When the skipjack was introduced to Chesapeake Bay in the 1890s, the sloop-rigged vessel quickly succeeded the schooner-style bugeye as the preferred oystering boat. Commercial oystering was at its peak, and an estimated 2,000 skipjacks worked the bay. Among them was E.C. Collier, pictured here in front of Hooper Strait Light. She is one of only 35 surviving traditional Chesapeake Bay skipjacks and a member of the last commercial sailing fleet in the United States.
Skipjacks were inexpensive and easy to build. Their single-mast rig was easy to handle and powerful in light winds, while their wide beam and low freeboard provided a stable dredging platform. Most skipjacks were 40- to 50-feet and built on V-shaped wooden hulls with hard chines and square sterns.
George Washington Horseman built E.C. Collier in 1910 at Deal Island, Maryland, for Eddie Collier, a lifelong blacksmith. She measures 52 feet in and was constructed primarily of Eastern Shore loblolly pine and white oak. During Collier’s ownership, she sailed out of Crisfield, Maryland, and with Capt. Moody Webster. In 1926, Jefferson Dix bought her and moved her to Cape Charles, Virginia. She remained there until 1941 and then changed hands many times, but she was always on the Chesapeake.
When not dredging, E.C. Collier often hauled produce from the Eastern Shore to Baltimore. She also accumulated her share of stories. In the late 1940s, her captain reportedly rammed and dismasted the skipjack Laura J. Barkley on opening day of oyster season because he was unhappy about where she was dredging. In 1952, the boat rescued the crew of Gladys Melba after the dredge boat wrecked near Sharps Island. She frequently participated in races with other skipjacks and took first place at Chesapeake Appreciation Days in 1978.
E.C. Collier retired from dredging in 1985 and was nominated to the National Register of Historic Places that year. In 1988, her final owners, Pauline and John Cummings, donated her to the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum, where she remains as a permanent exhibit.
This article was originally published in the March 2026 issue
