The Vane Legacy
1923
A young Claude V. Hughes
1920
Bottom right photo: Courtesy of Virginia Lee Becker
A woman’s affection changes the life of a thirty-something mariner named Claude V. Hughes. As the story goes, Claude is courting a young lady who tells him, “What’s the use in getting married, you’re never home.” At the advice of Captain Burke Vane, who is a distant cousin of the Hughes family, Claude sells his boat, gets hitched, and officially joins Vane Brothers. One year later, he persuades his younger brother, Charles Fletcher Hughes Sr., to also join.
Charles Hughes Sr. is approached by a friend from the Eastern Shore with an opportunity to purchase a share of the two-masted schooner John R. P. Moore. With Captain William Burke Vane’s endorsement, Charles secures a bank loan to finance the investment.
1931
One of several s c h o o n er s ow n ed by the company between 1923 and World War II, the four-masted Doris H a m l i n i s p u rc h a s e d and sails on behalf of Vane Brothers for much of the decade. Sold to the Penn-Lehigh Coal Company in September 1939, Hamlin and her crew are lost at sea f o u r m o n t h s l a t e r, presumably sunk by a German submarine.
1951
1941
1942
Having persevered through the decade-long Great Depression despite losing ninety percent of its bank-held money, the Vane chandlery gets very busy during World War II. While the Baltimore-built motor tanker Hughes Bros. supplies galley oil to Liberty ships, the company goes through a major ownership change: A few days after the death of his brother Allen, Burke Vane sells his remaining shares to the Hughes brothers. Captain Vane, however, continues to visit the chandlery and denies that he has retired!
The Redman-Vane shipyard, which performed wooden ship repairs for nearly a quarter-century, becomes a casualty of the war when the U.S. Navy condemns the area to allow for expansion of the Bethlehem Shipbuilding repair plant. As the decade unfolds, the shipping world changes rapidly. Diesel fuel reigns supreme, making commercial sailing vessels obsolete. The chandlery no longer supplies schooners; customers instead become tugboats, barges, tankers, and big bulk freighters.
Charles Hughes Sr.’s son, Charles Jr., joins Vane Brothers after graduating from Johns Hopkins University with a degree in Philosophy. Claude Hughes retires at the age of sixty-four.
2018 // Vane Legacy V7