Captain Bill Mylett has weathered the wind, waves, and sun of the Eastern Seaboard for well over thirty years on schooners, skipjacks, and other coastal work boats. So delivering the Skipjack Martha Lewis from her home in Havre de Grace at the head of Chesapeake Bay to her winter berth at Port Covington in Baltimore, is just another day on the job. But for Martha, the routine November trek down the Susquehanna Flats, past Aberdeen Proving Grounds and Pooles Island, and up the Patapscos Brewerton Channel to Fort McHenry, is fraught with uncertainty and humility. For all but one of her fifty-nine Novembers the Martha Lewis has been a proud and productive member of the Chesapeake oyster dredging fleet, plying the choppy waters of the Bay in places like Tangier Sound, the Choptank River, Seven Foot Knoll, and Tea Kettle Shoals. But this year shes feeling rather naked as Captain Bill motors her to the mouth of the Patapsco without her dredges, without her sails, and most indignantly, without her bowsprit and mast. Summer restoration efforts have fallen far short of restoring Marthas structural integrity and her cultural dignity -- her condition is becoming critical. She wants to sail again. She wants to dredge oysters again. She wants school children scurrying around on her decks again to experience the beauty of the Bay. She want families and friends back on board to celebrate weddings and birthdays and beautiful sunsets. And she wants to take curious visitors out on lazy summer sails and mellow evening wine cruises. She wants to continue to build her legacy. She has given us so much and she wants to give us more. But right now she needs us to give back to her. She needs our care. She needs our commitment. She needs our time. And the stark, blunt, hard, cold fact of the matter is, she needs our money! There can be no mincing of words, no softsoaping, no woolgathering. For Martha to return to glory she needs cash, moolah, dough, cabbage, greenbacks -- fifty to sixty thousand of them! I hope we can get them to her soon, for her time is running short! Please consider offering a generous, year end donation to Chesapeake Heritage Conservancy
Posted on: Tue, 19 Nov 2013 23:08:33 +0000
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