MarylandI found this photo during a visit to the archives of the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum (CBMM) in St. Michaels, Md., in December 2024. Info on the back of the photo names this boat as a “Chesapeake Bay scull boat” and gives 1972 as the photo date. This photo was found in CBMM’s Howard I. Chapelle Collection. It’s unclear if Chapelle took the photo himself or received it from a correspondent. If you have ideas on this, please email me.
This boat does not appear to have any sculling fixture on the stern – neither the common sculling notch nor the less common peg once used on the Chesapeake for sculling with a flat paddle. It appears to be configured instead for an outboard. It’s hard to see why Chapelle or someone else saw this as a sculling boat.
Knowledge of the local sculling technique has been kept alive through the work of Albert Pollard. (Read more here. See Pollard’s video here.)
Chesapeake watermen used a long oar with a flat loom over the stern, sweeping the blade from side to side to drive the boat ahead. The oar laid against a simple stern post, often with wet burlap added for grip. Water pressure kept the oar against the post, so an oarlock, notch, rope, or thole pins were unnecessary. Sculling rather than rowing preferred for edging alongside another vessel, checking crab shedding floats, working near nets, or covering a short distance when setting out side oars would be awkward. A practiced sculler could face forward and work one-handed at an easy pace, then turn aft and use both hands when more power was needed.
CBMM Catalog Item
| Catalog # | 0000.0901.0235.00 |
| Object Name | photographs |
| Title | CHESAPEAKE BAY SCULL BOAT, ON TRAILER. OLD POLAROI |
| Date Made | Range, Circ 01/01/1972 - 12/31/1972 |
| Description | CHESAPEAKE BAY SCULL BOAT, ON TRAILER. OLD POLAROID PRINT, POOR COLOR. PA. REGISTRATION NO.; From old Remarks field: CHESAPEAKE BAY SECTION Old Subject Fields: CANOES & ROWBOATS, VESSEL |
| Subjects | Bay Craft |
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Items that are not exhibited around the CBMM campus are kept in the Norman & Ellen Plummer Center for Museum Collections. This is a climate-controlled facility that was expanded and modernized in 2023.
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