Maryland
Brogans ca. 1901
Chesapeake Bay Log Canoes and Bugeyes, M.V. Brewington
Log Canoe > Brogan > Bugeye
First came sailing log canoes, last came the bugeye and the skipjack. In between were the brogans, coasting canoes, and cabin skiffs. These in-between sailing workboats have not been well documented.
I've presented below all the photos of brogans that I've found in the archives of the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum and from a few published sources. CBMM photos are published here with permission.
Discussion notes for many of the photos were provided by Chesapeake workboats historian and modeler Edward R. Thieler III.
Right-click the photos to view larger in a new tab. Or see all the photos in larger format here.
See also:
Brogan Plans - Shamrock & Katie D
Catalog #: 0000.0278.0001.00
Title : Unidentified Brogan on the Patuxent River
Artist-Maker : Earle, John G Photographer
Date Made : Range, Cir 09/01/1941 - 09/30/1941
Description : Unidentified Brogan on the Patuxent River
Credit Line : Gift of and Photographed by John G Earl
Ed Thieler's notes:
This brogan is rigged for tonging for oysters using patent-drop-tongs.
A donkey gas-engine with winch-drum sits on the mid-deck behind the cuddy cabin.
The fore sail has been removed so the crane gaff can use the halyard.
The man standing at the stern is feeling the bottom and working the drop-tongs with the lift-line taut in his hands.
The man sitting on the cabin roof has the slack lift-line in his hand, ready to wrap it around the donkey engine winch-drum.
The other two men are waiting to sort the catch at the culling board, after the drop-tongs empty a load of oysters on it.
The cullers will toss the oysters on the board leaning against the front of the mainmast where they will slide down into a pile at their feet under the culling board.
The jib and main sail are aboard so it could sail to and from the site.
No hand shaft tongs are on board, and a skiff is in tow.
Catalog #: 0000.0278.0002.00
Title : Brogan Marie off Drum Point
Date Made : Range, Cir 09/01/1941 - 09/30/1941
Description : Brogan Marie off drum point
Credit Line : Gift of and Photographed by John G Earle
Place Made : Drum Point Solomons Calvert Patuxent River Western Shore MD
Ed Thieler's notes:
See photos 0278.0003, and 0278.0004 for other views of Marie.
The three photos in this Marie series show a well cared for work boat – overall nicely painted, trailboard in place, name and registration number framed with carved leaf-sprigs, blocks in the rigging painted white, things neatly stowed until needed, bowsprit and its chains painted.
The trailboard appears to be decorated with an American flag – just forward of the vertical anchor stock – words or other decorations are too blured to identify. This photo was taken just three months before we entered WWII.
This brogan is rigged for tonging for oysters using patent-drop-tongs.
A donkey gas-engine with winch-drum sits on the mid-deck behind the cuddy cabin. The drop-tong handles are sticking up, behind the engine, attached to the line going up to the block on the crane, rigged from foremast.
Sorted oysters will be tossed from the culling board, seen crossing the mid-deck, onto the board leaning against the front of the mainmast, where they will fall to form a pile under the culling board.
(Curiously the crane gaff does not show in the photo, just its white jaws crossing the mast. The crane-gaff is clearly shown in 0278.0003)
The engine has a tarp covering it in 0278.0003, and 0278.0004.
The men on the bow are letting out or taking in the anchor rode, to work a new spot.
There are some questions:
It appears that the foresail has been removed to rig the crane, and there is no jib lazyjack system rigged. Other than the main sail, no other sail is visible in any of the photos.
Is the main sail just a riding sail ? How did the boat get to and from the tonging site ?
Is there an engine exhaust pipe in front of the helmsman, or is that perhaps a stove pipe ? See photo 0278.0003.
Free standing masts – no shrouds. No shaft tongs are on board. A skiff is in tow.
A pungy schooner and yacht are passing in the background.
---
See Brewington, Canoes and Bugeyes p92-93. Fig 88 – Charles Marsh’s patent deep water tongs.
Catalog #: 0000.0278.0003.00
Title : Brogan Marie Olivet-Mill Creek
Date Made : Range, Cir 01/01/1941 -
Description : Brogan Marie Olivet-Mill Creek
Credit Line : Gift of and Photographed by John G Earle
Place Made : Olivet - Mill Creek
Ed Thieler's notes:
See photos 0278.0002 and 0278.0004 for other views of Marie.
In this photo the crane-gaff rig is clearly shown at the fore mast head. The white drop-tongs lift-line can be see attached to the tong handles.
The tarp over the donkey engine, and culling board, are well shown.
Again, there is no sign of an auxilliary engine.
There is another sailboat on the other side of the pier – the mast may be sticking out from the pier end. Was this a one-mast bateau – a “Jenkins Creeker” ?
The man in the white cap may be standing on the foredeck of the skiff, stern-up behind him.
Catalog #: 0000.0278.0004.00
Title : Brogan Marie Olivet-Mill Creek
Date Made : Range, Cir 09/01/1941 - 09/30/1941
Description : Brogan Marie Olivet-Mill Creek
Credit Line : Gift of and Photographed by John G Earle
Ed Thieler's notes:
See photos 0278.0002 and 0278.0003 for other views of Marie.
This shows the handles of the patent-drop-tongs clearly.
A tarp covers the donkey engine.
I see no sign of a jib, fore sail, or auxiliary engine, stack or exhaust stain. [same in 0278.0002] How did the boat move?
The stern of a draketail is on the right photo border. The crane rig above it appears to be on the draketail – a line hangs from the crane block, made fast to a cleat on the coaming (collar), a culling board is forward of the engine box, and the mast appears to be stepped forward of a trunk cabin.
Did this boat tow Marie to and from the oyster rocks ?
This appears to be a black-owned boat. It looks well maintained, nice coat of paint, decorative leaf-sprigs frame the names, and are carved on the sternpost.
What a wonderful subject for a model – there would not be another like it in the world.
Olivet is a community of Lusby, Maryland, up Mill Creek, a branch of the Patuxent River, behind Drum Point.
Army Corp of Engineers
Solomons Island Quadrangle 257214
1944
Catalog #: 0000.0722.0022.00
Title : Town Creek with Brogan "Star Light"
Catalog #: 0000.0834.0004.00
Title : HARBOR, SOLOMONS, MD, WITH BROGAN, SCHOONER AND MO
Date Made : Range,Exac 01/01/1912 - 12/31/1912
Description : HARBOR, SOLOMONS, MD, WITH BROGAN, SCHOONER AND MOTOR YACHT; From old Remarks field: CREASED; FROM ESTATE OF ELEANOR PARDOE BULATKIN.
Place: SOLOMONS, MD Old Subject Fields: DOCKS, HARBORS, & PIERS; POWER VESSELS, WORKBOATS
Place Made : No Address Solomons Calvert Patuxent River Western Shore MD US
Catalog #: 0000.1295.0379.00
Title : Brogan Naomi anchored near Solomons Island
Description : Brogan Naomi anchored near Solomons Island No sails or booms are visible, but the masts are in place. No date. For source, see 1295.0001
Credit Line : Robert H. Burgess Collection, CBMM
Place Made : Solomons Calvert Back Creek Western Shore MD
Catalog #: 0000.1295.0402.00
Title : Unidentified brogan under sail, probably at Solomons, MD
Date Made : Circa 01/01/1902 -
Description : Unidentified brogan under sail, probably at Solomons, MD; three men aboard; another vessel in background., For source, see 1295.0001.
Credit Line : Robert H. Burgess Collection, CBMM
Place Made : Solomons Calvert Back Creek Western Shore MD
Catalog #: 0000.0041.0001.00
Title : FORMER BROGAN ON PATUXENT RIVER
Artist-Maker : Earle, John G Photographer
Date Made : Range,Exac 09/01/1941 - 09/30/1941
Ed Thieler's notes:
Although labeled a brogan by John G. Earle, judging by the height of the waterman, this may be a smaller coasting-canoe or even smaller log-canoe.
It has no deck, the trunk cabin appears small enough to be removable, and there is no evidence of earlier headworks – bowsprit, longhead, supporting rails and stays and shrouds – that would have been necessary to support the tall foremast of a brogan.
I'm not sure about the "masts" - it would have been so much easier to just pull them out and leave them ashore. Why leave the stumps there ?
With no evidence of sails or engine I wonder if this canoe was towed here by his friends in the deadrise so they could tong together.
MUSTANG (brogan)
Maryland's National Register Properties
Inventory No.: AA-863
Date Listed: 4/2/1980
Location [1980]: Dock Street, Annapolis, Anne Arundel County
Date of Construction: 1907
Architect/Builder: Moore Brothers
Description:
This Chesapeake Bay vessel is built like a brogan, the ancestor of the present vessel known as a bugeye. The MUSTANG (commissioned as the KATE D) is the last of this type under full sail. Distinctive characteristics of the brogan are the two masts, sharp stem and stern, clipper bow, and a bold sheer. The MUSTANG is of the log and frame type, with five hand-hewn logs making up her hull to the waterline and then planked to her sheer. The keel log is six inches rabbited out for the stem and stern posts. The two garboard logs taper to five inches and the wing logs to four inches at the waterline. The white oak frames for the freeboard planking are secured to the wing logs. All logs, oak ribs, and freeboard planking are original.
Significance:
The brogan was an important step in the development of Chesapeake Bay craft. In the mid-19th century coasting canoes, which developed from Indian canoes, were first used to drag a scrape to harvest oysters in Somerset County. These canoes were made larger and heavier to better pull the scrape, resulting in the log-built brogan. The brogan differed from the coasting canoe in having a deck, fixed masts with shrouds on the foremast, hatches, and a forward cabin. The MUSTANG, built in 1907, is a late example of this type of Bay vessel. She is also the last brogan under full sail on the Chesapeake. Although altered by the addition of cabins, the MUSTANG’s hull and masts retain the basic form of a brogan.
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