Donation of model boat thrills Maritime Museum

The double decker buyboat, “Chesapeake,” was the second largest bay deck boat style vessel ever built and recently well-known modelmaker Larry Saint of Smithfield brought her history back to life by building a model of the vessel. Saint has donated the model to the Deltaville Maritime Museum (DMM).

At an overall 100-feet length, the original “Chesapeake” was built specifically for dredging oysters for J.H. Miles and Company of Norfolk, which worked more than 8,000 acres of leased oyster grounds from Ocean View to Mobjack Bay.

The “Chesapeake” was registered at 92-feet long. She was the largest dredge boat built, but not the largest deck boat built. The largest was the “Marydel,” built in 1927 by Linwood Price of Deltaville. “Marydel” was registered at 97.6 feet in length and was used to haul fertilizer for W.E. Valliant Co. of Cambridge, Md.