| $34.95 |
| Chesapeake Bay Buyboats by Larry S. Chowning |
Buyboat is the most familiar term for a particular style of traditional
Chesapeake workboat, but it suggests only one of many jobs done by these
versatile craft. As buyboats, they bought seafood from watermen working
small boats, then transported and sold the catch to packing houses or city
merchants. As run boats or runners, they were the company-owned vessels
that transferred the catch to the company docks. As freight boats or Bay
freighters, they hauled many things from here to there -- watermelons,
lumber, coal, canning supplies -- often doing the work that would later be
taken over by trucks. As packet boats, they carried mail, supplies, and
passengers between the mainland and the Bay's island communities. They
served under the U.S. Coast Guard in World War II; at least one was
officially a school boat; and an untold number of them may have run rum in
the days of Prohibition. If those were not enough names, their builders
called them deck boats, because the hulls were decked over to create
cargo holds, allowing the boats to work in many Bay fisheries.
In Chesapeake Bay Buyboats, Larry S. Chowning has produced a
marvelous record of these boats. He introduced the builders, the owners,
the captains, and the families and extended families of all. Much of the text
is told through interviews with the men who built the boats and the men and
women who worked -- and sometimes played -- aboard them. The
illustrations are an eclectic selection. The author's photographs, spanning
his twenty-year career as a newspaper reporter living and working in the
heart of buyboat country, are supplemented by the contributions of many
individuals who were directly connected to the boats.
Chesapeake workboat, but it suggests only one of many jobs done by these
versatile craft. As buyboats, they bought seafood from watermen working
small boats, then transported and sold the catch to packing houses or city
merchants. As run boats or runners, they were the company-owned vessels
that transferred the catch to the company docks. As freight boats or Bay
freighters, they hauled many things from here to there -- watermelons,
lumber, coal, canning supplies -- often doing the work that would later be
taken over by trucks. As packet boats, they carried mail, supplies, and
passengers between the mainland and the Bay's island communities. They
served under the U.S. Coast Guard in World War II; at least one was
officially a school boat; and an untold number of them may have run rum in
the days of Prohibition. If those were not enough names, their builders
called them deck boats, because the hulls were decked over to create
cargo holds, allowing the boats to work in many Bay fisheries.
In Chesapeake Bay Buyboats, Larry S. Chowning has produced a
marvelous record of these boats. He introduced the builders, the owners,
the captains, and the families and extended families of all. Much of the text
is told through interviews with the men who built the boats and the men and
women who worked -- and sometimes played -- aboard them. The
illustrations are an eclectic selection. The author's photographs, spanning
his twenty-year career as a newspaper reporter living and working in the
heart of buyboat country, are supplemented by the contributions of many
individuals who were directly connected to the boats.