This Talbot Historical Society H. Robins Hollyday Collection photo is of the beautiful oystering workboat the Sanxton Hubbard dredging oysters in 1938. She was built by M. M. Davis &Son, Solomon, Md. In 1891! Facts: Nov. 1951 issue of “Motor Boating Magazine.” Another view of this historic workboat can be found in the Project Rewind- Talbot County Album ,posted Nov. 21, 2014, on the Talbot Historical Society Facebook page. Anyone know how many Bugeyes are left on the Bay?
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Geoffrey M. Footner says
First allow me to introduce myself: I am the dad of Karen Footner who has a cottage in Neavitt. I am also a maritime historian and know some things about Chesapeake Bay craft, having written a few books on that subject, including book about the M. M. Davis Shipyard of Solomon MD. Concerning your question on the the number of surviving ‘Bugeyes’ on the Chesapeake Bay – there is the Calvert County Maritime Museum’s tour boat, which has been motorized that is a Bugeye. It is as I recall , the only surviving one on the Bay, unless the one pictured still exists there. Then there is or was the ‘Little Jenny’ built by James T. March at Solomon MD, but owned in 1986 at New York (Long Island). The last oyster fleet consisting of Bugeyes were owned in Norris, New Jersey by a group of African-American watermen who had left Chesapeake Bay to work there. when oysters became scarce in Tidewater.
While sailing through the the narrows sat Tilghman Island a decade or so ago I ran across a Davis yacht that was owned in Talbot County, and her name is or was ‘Dog Star’. Bye, bye Geoffrey