For the past 40 years, I have written about and photographed wooden Chesapeake Bay deadrise boats. My love of the bay’s wooden boats and of the culture that surrounds them goes back to my childhood.
Around 1956, my father Henry Shepherd (Shep) Chowning Jr. purchased a wooden deadrise that he named Miss Susan after my sister. Although we had long since sold the boat when my mother died in 2021, I came across, inside a dresser drawer, a worn and tattered “Certificate of Award of Number to a Documented Vessel” for the Miss Susan.
The boat was built in Mathews County in 1952 by Edgar L. Diggs and Son in Peary, Va. She was 25 feet, four inches by seven feet, six inches by two feet. She was powered by a 100 horsepower flathead Gray Marine inboard engine. We had always heard she had been built as an oyster watch boat and was manned at night near oyster beds to discourage thievery.
It was from the decks of this boat that I developed at a young age a curiosity, excitement and love of the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries. From the decks of the Miss Susan family stories were created that are to this day told at Christmas and Thanksgiving family gatherings. One of my favorites was when Harry Bray, my uncle, and his family went for a Saturday fishing trip aboard the boat. Not long after we arrived at Hoghouse Bar we had thrown our lines over and a storm came up.
We promptly pulled our lines and anchor and headed home. Suddenly, the storm got worse and pouring rain and flashing lightning was all around us. Everyone except my father who stayed at the helm went inside the cabin. Although the engine was running full throttle, we weren’t moving.
My Uncle Harry yelled up to Dad, “Why aren’t we moving?”
My father yelled back, “Too much weight up forward, the prop is out of the water.” In the pouring rain, my mother, Aunt Phyllis and several children went to the stern seat to allow for enough weight to push the stern and prop down into the water. My Uncle Harry, however, who was the largest of the bunch but most afraid of lightning never left the cabin. We arrived home safely, soaking wet and glad to be home.
I thank my father for introducing me at a young age to the Chesapeake Bay deadrise and encouraging me to go out on the water. My writings on the bay have in part been because of his love of boats and the water. By sharing it with me, it has truly enriched my life!
It Happened Here in Rivah Country!
