On Friday, March 11, the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum in St. Michaels, Md., will convene a panel of maritime preservation experts for a public forum on its planned 2016-2018 restoration of the National Historic Landmark Chesapeake Bay bugeye Edna E. Lockwood.
Built for Daniel W. Haddaway of Tilghman Island, Edna E. Lockwood dredged for oysters through winter, and carried freight-such as lumber, grain, and produce-after the dredging season ended.
She worked faithfully for many owners, mainly out of Cambridge, Md., until she stopped “drudging” in 1967. In 1973, Edna was donated to the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum by John R. Kimberly. Recognized as the last working oyster boat of her kind, Edna E. Lockwood was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1994.
“This type of boatbuilding is specific to the Chesapeake Bay,” museum chief curator Pete Lesher said. “Just as Native American dugout canoes were formed by carving out one log, a bugeye’s hull is unique in that it is constructed by hewing a set of logs to shape and pinning them together as a unit.”
