OYSTERS, CRABS, AND U.S. HISTORY
A CRUISE ON AMERICAN SPIRIT

A cruise on the Chesapeake Bay is a cruise into history, and indeed as we cruised on the 100-passenger American Spirit it was like traveling in a time capsule between what is now and what was before.

The cruise began at noon on Saturday from Baltimore, right at the city’s Inner Harbor at Pier One next to the old Constellation. So as not to take a chance on missing the boat we flew in the night before. We stayed at the Renaissance Harborplace Hotel, just across the street and could see Pier 1 from our window. The next morning the hotel bellman took our luggage directly to the crew of the ship a few hundred feet away. (The Renaissance bed was the most comfortable bed I have ever slept in; I am going to check into buying it!)

Before departure we wandered around the Inner Harbor with its shops and restaurants and street performers, and went aboard the Constellation. It is the last Civil War vessel still afloat and the last all-sail warship built by the U.S. Navy, launched in 1854, at first charged with intercepting and capturing illegal slave ships, later serving as a training ship.    

Also at the Inner Harbor was the Godspeed, one of the three ships that left England in 1606 with some 100 settlers, 52 of them on Godspeed. It took 4 ½ months. We wondered how these people ever had the courage and fortitude to cross the Atlantic on this tiny ship, sleeping in the cargo hold or on deck, without a bunk or cabin.

We went to the top of the World Trade Center for a view of the city, then took an amphibious craft Duck Tour, except that it started raining the moment we got on board. But hey, it’s a duck, so we continued on, touring the city first, then plunged into the water to tour the harbor. From the Duck we could see Fort Mchenry where Francis Scott Key wrote The Star-Spangled Banner.

We ate crab at every meal in Baltimore, and when we got on the American Spirit we ate even more crab. This was billed as a Crab Fest Cruise so in addition to history we experienced seafood every which way and every day, starting with crab cakes for lunch.

If you want a cruise that takes you back into American history, this is the cruise to take. Chesapeake Bay was the center of activity in the early days of the U.S., and this cruise was even more meaningful because it was the 400^th anniversary of the founding of Jamestown, America’s first permanent English colony.

Our first day was a run down the length of Chesapeake Bay from Baltimore south, docking at Yorktown, Virginia, founded in 1691. Some passengers went by bus to Williamsburg to immerse themselves in history there, while others went on the trolley to tour Yorktown. We took the trolley all the way around for an overview, then went again, getting off for the things we were most interested in. We visited a museum that traced the American Revolution from beginning to end, saw the tents of a typical army encampment, visited the battlefield. Lord Cornwallis surrendered to Washington here, the last major battle of the war. You can almost hear cannons roar. Then we heard the music of the Fifes and Drums of Yorktown made up of more than 50 youngsters aged 10 to 18 all in authentic red-coated Revolutionary uniforms. A few of them also played that night on board the ship at the cocktail hour.  People everywhere were friendly. A typical incident -- when we could find no internet access available anywhere in town on a Sunday, our tour director/historian Sheila Williams drove us to her home to use her husband/s computer, then drove us back to town again. That night at her presentation on the ship we learned that women in the 18^th Century kept their elbows covered, wore corsets with stays, and men padded their calf muscles.

After our day in Yorktown, we turned and cruised back northward to explore the east shore of the Chesapeake, with the first stop at Crisfield, Maryland, oyster center of the world. Crisfield has long been famous for its seafood and it processed and transported to markets throughout the world. Workers at the seafood processing houses still hand pick crabs and shuck oysters in much the same ways they have for hundreds of years. We also learned about wooden decoy carving, visiting the former workshop in the salt marshes of pioneer carvers Len and Steve Ward, who carved some 25,000 decoys in 60 years. One tour went to Tangier Island, one of the waterman towns still maintaining the old ways. There are no cars, people speak in an Elizabethan dialect, and children are brought to school each day by boat.

Early Native Americans lived on these shores and lived mostly on the seafood. In fact, the name Chesapeake is from the Algonquin word for “Great Shellfish Bay”.

Next stop was Cambridge, Maryland, located on the Choptank River and known as a center for shipbuilding of coastal vessels made from local pine and oak, including the skipjack sailing vessels famous in the Bay. It also was an oyster town. It like many of the small towns of the bay hit hard times for years, but revitalization is now occurring with new stores and restaurants moving back downtown. Walk along High Street to see a great collection of historic homes. Earl and Shirley Brannock have a Maritime Museum and Earl showed us the model of the governor’s yacht there where he started his sea life at age 13.  Capt. John Smith explored in this area; Harriet Tubman, leader of the underground railroad, lived here helping more than 300 slaves escape north to freedom.

That night an oyster shucker came on board, and we gorged on oysters. Then we had soft shell crabs for dinner.

Next stop was St. Michaels, Maryland, and we docked at the main waterfront park where there were 10 maritime exhibit buildings telling the story of Chesapeake Bay history, a lighthouse, and a working boatyard. A group of youngsters were learning how to sail in local dinghies, and workers were setting up for an Antique and Classic Boat Show. A volunteer in the office gave us a ride to the local yacht club that we wanted to check out (the town has no taxis), where we had crab cakes of course, then hitched a ride back with a local sailor. The ship stayed overnight, giving us a chance to enjoy the harbor in the evening and I strolled around town until I found a small saloon with two musicians playing blues and folk music.

Our last port was Annapolis, a busy port. Annapolis was the capital of the United States at the close of the Revolution.  The treaty was signed here ending the Revolution. A trolley tour showed the town’s historic homes, some old enough that they were lived in by signers of the Declaration of Independence, one owned by Thomas Jefferson. A bronze sculpture of author Alex Haley reading to children marks where his ancestor Kunte Kinte landed from a slave ship. The trolley dropped us off at the Annapolis Naval Academy. It was established in 1845 and is still training the leaders of the Navy and Marine Corps. A guided walking tour included the chapel with several stained glass windows designed by the Tiffany studios and the elaborate crypt of John Paul Jones, naval hero of the Revolutionary War. We visited a backyard where Franklin Roosevelt had garden parties. At Annapolis there are11,000 applicants each year, 1,100 get in, about 20% drop out.

We were still eating crab every day by the way.

There is no entertainment on American Spirit, or any of the ships of American Cruise Lines, but there were lectures in the afternoon or evening on the history and culture of the areas visited.  The ship has a shallow draft, perfect for getting into small waterways and docking along town waterfronts.  Seating in the dining room is unassigned, dress is resort casual. There is a 5:30 p.m. cocktail hour with complimentary drinks and complimentary wine at dinner. There is no Captain’s Welcome Aboard party.

Captain Andy Howes was with American Cruise Lines from the beginning. The first mate was a survivor from the 82^nd floor of Building 2 of the World Trade Center. The staff and crew were mostly young college graduates or on a break from college. All were responsive to requests. One afternoon I came onboard, tired from a shore excursion, and casually said that some of those chocolate chip cookies from this morning would sure taste good. Paul Taiclet, operations manager, went into the galley, had some baked, and delivered them to my cabin!

The major thing we learned was that the Chesapeake is changing, drastically. A cruise allows you to explore the heart of Chesapeake country and experience the unique heritage and culture, learn about the Revolutionary War, and meet the watermen who still make their living from the Bay. The area is rich in many traditional ways that remain, but much has changed -- there has been overharvesting, there is pollution, waters are rising (yes, Virginia there is global warming), salt water is intruding into wells. The once booming oyster trade today has such a low yield that oysters now mostly come from the Carolinas or Florida or by aquaculture. Crab now mostly come from the Philippines. Condos are being built along the waterfronts.

Efforts are being made to restore the water quality, bring back the crab and oyster, and retain historical landmarks and culture. If they are going to succeed they must do it quickly and diligently.

-- Shirley Linde

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