The tugboat, Startle

The Startle, a wooden, steam-driven tugboat

This is the most often-seen working tugboat in the Chesapeake City area of the C&D canal in the late 1800s and first half of the 1900s. You can tell it’s the Startle by the small horse statue at the cabin’s top. The Startle was one of five wooden, steam tugboats that serviced the canal. The other four were the Wister, the Cecil, the Ash, and the Roman. Pictures of all of these were given to me by Morrison Watson. To the left of this photo you can see where Joseph Schaefer’s ship’s chandlery was located. Now (2014) it’s the location of Schaefer’s Restaurant. Notice that the tug is pulling one of the wheat boats west through the lock into Back Creek. The large building in the distance is the Masonic Hall. The small building next to it is Groom’s Steele’s grain office. These buildings were located on the Causeway, a popular shopping area across the waterway from what is now Pell Gardens.

Steam vessel, Linda

The steam craft, Linda, owned by the Canal Company

This is the steam vessel, Linda, a small utility boat that was used by the canal company to take employees back and forth through the canal and to provide general service work. The young woman on the boat is Ellen Norris Savin, the daughter of toll-collector, Henry Norris. She would become the wife of Joe Savin and the matriarch of the prominent Savin family of Chesapeake City. The men aboard are (left to right): John Broadway, Bill Vaught, and Jake Hemphill. The boat is moored on the South Side, just east of the pump house.

The Wister, a Steam-driven Tugboat

Steam Tugboat, Wister, with Capt. Jacob Truss

Here is the Wister, a wooden, steam tugboat, with possibly my great, grandfather, Capt. Jacob Isaac Truss. Capt. Truss was the master of many steam vessels in the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries. The Wister was his last charge. After this he retired because of failing eyesight. Capt. Truss used to talk about seeing Civil War battles in the distance as he piloted his boat up the Potomac River.

Water Wheel

Water Wheel

Here’s the only picture, as far as I know, of the water wheel in action, actually pumping water through into the sluice. I used to think that the water was pumped out the front. From this we can see that it flowed from both sides of the pump house.

Pump House

Pump House and Water Wheel

Here’s the pump house that contains the big Cyprus water wheel. These building still stand, of course, as our museum. On the left is the building that served as the store room for the Corps of Engineers. The Corps employed many Chesapeake City residents. My father worked in the store room when I was a boy, and my mother took me along to pick him up at 4:30 every week day. The water would flow down this sluice and into the locked canal to replace the water that was lost when vessels locked through either on their way east through the canal or west into Back Creek. Men used to come here to fish with nets for herring or shad.