Chesapeake Bay Skipjacks

Chesapeake Bay Skipjacks documents the skipjack and its role in the oyster dredging industry, describing the natural and manmade disasters that affected the trade, including the August storm of 1933 that swept vessels into pastures; ice-locked harbors that led to the idea of dredging through the ice with sleighs, cars, and trucks; and the Great Depression that crushed the oyster market overnight and forced many to abandon their vessels and way of life. The history of the skipjack, a vessel type that has only existed for about a hundred years, is seen here primarily through the eyes of the men who lived it. Author Vojtech interviewed some thirty captains, former captains, crew members, and relatives of those who worked the boats, to recreate the events that took place between 1917 and 1993. The early years were reconstructed through research into Maryland’s dredging records and contemporary newspapers accounts. Today, disease and other environmental hazards affecting the oyster have