The Chesapeake City Basin

The Basin: James Adams’ Home and Borger’s Wharf

Here’s a southeast view of the Chesapeake City Basin around 1940. At present (2015), it’s the site of the Chesapeake Inn. The area at right, just out of view, was Borger’s Wharf, where I docked my small boat. Sometime in the seventies the restaurant known as Dockside was established on the site. The owner was Franz Kappel, former owner of the Chesapeake Boat Company. At left is Mount Nebo, where James Adams build his house. Adams was the owner of the Showboat, also known as the Floating Theater. Notice how different the Basin was in the early forties. Walter Cooling told me that, before the Corps of Engineers widened and deepened the area, it was mostly marshland, with a stream (Back Creek) meandering through.

Our Mild Winters and Summers

Some of you folks might think it’s been cold these last few days. Why, this is like the Bahamas compared to how cold it was when I was a boy on my father’s farm near Chesapeake City. I recall one of those bitter mornings when our cow was nearly frozen in her stall. When we milked her instead of the milk tumbling into the pail it came down as icicles and we had to snap off the squirts. Churning butter was a real chore that evening. But the cold was especially hard on our laying hens. Every evening we’d have to place hot water bottles in their nests so we’d have eggs for breakfast instead of ice cubes.

While I’m at it I’d better tell you about the hottest summer we ever had when I was a boy. Our summers now are just right compared those times. I recall one summer it was hot. How hot was it? It was so hot one afternoon that both of my father’s fields of popcorn started popping and blowing up into the sky. And then, when it began falling back to earth, our poor chickens thought it was snow and froze in their tracks. It was bad. We had to take them into the kitchen to thaw them out. So I certainly think that folks today should not complain about the good weather we’ve been having.

 

John Trush, World War II veteran

 

John Trush, World War II veteran and wonderful man, passed away on February 11, 2015. John and all other veterans deserve our heart-felt thanks; they sacrificed for our country’s benefit. In 2005 he told me the following story about a famous battle:

 

“I remember that bloody battle near the German town of Herrlisheim. It was really a trap set by the Germans. It occurred not long before the war ended, right after the Battle of the Bulge.

 

I remember that because my company was sent north to cut the Germans off in that battle, but the Germans pulled out before we got there.

"I remember the scene of the scene very well. It was early morning and very foggy. At one point our officer, Lieutenant Woods, and I looked out and saw part of the sun trying to break through the fog, and I said, ‘That sun looks awfully bloody up there.’

 "And so we advanced, with Steinwald Woods on the left of us and the Zorn River on the right. We were supposed to cross that river to take Herrlisheim, but before we crossed tremendous fire came from that wooded area. One of the tanks was riding on the top of a levee along the river and slipped down and turned completely over into the marsh. As I drove by it I didn’t see anyone jump out of it; the escape hatch was closed. The firing kept coming from the woods, and it was lighting up our tanks like match sticks. They were full of gas and would explode and burn for hours; I’ve seen them burn all night long. They were firing 88 millimeter canons. Being under heavy fire, Lieutenant Woods called through the intercom for us to back up. He kept hollering, ‘Back it up; pour it on her!’

"We were able to retreat far enough so that the shells began to fall before they got to us. I could see the shells flying by us, quite a few of them. They were almost three feet long and I could see the waves of heat created by them coming towards us—the shape of the shell shimmering inside. As the fog lifted I could see German soldiers coming from the woods. And right away our air force fire-bombed that whole area with white phosphorous, which destroyed the trees and all the German infantry. Those bodies lay there for quite a while—frozen to the ground.

We fought battles before and after Herrlisheim, but nothing as disastrous. It was truly a nightmare. You know, for a long time I couldn’t talk about the horror of that terribly bloody battle. For a long, long while the memories kept me awake—all those men slaughtered … and I came out of it, came home, and I … oh well!”

Second Photo: 20-year old John Trush with his Company A tank buddies in 1945. Note tank and rockets at top of photo.

 

Titter Farm and Chesapeake Boat Company

 

Here’s a west view of Back Creek taken from the over-head bridge before the area was widened in the sixties. Notice the Titter farm at left. This was the home of Curtis Titter and his son, George. George was the father of Helen, Jack, and Dick Titter, notable Chesapeake City citizens. Above the Titter farm is the Chesapeake Boat Company, where I worked as a boy for Franz Kappel and his father. In the distance is the Marine Construction Company. This second picture is a south west view of the same Chesapeake Boat Company. Notice the old town dump at top right. I remember well the huge pot holes and the stench after portions were burned. As an early teenager, I spent a lot of time on this dock, pumping gas, working with the yachts, and general all-purpose goofing off.

Southern Transportation – Shipyard Department

 

 

 

This is the old Southern Transportation Company, circa 1910. It was on the North Side, across Back Creek and slightly west of the Burnt House swimming hole. My two uncles, Clarence and Warren Truss, worked there about the time the photo was taken. Clarence a master carpenter and his brother, Warren, worked on the wooden barges as a caulker. An old timer told me that he remembered hearing the banging of the caulk being driven into the seams. He said it echoed loudly across the water to where he lived on the South Side. This second photo is of the Marine Construction Company, located at the same site, circa 1960. This area, at the mouth of Long Creek, is now Capt. Dan’s, site of the Delaware Responder. As a boy, I used to swim across from the Burnt House and rest there on the wharf. Long Creek meanderers up and goes under Rt. 213 near the Crab Shack.