Sloop Sadie, log canoe W .A . Johns, and famous postwar skipjack Rosie Parks dream away a winter day in front of the Museum's quiet walkways and the 19th-century buildings.
Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum A Celebration of the Bay's Whole Heritage in Clippers, Pungys, Steamboats & Crabbing Skiffs, Brimming with Ancestral thoughts and Young Ideas. By Peter Stanford Shaded brick walkways invite you to this waterfront of old buildings facing on wooden piers. It is a great place to go to forget the silly problems that infest one's life and face some real challenge instead: the challenge of man's life across generations lived in confrontation, and in harmony, with the slow rhythms of the life of the Bay. The Chesapeake Maritime Museum was conceived in 1963 by the Talbot County Historical Society. Through popular subscription, three buildings on Navy Point were bought and restoration and collections begun: a grand opening was held May 22, 1965. Gus and Rita van Lennep, leaders of the effort, pushed ahead in these early years, adding ship models, books, records, a waterfowl collection, and floating historic craft. They encouraged a cheerful volunteer corps which has grown and become a tremendous asset to the museum. In April 1968 the Museum was separately incorporated as a nonprofit educational institution. Ten years later, last winter, the Museum under the leadershop of its director R.J. Holt and a distinguished Board of Governors, became one of eight maritime museums in America fully accredited by the American Association of Museums. Much happened in those years. A lightship that had been brought in was sent away as not central to the story (the Hooper's Point lighthouse, brought in by barge and installed at the end of Navy Point, is central, and was kept). Old wooden Bay craft that found refuge here were sorted out, and either regretfully given up, or rebuilt in an on-site shipyard facility to last and to live in sailing condiSEA HISTORY, SUMMER 1979
tion. A large new indoor boat shed was installed, where carefully restored specimens of an amazing variety of Bay small craft can be found. Deeply studied and imaginative displays were set up, making use of an increasingly rich collection. Models tell the vanished story of St. Michael's as shipbuilding center-the place was found important enough for the British to bombard in 1812, and the immortal clipper brig John Gilpin was launched here as late as 1830. An admirably detailed gallery remembers the steamers that once crisscrossed the Bay, and there is an aquarium (typical of the museum's style) so you may see the living creatures the Bay men of St. Michael's earned their living by, as oystering, crabbing and fishing became tpe mainstays of the old town. "To preserve the atmosphere of the Point, the Museum is committed to ensuring that any modern intrusions blend with the historic buildings," a recent museum statement declares. Old buildings about to be demolished on their sites have been brought in; new buildings are designed in traditional style, and sometimes finished with salvaged planking. Old boats are rebuilt of native white oak and loblolly pine, with young builders picking up the work rhythms and disciplines of their forebears without, I think, missing a beat. Go to St. Michaels for birthdays or other occasions when you want to look backward and forward at once. The magic you will find there is good magic; the freshness of the experience springs from deep roots. And you can join this goodly company: send $15 to the Museum , St. Michaels MD 21663 . w
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The Edna E. Lockwood dries her sails on a peaceful afternoon al the Museum pier. Rebuilding since 1975, she will be re-launched July 21 to sail again.
the Lockwood
"Pungys Drying Sails," by local painter H. Bolton Jones, shows St. Michaels harbor from the present museum site.
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