Bugeye
Encyclopedia
Chesapeake Bay
The Chesapeake Bay is the largest estuary in the United States. It lies off the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by Maryland and Virginia. The Chesapeake Bay's drainage basin covers in the District of Columbia and parts of six states: New York, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, and West...
for oyster dredging
Scallop dredge
A fishing dredge, also known as a scallop dredge, oyster dredge, etc, is a kind of dredge which is towed along the bottom of the sea by a fishing boat in order to collect a targeted edible bottom-dwelling species. The gear is used to fish for scallops, oysters and other species of clams, crabs, and...
. The predecessor of the skipjack, it was superseded by the latter as oyster harvests dropped.
Origins
Between 1820 and 1865, the state of MarylandMaryland
Maryland is a U.S. state located in the Mid Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware to its east...
banned the practice of dredging for oysters. In the latter year, the law was relaxed; the use of steam power remained banned, however, and remained entirely prohibited until 1965, in which year powered dredging was allowed two days of the week. As long as dredging for oysters in the Chesapeake was prohibited, oystermen working from log canoes tonged for oysters. In 1854 the Maryland legislature permitted the use of dredges in the waters of Somerset County, Maryland, expanding the use of dredges to the rest of the Bay following the Civil War. Opening the Chesapeake to oyster dredging after the Civil War created a need for larger, more powerful boats to haul dredges across the oyster beds.
The first vessels used were the existing sloops, pungy
Pungy
The Pungy is a type of schooner developed in and peculiar to the Chesapeake Bay region. The name is believed to derive from the Pungoteague region of Accomack County, Virginia, where the design was developed in the 1840s and 50s....
s and schooner
Schooner
A schooner is a type of sailing vessel characterized by the use of fore-and-aft sails on two or more masts with the forward mast being no taller than the rear masts....
s on the Bay, but none of these types was well suited to the purpose; pungys and schooners were too deep in their draft to work the shallower waters of the Bay, the schooners and sloops had bulwarks too high to facilitate handling the dredges, the relatively complex rigs of all three types required uneconomically large crews of skilled sailors, and the vessels themselves were relatively expensive to build and maintain.
The log canoe
Log canoe
The log canoe is a type of sailboat developed in the Chesapeake Bay region. Based on the dugout, it was the principal traditional fishing boat of the bay until superseded by the bugeye and the skipjack. However, it is most famous as a racing sailboat, and races continue to be held.The history of...
s had none of these disadvantages, but were too small to successfully haul dredges. The result was the development during the 1870s and 1880s of the brogan, an enlarged log canoe. In
brogans, the open hull of the log canoe was decked, with hatches covering holds created by subdividing the hull with bulkheads. Brogans typically used the same sail plan as the log canoes of the Tilghman Island region, a leg-of-mutton (i.e., triangular) foresail, mainsail and jib, with the foremast taller than the main. Both masts raked rather sharply aft, with the mainmast raked significantly more sharply than the foremast.1
Brogans were still too small to effectively haul dredges, and continued to be enlarged and improved. By the early 1880s, or possibly even earlier, the first bugeyes were being built.2 Over the next twenty years, the bugeye became the dominant type of vessel employed in oystering, but by 1893 construction of new bugeyes began to decline with the introduction of the skipjack, which was less expensive to build, operate and maintain yet was very well suited to dredging for oysters. No working bugeyes appear to have been built after 1918, but bugeyes continued to be employed in oystering and freighting until the middle of the Twentieth Century, albeit in ever-decreasing numbers.3
The origin of the name is obscure.
Design
Like the earlier brogan, the typical bugeye was two-masted, with leg-of-mutton mainsail, foresail and jibJib
A jib is a triangular staysail set ahead of the foremast of a sailing vessel. Its tack is fixed to the bowsprit, to the bow, or to the deck between the bowsprit and the foremost mast...
. By modern standards, this rig would be described as a ketch
Ketch
A ketch is a sailing craft with two masts: a main mast, and a shorter mizzen mast abaft of the main mast, but forward of the rudder post. Both masts are rigged mainly fore-and-aft. From one to three jibs may be carried forward of the main mast when going to windward...
rig, but it appears that watermen of the time referred to it as simply a leg-of-mutton or a bugeye rig. Unlike modern ketches, the forward-most mast was referred to as the foremast and the after mast was termed the mainmast, although like the brogan and log canoe, the mainmast was shorter than the foremast. As with the earlier brogans and the log canoes, the masts were sharply raked, although they were set up with stays and shrouds. Unlike the brogan, however, the mainmast was raked only slightly more sharply than the foremast.4 A bowsprit
Bowsprit
The bowsprit of a sailing vessel is a pole extending forward from the vessel's prow. It provides an anchor point for the forestay, allowing the fore-mast to be stepped farther forward on the hull.-Origin:...
with trailboard
Trailboard
The trailboards are a pair of boards that may be found at the bow of certain sailing vessels, where they run from the figurehead or billethead back to or towards the hawsepipe. They are in the main decorative, though they often bear the name of the ship; they may be more or less elaborately carved...
s was inevitably used.
The hull
Hull (watercraft)
A hull is the watertight body of a ship or boat. Above the hull is the superstructure and/or deckhouse, where present. The line where the hull meets the water surface is called the waterline.The structure of the hull varies depending on the vessel type...
was beamy and shallow, with no chine
Chine
A chine is a steep-sided river valley where the river flows through coastal cliffs to the sea. Typically these are soft eroding cliffs such as sandstone or clays. The word chine originates from the Saxon "Cinan" meaning a gap or yawn....
. Initially it was chunked from logs, in the manner of the log canoe; eventually conventional framed construction was introduced as the supply of suitable trees was depleted. The usual form was double-ended, with a sharp stern, and most such boats had a heavy beam called the "duck tail" projecting a short distance from the stern in order to protect the rudder. To increase deck space a "patent stern" was installed after 1893; it consisted of a set of three beams: one across the duck tail, and two joining its ends to either side of the boat. The ostensible purpose, according to the patent in question, was to provide a mounting spot for davit
Davit
A davit is a structure, usually made of steel, which is used to lower things over an edge of a long drop off such as lowering a maintenance trapeze down a building or launching a lifeboat over the side of a ship....
s for a dinghy
Dinghy
A dinghy is a type of small boat, often carried or towed for use as a ship's boat by a larger vessel. It is a loanword from either Bengali or Urdu. The term can also refer to small racing yachts or recreational open sailing boats. Utility dinghies are usually rowboats or have an outboard motor,...
; the whole area, however, could be planked over to provide a considerable increase in deck space. All log bugeyes were sharp-sterned, but some frame versions had round sterns; a very few had a square transom
Transom (nautical)
In naval architecture, a transom is the surface that forms the stern of a vessel. Transoms may be flat or curved and they may be vertical, raked forward, also known as a retroussé or reverse transom, angling forward from the waterline to the deck, or raked aft, often simply called "raked", angling...
. The freeboard
Freeboard (nautical)
In sailing and boating, freeboardmeans the distance from the waterline to the upper deck level, measured at the lowest point of sheer where water can enter the boat or ship...
was invariably low, the better to lift the dredges onto the deck.
Due to the wide, flat bottom, a centerboard was provided. Early boats used a tiller
Tiller
A tiller or till is a lever attached to a rudder post or rudder stock of a boat that provides leverage for the helmsman to turn the rudder...
for steering, but as patent steering gear became available, the wheel came into use instead.
Besides the raked, paired masts, the other distinctive feature of the bugeye is the mounting of the bowsprit. This was mounted between paired hawsepieces and knightheads, and terminated in a large vertical post called the "samson post", upon which the anchor windlass was also typically mounted. The hawsepieces projected above the deck and, with the prominent hawse holes, are thought possibly to be the origin of the name "bugeye".
In the center of the ship sat the windlass
Windlass
The windlass is an apparatus for moving heavy weights. Typically, a windlass consists of a horizontal cylinder , which is rotated by the turn of a crank or belt...
(generally called the "winder") for the dredge lines. Early winders were simple hand-cranked spools, eventually equipped with devices to prevent injuries when the dredge caught on an obstruction. As gas and diesel engines became available they replaced the hand-cranked winder. In either case a pair of rollers was mounted at the rail on either side, to protect the hull from rubbing and to reduce friction as the dredges were raised.
By and large there was very little development within the type, other than the minor improvements already listed. There was a small trend towards increasing size; bugeyes averaged around 55 feet (16.8 m) in length, but some later examples were well over 80 feet (24.4 m) long. Variations in the sail plan were tried, particularly with additional jibs, gaff rig
Gaff rig
Gaff rig is a sailing rig in which the sail is four-cornered, fore-and-aft rigged, controlled at its peak and, usually, its entire head by a spar called the gaff...
ging and staysail
Staysail
A staysail is a fore-and-aft rigged sail whose luff can be affixed to a stay running forward from a mast to the deck, the bowsprit or to another mast....
s. A few were built with a single mast, resulting in a boat with a superficial resemblance to the skipjack.
Operation
Oystering was performed in the winter (the "R months" of September through April); in the summer the boats were used in light freight work where it was available. For oystering the boat would be taken out to the bed, and the dredge would be dropped as a pass was made at speed over the bed. At the end of the run the dredge would be lifted onto the deck and the live oysters separated from the dead shells and other debris. This process would be repeated until sufficient oysters were obtained. More enterprising captains would then sail the boat directly to the markets in Baltimore, Crisfield, and other towns where the oysters were bought at wholesale and processed. Alternatively, the catch could sold to a buy boat, which acted as a middle man in the process. Some boats both dredged and acted as buy boats, in which case a bushel basket would be mounted on the fore mast to indicate the latter.With its low freeboard, the bugeye was not generally considered to be an ocean-going vessel; some boats were however sailed to the West Indies in the off season for the tropical trade. One bugeye, the Brown Smith Jones, was built for the Maryland Oyster Police. It had the curious distinction of being commissioned in the United States Navy
United States Navy
The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...
in World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, taking the name USS Dorchester in this service.
Decline of the type
Construction of bugeyes closely paralleled the oyster harvest, which peaked in 1884. As the catch declined, the skipjack became more popular, as it was smaller and cheaper to build. Bugeye construction dropped to almost nothing shortly after the turn of the century. Many of the survivors gave up dredging and devoted themselves to the buy boat business, in which case the sails were no longer wanted. In a typical conversion the bowsprit and main mast were removed entirely, and the fore mast shortened and modified into a derrickDerrick
A derrick is a lifting device composed of one tower, or guyed mast such as a pole which is hinged freely at the bottom. It is controlled by lines powered by some means such as man-hauling or motors, so that the pole can move in all four directions. A line runs up it and over its top with a hook on...
for hoisting. A stern cabin
Cabin (ship)
A cabin or berthing is an enclosed space generally on a ship or an aircraft. A cabin which protrudes above the level of a ship's deck may be referred to as a "deckhouse."-Sailing ships:...
for the wheel and an engine for power completed the transformation. (The William B. Tennison is a surviving example of such a conversion.) As a result of such conversions, and simple attrition, surviving bugeyes are extremely rare, and only one (the Edna E. Lockwood) survives in its original form. The plan was however taken up as a pleasure craft, and new versions for that purpose continue to be built.
Example on exhibit
One of the best examples of the type still in existence is the Edna E. Lockwood, which is on exhibit at the Chesapeake Bay Maritime MuseumChesapeake Bay Maritime Museum
The Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum is located in St. Michaels, Maryland, United States and is home to a collection of Chesapeake Bay artifacts, exhibitions, and vessels. This interactive museum was founded in 1965 on Navy Point, once a site of seafood packing houses, docks, and work boats...
in Saint Michaels, Maryland. The Lockwood is a nine log bugeye launched on October 5, 1899 at Tilghman Island, Maryland
Tilghman Island, Maryland
Tilghman Island is a census-designated place in Talbot County, Maryland, United States. The population was 854 at the 2000 census.- History :...
, by John B. Harrison for Daniel Haddaway, at a cost of $2,200. She worked for at least seven sets of owners from 1899 until 1967, and was then sailed as a yacht until donated to the museum in 1973. The museum undertook an extensive restoration of the Lockwood from 1975 through 1979, which restored the bugeye to its 1910 appearance with the "patent stern" that had been added sometime prior to that year. She is the last bugeye retaining the sailing rig and working appearance of the type, and is a National Historic Landmark
National Historic Landmark
A National Historic Landmark is a building, site, structure, object, or district, that is officially recognized by the United States government for its historical significance...
. Her length is 53 ft-6 in, with a 15 ft-3 in beam and a 2 ft-7 in draft with the centerboard up, and a maximum sail area of approximately 1700 square feet (157.9 m²).
See also
- Fishing VesselFishing vesselA fishing vessel is a boat or ship used to catch fish in the sea, or on a lake or river. Many different kinds of vessels are used in commercial, artisanal and recreational fishing....
- Sailing shipSailing shipThe term sailing ship is now used to refer to any large wind-powered vessel. In technical terms, a ship was a sailing vessel with a specific rig of at least three masts, square rigged on all of them, making the sailing adjective redundant. In popular usage "ship" became associated with all large...
- Chesapeake BayChesapeake BayThe Chesapeake Bay is the largest estuary in the United States. It lies off the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by Maryland and Virginia. The Chesapeake Bay's drainage basin covers in the District of Columbia and parts of six states: New York, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, and West...
- Solomons Island, Maryland
Footnotes
- M.V. Brewington, Chesapeake Bay Bugeyes (Newport News, VA: The Mariners' Museum, 1941), p. 4-8; Howard I. Chapelle, American Small Sailing Craft: Their Design, Development, and Construction (New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 1951), p. 291-294; and Charles H. Kepner, The Edna E. Lockwood (St. Michaels, MD: Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum, 1979), p. 2-3.
- Brewington, p. 8-9.
- Brewington, p. 71-72; and Howard I. Chapelle, Notes on Chesapeake Bay Skipjacks (St. Michaels, MD: Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum), Introduction.
- Brewington, p. 4-8, 48-49.