Steering the Annie C…

As originally built, the Annie C did not have an engine, though various engines were added in later years. In its exhibited form, it was sail only and was steered by a 7 foot tiller carved with traditional tools from a 10 inch by 4 inch piece of native oak, and a small platform was built to give the helmsman a place to stand while steering. Oral histories say the Annie C was a fast boat, including an account of a trip to Baltimore when, during a severe storm, Captain Spencer D. Hall told his father to leave the boat there and return home to Crisfield on the steamer Three Rivers, but his father refused, sailed the Annie C out of Baltimore through the storm, went straight home to the Hammocks, and beat his brother home from Baltimore.

Onancock, Virginia · United States