Commercial passenger steamboats out of Baltimore and Norfolk cruised the waters of the Northern Neck and Middle Peninsula from 1820s to 1937 when the Anne Arundel made a final voyage from Baltimore to the Rappahannock River.
The steamboat age was a golden era for those who recall the boats and the culture that surrounded them.
Steamboat wharves stretched from one end of the Rappahannock, Piankatank, Potomac, and York rivers to the other and on both sides of the rivers. Each wharf has those who can recall anecdotal tales from years gone by that reflect the times and culture. Webster Brooke of Stormont shared this tale of Burhan’s Wharf at Locust Hill on the Rappahannock.
A reluctant bull
The Segar family of Wood Farm of Stormont had a bull that was “mean as a snake.” They decided to sell the bull to a slaughterhouse in Baltimore and ship it from Burhan’s Wharf on the steamboat.
They carried the bull down to the dock but the bull would not go because he could see the water through the cracks between the wharf boards. They tried everything to get him to go with no success.
Finally, Mr. Segar sent one of his hands to find a man named Mr. Robinson who lived on Stormont Road. He had worked on the farm and the bull hated him and would chase him every time he saw him.
They found Mr. Robinson and brought him to the dock. Mr. Robinson ran by the bull on the shore and out onto the dock. When the bull saw him, he ran down the wharf after him and followed him through the hatch into the hold of the steamboat where he was corralled and later delivered to the slaughterhouse in Baltimore. Mr. Robinson safely jumped out of the way of the bull.
Whiskey hole
Fielding Dickerson of Essex County whose family owned Saunders Steamboat Wharf on the Rappahannock River recalled this story.
Inside the storage room on the wharf is a hole in the floor as big around as a 50-cent piece. “Let tell you the story about this hole,” said Fielding standing by the hole. “Time ago, we would get whisky in the barrel and stored it right there in that corner.
“One dark night, someone came up in a skiff under the wharf and drilled a hole right through the floor and the whiskey barrel. The next day when they went to load it on the steamboat, she was plumb empty,” Fielding laughed. “Somebody had to get good and drunk from drinking all that whiskey.”
Barrel of molasses
Another time “Daddy told me about when a deckhand was unloading a barrel of molasses on a cart. He tripped and the molasses went all over the deck of the steamboat.
“The captain told the hand to go to the galley and get as much bread as he could. The deckhand brought up the bread and the captain gave some to everyone. They sopped up all the molasses in a hurry and they had a (darn) good meal.
“That was one way to clean it up,” Fielding said and laughed.
It Happened Here in Rivah country!
