Nellie Crockett (Buy-Boat)
|
NELLIE CROCKETT
|
|
 
|
|
| Location | Georgetown, Maryland |
|---|---|
| Coordinates | 39°21′47″N 75°52′55″W / 39.36306°N 75.88194°WCoordinates: 39°21′47″N 75°52′55″W / 39.36306°N 75.88194°W |
| Built | 1926 |
| Architect | Dana, Charles A. |
| NRHP Reference # | 94001185 |
| Significant dates | |
| Added to NRHP | April 19, 1994 |
| Designated NHL | April 19, 1994 |
The Nellie Crockett is a Chesapeake Bay oyster buy-boat built for Andrew A. Crockett of Tangier, Virginia, in 1925. She is located at Georgetown, Maryland, USA, on the Sassafras River. She was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1994.
The Nellie Crockett was built specifically to operate as a buy-boat, making the rounds of the Chesapeake Bay oyster beds to buy oysters directly from the harvesters, typically sail-powered skipjacks or oyster tongers. This allowed the oyster dredges to remain on the beds, avoiding the need to return to port when full. Buy-boats typically gave a lower price than a dockside sale, but most oystermen considered this a fair trade for not losing time on a run back to the dock.
The Nellie Crockett is a wooden, plank-on-frame freightboat, documented measuring 61.6 ft long, 20.33 ft on the beam and 6.42 ft in draft (18.8 m × 6.20 m × 1.96 m). She measures 52 tons gross and 35 tons net. Her wide beam and moderate draft were useful in her business of buying, loading and transporting oysters in the shallow waters of the Chesapeake Bay. The hull is built using wood frames made from the natural crooks of tree limbs and roots. It is planked with 3.5-inch (8.9 cm) pine. The deck planking is laid fore-and-aft over deck beams on hanging knees. A partially watertight bulkhead is located in the forecastle.
Power is presently provided by a Detroit Diesel 871, dating to 1971 or 1972, fueled from two 150-US-gallon (570 l; 120 imp gal) boilerplate steel tanks. A 90-US-gallon (340 l) water tank is also fitted.
The center of the deck is dominated by a large hold opening, 25 by 13.5 feet (7.6 by 4.1 m), surrounded by a coaming. The 12 inches (30 cm) mast lies just ahead of the hatch, rising 41 feet (12 m). A 1956 quarter and a 1951 nickel were found under the mast, indicating that it was replaced or re-stepped in the 1950s, with a traditional coin placed underneath at the time. The mast has two cargo-handling booms attached at its base. The foc'sle hatch is forward of the mainmast, measuring 4.6 ft long and 3.2 ft wide (1.4 m × 0.98 m). A low railing runs from the foc'sle hatch to the stern, with two rails, one above the other.
...
Wikipedia