Mystery Ship

Fragments of a boat discovered in nearby Watts Creek during the 1960s are most likely from a pungy, a Chesapeake-region schooner developed in the mid-1800s for dredging oysters and hauling cargo. How the vessel came to rest there remains uncertain: it may have been run aground by pirates or taken into the creek by its captain during a Civil War skirmish. It is one of many mystery ships found in the Chesapeake region, where vessels such as pungys, bugeyes, skipjacks, and log canoes worked the waters for fishing, shellfish harvesting, cargo transport, and passenger travel to ports around the Bay and along local rivers before the Steamboat Era.

Maryland · United States