two
boards. AS the same horse cannot be
fast trotter and good draught horse,
so the same boat cannot be a fast sailor
and good longing canoe. The fast
sailor is sharp and long, the good tong
ing boat is wide and fiat. So that the
fast boats are generally owned by
those who use them only for racing
purposes, like Admiral K. l.. Woodside,
of the Neptune Yacht club of Baltimore
city, who has two of the fastest canoes
on the bay, the Island Bride and the
Island Belle, both built by Capt. Sidney
Covington, of Tilghmans Island, and
both about thirty-five feet long. Years
ago the customary prize at the regattas
was silver cup, but since silver has
gotten so cheap, it is now determined
to change it to cash prizes ranging
from ten to twenty dollars for the vari-
GUS classes.
And so the dugout of the Indian, un-
like the Indian, has kept pace with
the needs of the American people, and
is now entitled to all the privileges
and praise that belong to the useful,
graceful and beautiful canoe, that is
"a thing of beauty and a joy forever"
baltimore American.