Log Canoe Annie C

The Annie C, a five-log canoe built in 1904 by Horace Bundick in Sanford, was one of the largest canoes built on Virginia’s Eastern Shore and one of the rare log canoes built to about 45 feet. Constructed by fastening five loblolly pine logs together with iron pins and carving them by hand, then adding planking above the waterline, she was originally rigged with a single mast, a large mainsail, a small jib, and a pivoted centerboard. Designed primarily for oystering, she was large enough to cross the bay in winter and also worked in crabbing, fishing, and later commercial seafood transport, with crews of three men often living aboard in a very small forward cabin while harvesting oysters from the wash boards with tongs. First owned by Covington "Cub" Corbin, she later passed to Alfred Hall and Harrison Stant, and then to George Hinman and Lenore Stant, who used her to transport seafood from Saxis. In 1910, a 16-horsepower two-cylinder Bridgeport engine was installed, larger engines followed, and the mast was eventually shortened as the sailing rig was abandoned. Abandoned in a marsh near Saxis in the 1960s, she was pulled out in the early 1980s by Captain Greg Lohse and partially restored, then after further neglect was bought in 1995 by Warner F. Young, who donated her to the historical society and helped lead efforts to preserve this important maritime artifact. The Annie C also reflected the broader Chesapeake Bay log-canoe tradition, a design derived from Native American dugouts and developed by European settlers into sharp-ended sailing workboats that became the bay’s most common seafood-harvesting craft by the late 1800s.

Wachapreague, Virginia · United States