Tangier Sound & the Eastern Shore

The oyster fleet waters of the lower Bay

Chesapeake Bay · Maryland · United States

Tangier and Pocomoke Sounds and the Eastern Shore rivers were the heart of the Chesapeake oyster trade, worked by skipjacks, bugeyes, pungies and log canoes.

Winter squalls and dredging accidents claimed working sail here into the twentieth century. Records are often newspaper accounts rather than survey reports.

Records in These Waters

Available

Claud W. Somers

AH-WR-1091

Hooper Strait, near Deal Island, Maryland

1977 · Skipjack · 12 ft deep

Available

Collector

AH-WR-1089

Pungoteague Creek, Accomack County, Virginia

1883 · Schooner

Available

Delmy

AH-WR-1087

Fox Island, Tangier Sound, Maryland

1877 · Schooner

Available

J. T. H. Coburn

AH-WR-1086

Terrapin Sands, Tangier Sound, Maryland

1877 · Schooner

Available

Wake

AH-WR-1090

Allen's Marsh, Nandua Creek, Accomack County, Virginia

1885 · Schooner

Available

Wm. H. Roach

AH-WR-1088

Crisfield, Maryland

1878 · Schooner