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By the Numbers
Far upstream, New York lays plans to stem tide of runoff to the Bay
Menu of potential Chesapeake parks serves up different flavors of Bay
In the climactic battle of the Revolutionary War, the fledgling American colonies needed to bring the ships of the French fleet into the York River to seal off British soldiers at Yorktown and bottle up the British Fleet.
But the local waters were tricky, and the French — unfamiliar with the Chesapeake and the York — needed help to pull the maneuver off. The got it from those who knew the area best: the watermen who worked the river.
Almost every ship in the French fleet was assigned a waterman, helping the fleet outmaneuver the British ships and trap the British army in Yorktown. And, as it turned out, they sealed the fate of the American Revolution as well.
After the outcome of the battle was decided, it was another waterman, Lt. Col. Tench Tilghman, who carried the news of the victory to Philadelphia, traveling the entire length of the Chesapeake en route.
Those are among the stories told at the Watermen’s Museum in Yorktown, VA, a small but informative museum that provides a good introduction to the life and history of the local waterman. The museum recently became a part of the National Park Service’s Chesapeake Bay Gateways Network.
Standing in the shadow of the Coleman Bridge, which crosses the river at Yorktown, the museum was founded two decades ago during the bicentennial celebration of the battle that ended the Revolutionary War. The idea was to highlight a part of the area’s history and culture which, for many, was often overshadowed by other historical sites in the region.
Originally, the museum was located in a building that now serves as a gift shop featuring a wide variety of artwork, mostly by local artists. It was was greatly expanded in 1986 with the donation of a house on the opposite side of the river. The museum raised money to float the house to the its present location
Inside, the museum tells the history of the area’s watermen, including stories of their local involvement during the Revolution, as well as explaining their work and tools of the trade — nets, boats, crab pots, lanterns and so forth.
“The most important thing that we try to get across is conservation,” said George Zavodnick, executive director of the museum. “We also try to undemonize the waterman. We try to paint watermen as a group that are hardworking, honest but rough. The job they do is extremely difficult.
“We try to tell people that watermen are as interested in conservation as anyone, because their livelihood depends on the resource. But they may have different ideas of how to accomplish it.”
Indeed, the greatest example of exploitation in the museum doesn’t involve watermen at all. From the ceiling of one of the museum’s rooms hangs the jawbone of a 43-foot right whale that met its end nearby.
The whale was killed, not by watermen, but by local residents in 1858 who turned out for the kill after a servant excitedly reported seeing a moss-covered island that was spouting water.
The residents drove the whale ashore where it died. They quickly wished they hadn’t. Having no idea of what to do with a whale, it rotted on the beach, creating such a stink that people had to temporarily abandon their homes.
As for the watermen, their story starts with Native Americans, who were the first fishermen in the area. Their nets and tools, including the dugout canoe, were adopted by the colonists when they arrived. The museum displays examples of the natives’ activities, including stones used to anchor nets and turtle shells used to serve food.
Virginia colonists began calling themselves “watermen” after the fishermen who worked the Thames River in England. To this day, the term “waterman” is only used on the Chesapeake Bay and the Thames.
Early watermen were important not only for their ability to produce food, but also for their knowledge of rivers and creeks, as they were often called upon to provide transportation for colonists.
Detailed models show the types of ships used by watermen over the years. Many of the models, by local craftsman Robert “Skip” Bloxom of Gloucester are of working boats — they show the wear and tear from a waterman’s work. “He makes them look like workboats, like they actually are,” Zavodnick said. “They’re dirty. Deliberately dirty.”
Throughout the museum, first-hand stories are printed on the walls describing the difficult, and often uncertain life of the watermen who used those boats. Such as: “One night, just above windmill point on the Bay side, we hit a mess of spot. In one set [haul seine] we landed 22,000 pounds … that was something.”
And this: “It wasn’t always good … the least I ever caught was a peck … it was a lot of work for nothing.”
The museum highlights the evolution of the dugout canoe to its descendent, the skipjack. The log canoe, often three logs pegged together, was an ideal workboat dating to the 17th century. In the late 1800s and early 1900s, sails were added, and they became sailing canoes, and then skipjacks.
Outside, a 110-year-old, 30-foot dugout canoe is on display. It was ideal for oystering because its smooth, carved interior made it easy to shove oysters out. For a time, they were the fastest sailing ships on the Bay.
The displays highlight the different types of nets and gear used by watermen to catch fish and shellfish: eel baskets, crab pots, oyster dredge, clam tongs, oyster tongs, crab scrapes and more.
But times are changing. As visitors enter the final exhibit gallery, they see current newspaper articles on the wall highlighting issues shaping the future of watermen, from oyster restoration efforts to new restrictions on crab harvests.
Times are, indeed, changing for the watermen. In the future, they might become aquaculturists instead of the “hunters and gatherers” they have been since Native American times, according to the museum, which highlights successful aquaculture projects in Virginia.
Still, working the waters will remain a way of life for many who choose to continue the tradition of the Chesapeake waterman. The work can be rewarding, but tough and uncertain as well.
Stories told in the museum by watermen and their families offer vast testimony:
“I remember very well the times when crabbing was poor for my grandfather,” reads one story. “He would talk for a long time with my grandmother, and they would worry about the price per barrel. They would work things out together. And we never knew there was a financial hardship. It was simply a time we had to get through and we did. He would leave [in] the Kitty M sometimes at 4 or 5 in the morning and I remember my grandmother worried sick when he didn’t come home before 8 or 9 that evening.”
No one will leave the museum without a better appreciation of a waterman’s life.
Map & Guide to Gateways Network Available
A glossy Map & Guide to the Chesapeake Bay Gateways Network is available to help visitors explore the places and stories of the Chesapeake. The Network is a system that include 89 parks, refuges, museums, historic communities and water trails in the Bay watershed, each of which tells part of the Chesapeake story.
The Map & Guide is available free at most Gateway sites, as well as in many state welcome centers in Maryland and Virginia. To order a copy by phone, call toll-free 866-229-9297 in Maryland, or 888-824-5877 in Virginia.
Copies may also be ordered online from the Gateways Network web site, www.baygateways.net . The web site also provides descriptions and links for all designated Gateways, as well as the ability to search for Gateways by activities, areas of interest or geographic location.
