The Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum (CBMM) in St. Michaels hit a big milestone this month, in the three-year restoration of the historic bugeye, Edna E. Lockwood. Her new hull is now attached to her existing topsides. That puts the project right on schedule.
The 1889 Edna Lockwood is a National Historic Landmark, and she was the last bugeye to sail the Bay, up until 1967. She changed hands several times, working mostly out of Cambridge. The bugeye was a workboat used to dredge for oysters, dating back to the days before the skipjack.
Edna Lockwood, known as CBMM’s “queen of the fleet,” is being restored in adherence to the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for Historic Vessel Preservation. The restoration team had to recreate her nine-log wooden hull one piece at a time, and fabricate the soldered bronze bolts from scratch to fasten those pieces.
CBMM Boatyard Manager Michael Gorman says getting the boat to this point was no small feat, and it took shipwrights and apprentices several steps to combine the two pieces.
“Her outer stems were removed, shims were added to make up for hidden material behind frames, plank lines were mapped, and the hull was jacked up to its final height on the hard. Additionally, centerboard posts were milled and fastened, bronze stock was used to make custom bolts to fasten the new hull, and Edna’s old hull was moved to storage, with the intention of the piece eventually being a permanent exhibition. They will move on to planking next, and will be replacing the cabin house.”
The shipwright apprentices working on the project are funded by the Seip Family Foundation and the RPM Foundation.
Visitors can watch all of the work take place on the museum’s campus. Click here for more information about the Edna Lockwood.
She is scheduled to be unveiled at CBMM’s 2018 OysterFest, happening next October 27.
-Meg Walburn Viviano
