The Chesapeake Martime Museum

We've set sail from St. Micheal's where we spent the day yesterday at the Chesapeake Maritime Museum. While the other museum we visited was more focused on aquatic life, this museum had a big emphasis on the various historic oystering and crabbing boats of the Chesapeake. We gave students a scavenger hunt again, and they searched the museum's several buildings for the answers. At the museum, the students leaned a lot about the history of the style of boat called the skipjack, which is what the Sigsbee is. Skipjacks were primarily used for oystering and were made in the late 1800's to early 1900's. Although the students have had the opportunity to sail on a skipjack every day during their trip, one of the museum exhibits set up a skipjack with all of the rigs and tools used for oyster dredging, showing the students what being on a skipjack in 1901 would have been like. In addition, they got to see a skipjack restoration project going on at the museum, try and catch some oysters using tongs, read about the maritime history of the Chesapeake, and visit the Hooper Strait lighthouse, a screwpile lighthouse which is owned by the museum. Only one of this type of lighthouse is still functioning today. Today is the last full day of our 9 day trip on the Sigsbee, but we still have several hours left to make the most of this once in a lifetime opportunity.