1807: Jenkin Ratford, Chesapeake-Leopard affair casualty

(ExecutedToday.com) On this date in 1807, the British navy hanged Jenkin Ratford from the yardarm of the HMS Halifax off the coast of Maryland — an incident destined to become a rallying cry for the United States in the ill-fated War of 1812. Continued

Captain Chesapeake

Let the River Run Wild

 

Conowingo Dam

(NYTimes) IF the Chesapeake Bay is America’s Estuary, then its largest tributary, the Susquehanna River, could arguably be called America’s River. But we certainly don’t treat it as a national treasure: This once magnificent watercourse, which runs through New York, Pennsylvania and Maryland toward the coast, is today an ecological disaster — largely thanks to four hydroelectric dams, built along its lower reaches between 1904 and 1931.

An impending license renewal by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission for two of these dams will lock in another half-century of measures woefully inadequate to remediating the dams’ environmental consequences. Instead, all four should be removed. Continued 

 

Holtwood Dam

Safe Harbor Dam

York Haven Dam

 

Live in a lighthouse on Chesapeake Bay

(NBC) Wanted: A homeowner with a dedication to history and lighthouses, willing to do a little renovation and, of course, live in a home set three miles offshore.
Unlike other lighthouses, the Wolf Trap Light Station is not firmly anchored to a rocky shore, but set out in Chesapeake Bay. Built in 1894, the Mathews lighthouse is a "caisson-style" lighthouse, which means it was constructed to withstand ice flows and whatever else the Atlantic Ocean throws that way. Continued

Battle of the Chesapeake

(Wikipedia) The Battle of the Chesapeake, also known as the Battle of the Virginia Capes or simply the Battle of the Capes, was a crucial naval battle in the American Revolutionary War which took place near the mouth of Chesapeake Bay on September 5, 1781, between a British fleet led by Rear-Admiral Sir Thomas Graves and a French fleet led by Rear-Admiral the Comte de Grasse. Continued

Edgewood man restores wooden crab boat to pursue a career as a waterman

(Aegis) David Peacock, an 18-year-old from Edgewood, just graduated from Harford Technical High School two months ago, but he is already preparing to begin commercial crabbing on a wooden boat he restored himself.
Peacock's grandfather purchased a 40-foot long and 10-foot wide 1969 Deltaville boat in 2010 and turned it over to his grandson.
"We knew it needed some work," Peacock said, so in his sophomore year of high school, he began saving the money he earned by working on commercial crab boats and making crab traps to purchase the supplies necessary to refurbish the boat. Continued

Archaeologist Searh For War of 1812 Fort at Elk Landing

(WoCCP) Dozens of people from the Archeological Society of Maryland were at Elk Landing on this beautiful Sunday afternoon working to dig up new clues about Fort Hollingsworth and the pre-historic period at a strip of land located at the confluence of the Big and Little Elk creeks. The former farm and Chesapeake Bay port bustled with activity as professional and avocational investigators carefully scrapped, swept and sifted the soil with small trowels, brushes and other hand-tools looking for the smallest fragments of evidence that might shed light on the past. Continued

‘The Right-Hand Shore,’ by Christopher Tilghman

(NYTBR) ... Mason’s Retreat has been making its appearance in various forms in Tilghman’s fiction for the last 20-odd years. In his first book, the story collection “In a Father’s Place,” we see it as the “Big House,” feared by the son of a white farmworker in the 1960s, and later as the ancestral home — a place of “mildewed stillness that smelled of English linen and straw mats” — to which an aspiring novelist brings his villainous new girlfriend for a summer weekend. From story to story, novel to novel, Tilghman’s readers have become familiar with this Chesapeake plantation, with its summer kitchen and its smokehouse, its box bushes and its oyster-shell paths and stands of loblolly pines, its big views of tidal waters. We have grown accustomed to the scowling 17th-century portrait of “Cousin Oswald” that hangs on the wall of the yellow stucco manor house and have heard the same family names of the neighboring gentry, farm laborers and watermen who have inhabited this peninsula for generations. Continued

Cockeysville 'Pest House' on list of endangered historic properties

(Towson Times) An 1872 building in Cockeysville that was built to house poor people who had communicable diseases is now facing an unhealthy future itself, and is on a newly released list of "endangered" or threatened historic properties in Maryland.
The "Pest House," a boarded-up structure that stands behind the Historical Society of Baltimore County, has been vacant since the early 1900s, and its interior has been ruined by vandals.
The site is among 10 locations listed on the 2012 Endangered Maryland list of threatened historic properties, released March 15 by the nonprofit Preservation Maryland.
A panel of preservationists selected the list from nominated properties and assessed the level of threat, historic and architectural significance and community support for preserving the site. Continued

The 2012 Endangered Maryland Sites

Bostwick House—Prince George's County

Charles Sumner Post #25, Grand Army of the Republic—Kent County

Cider Barrel—Montgomery County

Covington Store—Kent County

Dameron House—St. Mary's County

Dielman Inn—Carroll County

Maryland Watermen—Multiple counties

The Pest House—Baltimore County

Potomac House—Washington County

Silver Spring Baptist Church—Montgomery County

WestSide Superblock—Baltimore City

Chessie the manatee pays return visit to Chesapeake Bay

(Baltimore Sun) Chessie, the wandering Florida manatee that's visited the Chesapeake Bay at least twice over the past 17 years, is back again.
The male "sea cow" was sighted Tuesday in a marina harbor in Calvert County, according to Jennifer Dittmar, stranding coordinator for the National Aquarium.
Photos taken of him on the water's surface were sent to biologists at the U.S. Geological Survey for analysis, and they confirmed the gentle, slow-swimming mammal's identity from distinctive markings on his body. Continued

Website Promotes People, Places & Events of 1812 War

(WoCCP) Oh, say can you see…. Maryland’s bi-centennial commemoration of the War of 1812 making its way to the Upper Bay Region? A website http://www.upperbay1812.com/ has been developed to share the history, notable people and places of the War of 1812 Upper Bay or Chesapeake Campaign.
A steering committee of stakeholders from both Harford and Cecil Counties is working to capitalize on the events that occurred in the region during the Chesapeake Campaign of the War of 1812. Maryland’s 200 year anniversary of the War presents opportunities to promote and improve the visitor experience in the Upper Bay region. Sites such as The Concord Point Lighthouse, Principio, Elk Landing, and Rodgers Tavern will help connect visitors to this National story and how it relates to the Upper Bay. Continued

Ice breaker works the Chesapeake Bay

Port dredging helps reclaim vanishing island

(Baltimore Sun) While most of the Chesapeake Bay's islands are slowly vanishing beneath the waves, one not far from Baltimore is staging a remarkable renaissance. Poplar Island, former hunting retreat, hangout for politicos and black cat farm, had nearly washed away by the late 1990s. But it's since been restored to the size it was when it was still a thriving 19th-century farming and fishing community, using muck dredged from the shipping channels leading to Baltimore just 34 miles to the northwest. Continued

Pictured: Off for Jefferson Island. Annapolis, MD, June 25. Loaded to the gunwale with members of the Cabinet and Democratic members of the Senate and House, the first boat shoves off for Jefferson Island where President Roosevelt will give the politicians a first-hand account of his seven-point legislative program, 6/25/37 (Library of Congress)

Harford, Cecil waterfront poised for federal parks aid

(Baltimore Sun) A stretch of Susquehanna River and Chesapeake Bay waterfront between Harford and Cecil counties could be among the first areas to win federal funding for the construction of "water trails." The National Park Service has identified the Lower Susquehanna Heritage Greenway as a priority segment of what will be the first combined land and water trail in America. The national designation will help the non-profit group that runs the heritage area to secure federal funding for its plan to link existing trails along the Susquehanna River and build more, ultimately into a 40-mile network of waterside walkways through the two counties. Continued

Image: Rock Run Tollhouse

Holland one of bay's eroding, formerly inhabited islands

(Baltimore Sun) For 15 years, Stephen White battled the elements. But time and tide have claimed another remnant of the Chesapeake Bay's fading maritime culture. White, a Methodist minister and former waterman, poured his sweat, savings and even a little blood into trying to preserve the last house on Holland Island, an eroding stretch of sand and marsh in the middle of the bay, about six miles offshore from here. The two-story frame structure, which he figures was built 112 years ago, was the last vestige of what was once a thriving fishing community of more than 300 residents, with 60-some homes, a church, school, stores and a social hall. A fleet of skipjacks, bugeyes and schooners docked there. The community had its own baseball team and a band, histories recall. Continued

Photo: "Holland Island lighhouse, Maryland. Photo predates the lighthouse's destruction in 1960." (U.S Coast Guard via WIkipedia).

Ancient whale skull found in Calvert Cliffs

(Baltimore Sun) Erosion along the Chesapeake Bay cliffs in Calvert County has exposed another ancient whale skull, and students from Harrisburg, Pa., were expected to help scientists dig the fossil from the heavy clay sediments. Only a small portion of the back of the skull is visible, said Stephen Godfrey of the Calvert Marine Museum in Solomons. But the Miocene-era fossil is probably 16 million years old, and likely belongs to an extinct family of small whales that swam in what were then Atlantic coastal waters teeming with marine life. Continued

Battle of the Chesapeake

(Wikipedia) The Battle of the Chesapeake, also known as the Battle of the Virginia Capes or simply the Battle of the Capes, was a crucial naval battle in the American Revolutionary War which took place near the mouth of Chesapeake Bay on September 5, 1781, between a British fleet led by Rear-Admiral Sir Thomas Graves and a French fleet led by Rear-Admiral the Comte de Grasse. Continued

The War of 1812 in the Chesapeake

(WoCCP) One of the authors of a newly published Johns Hopkins University title, the War of 1812 in the Chesapeake, will be the guest speaker for the annual Historical Society of Cecil County meeting on October 18th. Dr. Ralph Eshelman spent years investigating sites connected with the conflict in Maryland so as the bicentennial of this chapter of our past nears, we’re pleased to have the opportunity to hear the distinguished historian.
His presentation will focus on the campaign in Maryland and our general area. Continued

Image: Attack upon George & Federick's towns by a detachment of boats from The R. Hon. Sir T. B. Warrens squadron under Rear Admiral Cockburn in April 1813. Topographical drawing shows the position of Rear Admiral George Cockburn's boat, as well as boats belonging to others, and the location of Georgetown, Fredericktown and the American batteries on the Sassafras River in Maryland during the War of 1812. (Library of Congress)

1933 Chesapeake Potomac hurricane

(Wikipedia) - The 1933 Chesapeake-Potomac Hurricane was the 8th storm and third hurricane of the very active 1933 Atlantic hurricane season. The August storm formed in the central Atlantic, where it moved west-northwest. Aided by the warm ocean waters, the hurricane briefly reached Category 3 status on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale before making landfall along the Virginia/North Carolina coast as a Category 1 storm.The hurricane caused severe damage along the East Coast of the United States. The state hardest hit by the storm was Virginia, where the center of circulation passed directly over Norfolk.... In Washington, D.C., the storm produced a storm surge of 11.3 feet (3.4 m), rainfall of 6.18 inches (152 mm) and winds of 50 mph (80 km/h). In Maryland, the hurricane caused $17 million dollars (1933 USD, $230 million 2005 USD) in damage to crops and buildings. The storm also destroyed a railroad bridge heading into Ocean City and created the Ocean City Inlet between the town and Assateague Island. The storm killed 13 people and 1,000+ animals. On the coast, the storm damaged or destroyed several wharves and fishing piers. In Delaware, the storm caused $150,000 dollars (1933 USD, $2.03 million 2005 USD) in damage but no deaths. Continued

Capture of USS Chesapeake

The Capture of USS Chesapeake was fought on 1 June 1813, between HMS Shannon and the USS Chesapeake, as part of the War of 1812. Shannon won the battle, and Chesapeake was captured, in a pitched battle in which over 80 men were killed. At Boston, Captain James Lawrence took command of Chesapeake on 20 May 1813, and on 1 June, put to sea to meet the waiting HMS Shannon, the frigate whose written challenge had just missed Chesapeake's sailing. During six minutes of firing, two full broadsides were fired. Chesapeake was struck by 362 shots, while Shannon was hit by 258. Chesapeake suffered early in the exchange of broadsides, having its wheel shot away so she lost maneuverability. Lawrence himself was mortally wounded and was carried below. The crew struggled to carry out their captain's last order, "Don't give up the ship!", but were overwhelmed. The battle lasted thirteen minutes, killing or wounding 252 men. Shannon's Captain Broke was severely injured in fighting on the forecastle. Chesapeake and her crew were taken to Halifax, Nova Scotia where the sailors were imprisoned; the ship was repaired and taken into service by the Royal Navy. She was sold at Portsmouth, England in 1820 and broken up. Surviving timbers were used to build the nearby Chesapeake Mill in Wickham and can be seen and visited to this day. Continued