MENU

Sections

  • About Us
    • Editors and Writers
    • Sponsorship Terms & Conditions
    • Code of Ethics
    • Sign Up for Cambridge Spy Daily Email Blast
  • The Arts and Design
  • Culture and Local Life
  • Food & Garden
  • Public Affairs
    • Commerce
    • Health
    • Ecosystem
    • Education
    • Senior Nation
  • Point of View
  • Chestertown Spy
  • Talbot Spy

More

  • Support the Spy
  • About Spy Community Media
  • Advertising with the Spy
  • Subscribe
May 21, 2025

Cambridge Spy

Nonpartisan and Education-based News for Cambridge

  • About Us
    • Editors and Writers
    • Sponsorship Terms & Conditions
    • Code of Ethics
    • Sign Up for Cambridge Spy Daily Email Blast
  • The Arts and Design
  • Culture and Local Life
  • Food & Garden
  • Public Affairs
    • Commerce
    • Health
    • Ecosystem
    • Education
    • Senior Nation
  • Point of View
  • Chestertown Spy
  • Talbot Spy
9 Brevities

The Legacy of the Nathan of Dorchester

July 3, 2023 by Spy Desk
2 Comments

On July 4, the skipjack Nathan of Dorchester turns 29, the youngest skipjack in the fleet. Cambridge had always been the center of the skipjack building industry with more skipjacks built in Cambridge than anywhere else along the Bay. A dedicated group of volunteers from the nonprofit Dorchester Skipjack Committee spent over 14,000 hours building Nathan and this past winter volunteers spent over 2,200 hours repairing, scraping and painting Nathan so she looks like she did when first commissioned in 1994.

Nathan is unique in part due to her age…or in this case, youth. Before building the Nathan, no skipjack had been built for 40 years. And only one other skipjack has been completed since then. While originally built to be a sail powered oyster dredge boat, Nathan’s true mission has been in tourism and education. For the past 29 years, the Nathan has been true to her mission, sailing and educating visitors far and wide on the waters of the Choptank River and Chesapeake Bay. During her 29 years of service, Nathan has carried over 41,000 passengers, made over 2,600 voyages and is underway 80 to 100 times each sailing season training sail crew, and carrying passengers on a unique voyage back in time.

Oysters were first harvested by hand in shallow waters around the Bay. Then schooners, pungies, and later bugeyes, were built to dredge oysters in deeper waters of the Chesapeake Bay. When the oyster bars in the deeper waters of the Bay were depleted due to over harvesting, a shallow draft boat was needed to access the rich oyster bars closer to shore.

A shallow draft boat with a hard chin, retractable centerboard and dead rise hull became known as a two-sail bateau, later commonly called a skipjack. Skipjacks are easily recognized by their sharp clipper bow, bowsprit, and large main sail, which is used to generate the power necessary to pull heavy oyster laden dredges across the oyster bars.

Quickly replacing older, deeper draft oyster dredge boats, about 800 skipjacks worked the Bay dredging under sail harvesting oysters during the winter months. Skipjacks were less expensive and relatively easy to construct and were made to last about 20 years. At the end of her life, a skipjack was traditionally stripped of its metal and left to rot in a creek or marsh and return to nature. Today the skipjack fleet is holding steady at about 25 to 30, some in varying degrees of restoration or decay.

For the past 29 years, the Nathan has taken groups of people out on the Choptank River and Chesapeake Bay teaching visitors of all ages about the ecology of the river and Bay, the oysters and a way of life on the Eastern Shore that is quickly vanishing. The Nathan has also been a floating ambassador for Cambridge, visiting ports of call up and down the Chesapeake Bay. May she continue to do so for many decades to come.

The Nathan of Dorchester offers a unique opportunity for folks to experience oyster dredging under sail. Four crew members, a Coast Guard certified captain and a docent take people out every Saturday. To beat the heat in July and August, sails depart Long Wharf at the end of High Street in Cambridge at 10 a.m. for a two-hour sail. During May, June, September, October and early November, Nathan carries passengers Saturday afternoons from 1 to 3p.m. Visit www.skipjack-nathan.org for more details.

The Spy Newspapers may periodically employ the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance the clarity and accuracy of our content.

Filed Under: 9 Brevities Tagged With: Cambridge Spy, local news

A Progress Report on Dorchester County’s Campaign for Grade-Level Reading Craig Fuller to Be Honored by Del-Mar-Va Boy Scouts

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Letters to Editor

  1. Robert (Bob) Bilodeau says

    July 4, 2023 at 8:08 am

    I will be looking back fondly at the time I spent helping maintain the Nathan. Having relocated to Tellico Village, a retirement community in Eastern TN, sailing on the Bay is now a fond memory, that I will treasure. The Nathan volunteer team has my best wishes as they enter the 30th year of service. Keep up the good work that you do.

    Bob Bilodeau

    PS I really miss fresh Maryland blue crabs, TN has nothing like them!

    Reply
  2. Ann Robinson says

    July 4, 2023 at 10:00 am

    Thank you for posting this article. I am one of the volunteers, and I can tell you we love what we do, spending time caring for the boat and each other, and taking folks out on the Choptank River to show them the ways of the watermen who harvest in this manner, and have done so for centuries.
    Come on out to Long Wharf in Cambridge, Maryland. That’s where you will see this magnificent vessel– unless we’re out sailing!

    Reply

Write a Letter to the Editor on this Article

We encourage readers to offer their point of view on this article by submitting the following form. Editing is sometimes necessary and is done at the discretion of the editorial staff.

Wash College

Copyright © 2025

Affiliated News

  • The Chestertown Spy
  • The Talbot Spy

Sections

  • Arts
  • Cambridge
  • Commerce
  • Ecosystem
  • Education
  • Food & Garden
  • Health
  • Local Life
  • News
  • Point of View
  • Senior Nation

Spy Community Media

  • Subscribe for Free
  • Contact Us
  • COVID-19: Resources and Data

© 2025 Spy Community Media. | Log in