The Old Ferry Boat by the Bridge: James Dawson

The Old Ferry Boat by the Bridge

by James Dawson

It is June 25, 2017. They are finally scrapping the old ferry boat next to the Choptank bridge near Cambridge, MD. It was towed there probably 50 years ago, grounded and used at various times as a restaurant, a martial arts center, a night club and an antiques co-op, but that closed in about 2005, and so she sat there for years like the washed-up rotting carcass of some prehistoric sea creature. Now backhoes are tearing at her guts like starving vultures. The giant steam engine is moldering in a huge mud puddle. All the identification plates were stolen years ago, so no one even knows the boat’s name anymore.

However, that mystery was solved when some research turned up its long, curious history. She was, or had been, the Hampton Roads, built in 1925. There are several photographs in the Hagley Museum and Library’s collection in Wilmington, DE, that show her under construction, and one photo features her engines when they were brand, spanking new. What a difference 92 years makes.

She was built by the shipbuilding firm of Pusey & Jones in Wilm-

Old Ferry Boat “Trial Run” Yesterday…” She could carry 60 large-size auington and was delivered to the tomobiles and even large trucks and Chesapeake Co. in Virginia on July moving vans on her main deck with 27, 1925. walking space between the rows,

The Newport News Daily Press which meant she could be loaded and for July 28, 1925 reported her ar- unloaded very rapidly. Her hull had rival and extolled her virtues. “Plan steel watertight bulkheads and could To Place New Ferry Boat On Run fl oat even if one compartment was To Pine Beach Today. “Hampton fl ooded. The article also noted that” Roads,” Queen of the Fleet, Came The colored passengers and white Down From Wilmington, Del. on her passengers have separate smoking

robertttton.com

Old Ferry Boat a propeller at each end of the vessel, which meant that the ferry did not have to turn around when it went back and forth. Steam was supplied by two cylindrical straight-through boilers using coal as fuel, although oil fuel could be used if necessary. The engine room boasted two steam steering engines and two electric generators, and the vessel was lighted by electricity. Her dimensions were 197 ft. overall, beam 59 feet 8 inches, depth 15 feet 2 1/2 inches and draft, loaded, 9 feet. The Hampton Roads was the largest and most efficient ferry operating in local waters. An old postcard shows her in her prime. She worked as one of the ferries crossing the 3.5-mile-wide Hampton Roads in the lower Chesapeake Bay

rooms and toilets with running water supplied to wash bowls.” Remember, 1925 was segregated, especially in Virginia.

Three salons were neatly paneled and tastefully decorated. Passengers could sit outside on the deck overhang to enjoy the open air. There was a lunch counter,with coffee urns, steam table, sink, ice box, etc. where passengers could procure refreshments. There was also a concession stand, a kitchen for the crew and even officers’ staterooms. Pilot houses at either end had all necessary equipment for steering and communication with the engine room. She was powered by two two-cylinder compound steam engines coupled together and driving

for 33 years. An article in the Newport News Daily Press for Oct. 31, 1957 detailed the Hampton Roads’ final trip. One of the poignant photos showed two children waiting to buy a ticket, while in the background the ferry chugged toward her slip for the last time. The fare was 20¢. She became obsolete when the two-lane $44 million Hampton Roads bridge opened in November 1957. There is a bridge tunnel there now.

The Hampton Roads was decommissioned in 1958 and was in mothballs until two men from Cambridge, Robert Creighton and Broaddus Hey, had the idea to convert the 710-ton boat into a restaurant as the centerpiece for their marina in 1968.

She was towed to the Talbot side of the Choptank near the bridge. Just by chance, her last berth was very near where the old ferry to Cambridge operated in the late 1700s.

Twenty-five acres of marsh were purchased for the ferry boat and

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Old Ferry Boat management as a night club. A 1987 ad in the Star Democrat an adjoining marina. Several thou- detailed the attractions: “Party Time sand tons of soil were trucked in to At The Ferry Boat- Trappe Side of the fill in the marsh around the boat, River” promised dancing until 1 a.m. something that doubtless would and free pizza all night on Wednesnot be allowed today! She was now day, dancing and all you could eat landlocked. buffet for $2.99 and live DJ’s Friday

The interior was stripped and and Saturday nights, and a jam sesremodeled into a restaurant called sion on Sunday. the Ferryboat, which seated more Unfortunately, there was trouble, than 200 people. Its specialties were and it soon acquired a reputation Maryland chicken and seafood. The as a biker bar. In 1988, a man was engines were steam cleaned and stabbed to death in the parking lot. painted as the centerpiece for an In 1989, two teenagers abducted a enormous bar with 12-foot-high ceil- woman in the parking lot, drove her ings in the former engine room. The to a nearby back road and assaulted upper deck could be used for dancing her. Then, in 1990, a man hit his wife and top-name entertainment. in the parking lot and menaced a sec-

The Ferryboat was very nice; I ond person with a knife. Doubtless, ate there a couple of times. After a alcohol fueled these problems. Later change of ownership in 1984, it was in 1990, the Ferry Boat Restaurant renamed The Hampton Roads Res- was one of several bars caught in a taurant. All went well until construc- sting operation for selling alcohol to tion for the new Choptank bridge so minors, so it closed. severely limited access that it closed The restaurant reopened in May in 1986. It then reopened under new 1991 under new management by Blue

Old Ferry Boat for it in 1984. This was the third time they thought they’d sold it, but Crab Inns & Restaurants, Inc., which presumably the price was negotiated had three other restaurants in the after the unsuccessful auction. area run by an Egyptian who bought She next opened as Queen Mary the ferry boat because of the unique Antiques, an interesting antique coopportunity it offered as a family op in 1996. Then she was under new restaurant and because it reminded management in 2000 as Ferry Boat him of boats on the Nile when he was Antiques, sold again in 2003 then growing up in Cairo. Patrons could closed forever a short time later. dine and dance the night away to live The once-proud vessel sat decaymusic and a DJ or a jukebox. The ferry ing and derelict until 2007, when boat now sported a large hard crab the superstructure was removed and on the side facing the bridge and was scrapped. This made the rusting hulk touted as the “Inn place to be.” of the wreck that was left look even

Or maybe not. In 1992, the new worse, if that was possible. There it owner, who had a lease to buy op- sat, disintegrating by the year, until tion, pled guilty to non-payment of the hull was finally scrapped in June more than $66,000 in state sales 2017 - which is when this story beand employee withholding taxes that gan, when I took some photos of the he had collected but had spent on carnage. It was just one month shy of himself instead, not to mention being her launching 92 years previously in charged with paying employees with July 1925. The engine, ripped from bad checks. He declared bankruptcy, her hull by a backhoe, now lay in a and in 1993 the ferry boat closed and muddy hole to be the centerpiece in was sold at auction. Or almost sold a debris field of twisted scrap metal. at auction. The one serious bidder A last-minute attempt to save it for did not meet the $250K the owners a museum was unsuccessful,and so wanted, which is what they had paid everything was hauled away for junk.

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A sad ending for a once hardworking Chesapeake Bay vessel, although in truth, she was a restaurant and antique shop longer than she was a ferry.

The other Hampton Roads ferry, the City of Hampton, was sold in 1957, towed to Lake Champlain, remodeled and renamed the Champlain, and is still in service. Such is fate!

Many thanks to the Hagley Museum and Library in Wilmington, Delaware, for letting me use the photo of the brand-new engines.

James Dawson is the owner of Unicorn Bookshop in Trappe.