MarylandI found these photos during a visit to the archives of the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum (CBMM) in St. Michaels, Md., in April 2025. They’re from CBMM’s Howard I. Chapelle Collection. Notes on the back, probably written by Chapelle, describe this as a Potomac River dory at anchor in St. Mary's County. These photos are undated. My guess is they are from the 1940s, and that this boat was converted from sail to power 10-15 years before.
The Potomac River dory developed in southern Maryland as the demand for oysters grew after the Civil War. It was larger and more seaworthy than the earlier flat-bottomed Black Nancy. Watermen needed more room for their catch and a better boat for the open water near the mouths of the Potomac and Patuxent rivers.
Its defining construction was a V-bottom planked fore-and-aft. That made the type unusual among Chesapeake workboats, whose bottoms were commonly flat and cross-planked. Builders concentrated in St. Mary's County, close to the waters and oyster grounds for which the boats were intended.
The early dories carried two masts and worked under sail while tonging and dredging oysters. Engines later extended the useful lives of many boats.
CBMM's has a 37-foot Potomac River dory in its “floating fleet” that was also fitted with an engine and wheel steering. The CBMM dory was built by Francis Raymond "Peg Leg" Hayden at Banks O'Dee, Md., in 1931. Read more here.
CBMM Catalog Items
| Catalog # | 0000.0901.0287.00, 0000.0901.0288.00, 0000.0901.0290.00, 0000.0901.0291.00 |
| Object Name | photographs |
| Title | POTOMAC RIVER DORY BOAT, MD 9165 DD, AT ANCHOR.; |
| Description | POTOMAC RIVER DORY BOAT, MD 9165 DD, AT ANCHOR.; From old Remarks field: CHESAPEAKE BAY SECTION. Place: ST MARY'S CO., MD Old Subject Fields: POWER VESSELS, WORKBOATS |
| Place Made | No Address St. Mary's MD |
| Subjects | Bay Craft |
Sources
1. Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum, "Potomac River Dory Boat, 1931," Floating Fleet, accessed September 24, 2026.
2. St. Mary's County Museum Division, "St. Clement's Island Museum," accessed September 24, 2026.
3. Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum Collections, catalog items 0000.0901.0287.00, 0000.0901.0288.00, 0000.0901.0290.00, 0000.0901.0291.00, accessed September 24, 2026.
More about CBMM Collections
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.
You can search all the collections online here. Look for the links at lower left to search these collections separately:
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See my CBMM Collections Search Tips.
The collections and library are accessible only by appointment. Email collections@cbmm.org or visit the Library and Research page.