Group Begins to Repair Maryland's Largest Skipjack
By Jeesoo Park | Online Only | Apr. 8, 2008
The $300,000 restoration of the largest remaining skipjack, the Flora A. Price, is under way.
Credit: Old Harfordtown Maritime Center
The Black-Eyed Susan is the Maryland state flower. Milk is the state drink. And the skipjack is the official state boat—though it's becoming increasingly hard to find.
A "skipjack" is a wide-bottomed sailing boat developed in the 1890s to dredge oysters in the shallow waters of the Chesapeake Bay. However, skipjack maintenance is expensive, and since the oyster population has declined due to water pollution and over-harvesting, so have skipjacks. Happily, there's hope for the century-old Flora A. Price. Moored in Dorchester County, Md., and the largest remaining skipjack in the country, she's about to be restored.
The 56-foot-long Flora A. Price was constructed in 1910 from local pine for a man named Noah Price. The James B. Richardson foundation, parent organization of the Richardson Maritime Museum, based in Cambridge, Md., acquired the boat after entrepreneur Carl Schaeffel attempted a restoration before donating it to the foundation.
"It was his [Schaeffel's] dream to restore the boat, and he did initial work on it, got it painted, and did a great job, but there just wasn't enough money to finish the project, and it never happened," says Victor MacSorley, chairman of the board of the James B. Richardson Foundation. "Now we're going to try to make the same thing happen at a different location."
Repairing the wind- and water-damaged skipjack will likely cost $300,000. According to MacSorley, when the restored vessel opens to the public two to three years from now, it will likely be used for educational purposes.
"We plan to use the ship as a 'floating classroom' for visitors at the museum, and we'll take it to the bay for ecological purposes," MacSorley says. "For the skipjack to support itself, we may also have the ship open for hire, perhaps take cruises on it."
In 2002, the National Trust for Historic Preservation named Maryland skipjacks to its list of America's 11 Most Endangered Historic Places.
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