The Victory Ferry

The Victory Ferry

This is the Victory, a small boat used as a ferry before the Gotham arrived in March of 1943. The captain was Charles Cooling. The craft brought people back and forth across the canal after our lift bridge was destroyed at 11:38 am on July 28^th, 1942. Here it is letting off school children from the North Side so they can attend our South Side school. It’s moored at City Dock, at the same location where Capt. Hazel ties the Miss Clare tour boat. The people (L to R) are Doris Long, Violet Hessey, Herb Edmonds, the Spear girls, and Miss Crowgey, a business teacher at Chesapeake City High School. I think the boy in the foreground is my classmate, Jack Wharton. In the background is the Mindy Building. At that time a Coast Guard unit was stationed in the area across the Basin.

The Wheat Boats

Wheat Boats at City Dock

These are the wheat boats at City Dock, also called Rees’ Wharf. These boats hauled grain through the canal to Baltimore, Philadelphia, and beyond. We’re looking southwest at what is now called Pell Gardens. I remember the large apartment building at center. Grason Stubbs, who used to swim right up next to the Gotham ferry as he tried to race it through the basin, lived in the apartments. At far right is Ralph Rees’ grain warehouse, located where the Canal Creamery is now. It was there when I was a boy. I used to go under the building to change into my bathing suit and come out to swim off City Dock. Hank Banks used to dive off from the top. Water Cooling, prominent Chesapeake City merchant, told me that when a boy he fell from the building, plunged into the water, and got his head stuck in the mud. He said that just his feet were sticking out of the water. His dad pulled him out just in time.

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.