Tilghman Island

Tilghman Island DayVisit Tilghman Island and pay tribute to the Chesapeake Bay and learn about the life of a waterman -- from sailing skipjacks to clamming, oystering, crabbing and fishing. Be there for an opportunity to board the last commercial sailing vessels in North America and the largest fleet of skipjacks on the bay. There will be plenty of waterman's games, a skipjack race, workboat race and boat-docking contest. Live music will be provided by Bird Dog and the Road Kings. Seafood will be in abundance as vendors lay out a cornucopia of oysters, crabs, crab cakes, fried clams and oyster fritters.

TILGHMAN ISLAND -- The Chesapeake Bay's oldest working skipjack is lying beneath 14 feet of water near the mouth of the Choptank River.A portion of the mast and the outline of the 113-year-old Rebecca T. Ruark are visible above the heaving waves on Harris Creek. The bow is buried in sand and muck. Loaded with nearly three tons of lead ballast that shifted to the starboard side, the ship will remain pinned to the bottom until calmer winds allow an Annapolis marine salvage company to retrieve the 52-foot sailing vessel for repairs.

The 113-year-old skipjack Rebecca T. Ruark sank in rough waters and high winds yesterday after a successful day of oystering about 2 miles off Tilghman Island.Captain Wade Murphy Jr. and three crew members out of Crisfield were rescued by Tilghman Island neighbors about 5 p.m. as the Ruark filled with water when a wind storm knocked out its sails and it sprang a leak.No one was injured, although the day's harvest of some 60 bushels of oysters was lost.This morning, divers will try to raise the $100,000 skipjack -- one of fewer than a dozen of the rake-masted vessels left on Tilghman -- out of 20 feet of water near Bar Neck.

The boat ran steadily north on Chesapeake Bay toward home port. Three- to four-foot seas helped push it along, and a steady southwest wind cooled the rising heat of a morning in early autumn.The $200,000 boat was new, the day was still young and the crew aboard was experienced. But disaster lay ahead.Abruptly the engines quit, the boat settled by the stern and sank. Those aboard had only time to make a single mayday call on the marine radio, grab life preservers and jump clear.It was an unusual scenario faced by few skippers and crews of the more than 200,000 boats registered in Maryland.

TILGHMAN ISLAND -- Battered, but afloat for the first time in three days, the 113-year-old Rebecca T. Ruark was a sight for the sore eyes of Captain Wade H. "Wadey" Murphy Jr., who waited anxiously for hours yesterday as a marine salvage crew gingerly worked to recover the historic vessel from the Choptank River."

ST. MICHAELS -- After serving for 64 years as the link between Tilghman Island and the rest of the world, the 100,000-pound Knapps Narrows Bridge took a 20-mile barge trip yesterday.It was the first move toward becoming what Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum officials say will be its most visible landmark.Work crews unloaded the hulking steel structure at the museum's 18-acre campus by the St. Michaels' harbor on the Miles River yesterday, maneuvering the span onto dry land with a 250-ton crane and other heavy equipment.

TILGHMAN ISLAND -- Watermen whose boats have been docked in this historic fishing town for three days are vowing to continue "sitting ashore" until they get more money for the oysters that provide the bulk of their incomes during the fall and winter.Angry that seafood buyers and packers in the Bay Hundred area in Talbot County, from St. Michael's to Tilghman Island, are paying $18 a bushel when the going rate in other parts of the Eastern Shore is $22 to $24, the watermen say striking is their only option.

TILGHMAN ISLAND - Darrin Lowery held a black bit of stone that he found on this Tilghman Island beach 23 years ago. It is triangular and smaller than a nickel, with two smooth sides and a fine edge.It was part of a tool used about 11,000 years ago, he said, when the Chesapeake Bay did not exist and early Marylanders shared a frigid climate with woolly mammoths, mastodons and the occasional saber-toothed tiger.Lowery has found dozens of Paleoindian artifacts in this overgrown patch about the size of a city block.

You may have to do a little traveling or put some innovation into your techniques, but the striped-bass fishing continues to be good and promises to border on the terrific later in the month and into June.Last Monday morning, I fished the Chesapeake a bit south of Bloody Point with Capt. Gordon Haegerich (410-255-5792) and his brother, Bruce. I always enjoy fishing with Gordon, because he is a professional who truly loves to fish. In fact, this was his day off, so naturally he went fishing.

TILGHMAN ISLAND -- Consider the oyster, a metaphor for endurance, and for change.Despite disease, pollution, habitat loss and over-harvesting, the oyster still survives in the Chesapeake Bay, probably with better long-term prospects than are enjoyed by those who'd like to make their living catching him.On a winter afternoon, oysters still come ashore here at Knapp's Narrows, just as they have for generations. Tongers' workboats bring them in, and so, occasionally, does one of the half-dozen skipjacks still dredging.

Waterfowl Festival Where: : Easton; follow signs to free parking and then use the continuous free bus service to visit the exhibits. When: : 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Nov. 15 What: : The three-day festival celebrates and includes art, music, food, wine, games and more. Displays offer fine art to folk art, photographs, paintings and decorative wood carvings and decoys. Demonstrations include sharpshooting, a birds of prey flight show, and duck and goose callers competing in World Championship Calling Contests.

I don't know the Hamptons from Highlandtown, so I am not really qualified to answer this but I know you are, dear reader. Where is the "Hamptons of Maryland"? About a week ago, CNN.com published a list of cool day trips across the country, and our very own St. Michaels was included. But the piece called the Eastern Shore town the "Hamptons of Maryland," which gave me pause. I have heard Easton called by that moniker. And of course, there is the Hampton National Historic Site in Baltimore County, but that probably doesn't qualify as a waterfront vacation destination.

A Talbot County Council member who ran on a platform of creating a healthier Chesapeake Bay pleaded guilty yesterday in Anne Arundel District Court to 34 charges that he failed to pay oyster inspection and export taxes. Levin Faulkner "Little Bud" Harrison IV agreed to pay back taxes totaling $3,943 and was fined $5,000 and placed on unsupervised probation before judgment that will expire July 9. Harrison is manager of Harrison Brothers Oyster Co., a processing and packing firm, and vice president of Harrison's Country Inn and Sportfishing Center on Tilghman Island, a popular destination for powerful national and state politicians that serves oysters nine ways.

OFF TILGHMAN ISLAND -- Draped in a dull gray haze that left the Chesapeake Bay looking like slate, the M.V. Montrose, a 712-foot coal carrier on its way to Romania, simply wouldn't budge. Four supercharged tugboats -- together packing at least 15,000 horsepower -- nudged, pushed and pulled all afternoon. But by last night, the Montrose remained lodged in the sandy bottom near the mouth of the Choptank River, where it ran aground Wednesday. "She is stuck. Real stuck," said Mike Coley, a seaman and deck leader on one of the tugs that were trying to free the boat yesterday.

A ship loaded with coal ran aground yesterday morning in the Chesapeake Bay off Tilghman Island after its crew tried to navigate through waters too shallow for its deep draft, the Coast Guard reported. Tugboat crews were attempting last night to free the commercial bulk carrier, 712 feet long and weighing 38,700 tons. The Montrose had been traveling from the Sparrows Point terminal, heading south along the bay's deep main channel to reach the Atlantic Ocean, said Coast Guard Petty Officer Jeff Cheek.

Just as sure as God made little striped rockfish and created humans bound and determined to catch them regardless of the rules, Buddy Harrison never expected that his most recent foray into the world of poaching would stir up such a firestorm. But because the charter-boat captain with 50 Chesapeake Bay years under his keel and three similar convictions on his record decided to flout the law again, the state has decided it's time to pull out the big bat. The two advisory boards appointed by the governor to help mold fish policy will meet Thursday night at the Department of Natural Resources headquarters in Annapolis to decide what to do with people like Tilghman Island's self-proclaimed "Boss Hogg."

TILGHMAN -- The old man tended the five gravestones for years, mowing the grass, occasionally kneeling to pray - as if the bodies were really buried here. As if the Chesapeake Bay had not devoured their Poplar Island sod, as if the old man had moved quickly enough to save the earthly remains of his father, his father's wife, his brother, his half-brother and his grandfather. At least he had the family stones and stories. Willie Roe heard the stories and helped haul the stones here to Tilghman Island for the old man, Harvey C. Howarth, who asked his friend and fellow waterman for a hand in a race with time.

TILGHMAN ISLAND -- A flamboyant Chesapeake Bay charter captain and Eastern Shore entrepreneur who already has three fishing-law violations on his record has been charged with another offense against Maryland's state fish. Maryland Natural Resources Police said yesterday that an officer caught Levin "Buddy" Harrison III, 72, of Tilghman Island with undersize striped bass at his seafood processing plant last Friday afternoon. The officer, acting on an anonymous tip, went to the plant, which is typically where the catch is taken for cleaning after a charter fishing trip.

On Friday June 9, 2006, MARIE A. HADDAWAY (nee Foertschbeck), devoted wife of the late Roland D. Haddaway, Jr; beloved mother of Roland D. Haddaway, III and his wife Sandy of Berlin, MD, Stephen J. Haddaway and his wife Kim of Perry Hall, MD, also survived by four grandchildren, Michael D. Haddaway and his wife Rona, Michelle Fasnacht and her husband Craig, Matthew S. Haddaway, Sam J. Haddaway and two great-grandchildren, Casey Haddaway and Marcus Fasnacht,...

Tilghman Island, once a community made up primarily of watermen, has become a prime location for those seeking a weekend retreat. Nevertheless, the island retains vestiges of former times, and a number of Tilghman Islanders still ply their trade in the waters of the Chesapeake Bay.