Somers is a veteran two-sail bateau or skipjack that was used for oyster dredging in Virginia and Maryland waters. It is one of the few skipjacks remaining in restorable condition on Chesapeake Bay
In 1911, Edward Thomas Somers commissioned Tom Young to build a skipjack at Young’s Creek near the settlement known as Clam, Virginia, just north of Onancock. Somers after Edward’s son. She measured 42.6 feet on deck, 14 ft on the beam and “sited” a crew of four. Though Young was just thirty-five, he had been building boats for twenty years and had a reputation for fine craftsmanship. Unique to Chesapeake Bay, skipjacks are beamy, sturdy boats with a hard chine, low freeboard and a centerboard that gives the hull a shallow draft. Oak hoops carry a leg-o-mutton main sail up the single, noticeably raked mast, and a club-footed jib is self-tending. This design, refined by the 1890’s, enabled a small crew to work the waters more easily while having the enormous sail power needed to pull two oyster dredge rigs over the bottom. Rather than lofting or drafting blueprints, “rack-of-eye” was the design mode skipjack builders used, and Tom Young had a good eye for a beautiful boat. In a book about her grandfather’s boats, Tom Young’s Skipjacks, (Evans-Coates Printing, Inc., Delmar, DE, 1995) Mrs. Effie Young Lewis wrote, “At the time [1904], little notice was given to the fact that the design was unique from skipjacks of the day. All of Tom Young’s skipjacks originally had fore and aft planking on the stern portion of the bottom, a technique not generally employed by most builders.” Young built fast skipjacks. In September 1931 Claud W. Somers, with Captain Evans of Ewell, MD at the helm, won the annual skipjack race. After that, the races were discontinued until the 1960s, when the then-55-year-old Somers again won the first of the resumed annual contests. Somers continued to work the bay but tragedy struck in March 1977 when a fearsome storm caught the skipjack and her crew on the way back to her homeport of Wenona, MD. Thomas Wallace, and five other family members in the crew perished. Somers was quickly raised and repaired at Tilghman Island and returned to oystering. In 1983 Alfred Garey Lambert of Towson, MD purchased Somers for $16,000 and labored over the next 17 years rebuilding and restoring the vessel. Lambert wanted the historic skipjack to go to a museum at his death. His children, Caroline Lambert Benson and Robert Lambert, selected the Reedville Fishermen’s Museum as the new steward of Somers. In May 2000 they donated the vessel as a memorial to honor their father and his dedication to the preservation of Somers. Restoration - During the summer of 2000 volunteers began research on skipjack construction, started fund raising and searched for talent and a place to work on the boat. In November Somers was towed to Cockrell’s Marine Railway on the Little Wicomico River. It had no mast, boom, deckhouses or bowsprit. The deck was in poor shape and the only thing showing above the deck line other than a protective awning rigged by RFM volunteers was the steering gear. Somers was hauled and placed in a shed where work could proceed during the winter. Bottom planks were removed and numbered so they could be replaced later. Many side planks were replaced and the deteriorated keelson and horn timber were removed and scrapped. All new wood was cut and shaped from local pine trees using Cockrell’s sawmill. A new keelson and horn timber were installed, the bottom replaced and a new oak mast step was installed. Each deck beam was replaced and a new bowsprit was cut, shaped and installed. After getting a protective coat of paint, the boat was towed back to Reedville where it was berthed in Wendell Haynie’s boathouse in the spring of 2001. During the late spring and summer a new deck was laid. Two-inch wide strips were cut from pine planks and installed on their sides to make the deck two inches thick. Each strip was clamped into place, caulked and fastened. With the deck complete, volunteers towed Somers to the dock behind the museum for construction of the cabins and rails and installation of electrical and bilge pump systems. In October 2001 the boat was returned to Cockrell’s to receive the mast and boom, which volunteers had labored since late summer to shape from donated Norwegian spruce logs. With the mast and boom in place on a Tuesday, Somers was towed back to RFM where volunteers worked all day Wednesday and most of Thursday tuning the rigging and bending on the sails. Late Thursday afternoon, the boat was towed into the Great Wicomico and for several hours, Claud W. Somers was under sail for the first time in 18 years. After returning to RFM for more tuning and last minute repairs, she was readied for her first passage in her new role as a historic skipjack. There was no wind the following day, so she was towed down Chesapeake Bay and up the Rappahannock River to the Corrotoman River where she would race in the Yankee Point “Turkey Shoot Regatta” on Saturday and Sunday. Despite ancient, well-worn sails and a green crew, Claud W. Somers showed she still had the qualities Tom Young had built into her hull. Unbelievably, she won on both days, handily defeating the skipjack Virginia W. Long-time museum supporter Wendell Haynie spearheaded the restoration, with able support from museum President Aubrey Henry and the Museum Director, Angus Murdoch. In addition to the three generations of Cockrells and Taylor Dawson, some 30-35 volunteers spent many hundreds of hours working on the boat. Volunteers still dedicate many hours each week maintaining and sailing the boat. Members, friends and area businesses have donated more than $80,000 toward the vessel’s restoration and operation to date. Additional in-kind donations of material and well over 3,000 hours of labor have been received. Incident to the restoration, a number of changes were made to Claud W. Somers’ original design. The old dredging machinery was removed, 39 ½ inch steel handrails were added around the deck, a collision bulkhead was built forward and three watertight compartments were created below to enhance watertight integrity. Most of these changes are necessary to comply with Coast Guard regulations applicable to passenger-carrying vessels. Most of the wood used in restoration was local pine, cut at Cockrell’s and treated at Wood Preservers in Warsaw. Exceptions are the oak around the mast step, and the mast and boom which are of Norwegian Spruce donated by the Forestry Department, State University of New York (Syracuse). The hatch covers are of cherry. Operations - In her oyster dredging days, Claud W. Somers carried a winch (manual or powered) just forward of the main cabin, and there were vertical and horizontal rollers where the entry gates are now. This equipment controlled the oyster dredges that were dragged along the bottom. When the dredges were hauled up, the oysters were dumped on deck and sorted by hand. The keepers were piled on deck, not stowed below, because the below-deck space was used as living accommodations, not a cargo hold. The oysters were off-loaded onto buy boats periodically and skipjacks sometimes remained on the bay for several days at a time. The boat was fitted with a galley stove and the crew included a cook. They ate and slept below. Without the watertight bulkheads, more space was accessible forward from the main cabin. When they were not employed in dredging oysters, skipjacks sometimes carried other freight such as fruit or lumber between various ports on the Bay. The boat has no engine but carries a yawl boat or pusher for auxiliary power. The push boat was built by volunteers in 2002 and carries a Perkins 4-107 diesel (about 40 hp). Two twelve-volt 4D batteries power six bilge pumps, radio, running lights and a few accessories aboard Somers. Reedville Fishermen’s Museum has restored Claud W. Somers to high standards and will operate the vessel to advance appreciation of maritime history themes, to serve as a goodwill ambassador representing the museum at various waterfront festivals, and to attract attention to the importance of restoring and maintaining the health of Chesapeake Bay and its living resources. Additional Characteristics
Length on deck – 42.6 ft. Beam – 14 ft. Length of bowsprit – 14 ft. Length of boom – 42 ft. Length of mast – 61 ft. Draft 3 ft. (w/ centerboard up) 5 ft. (centerboard down)
Sail area: Main sail 945 square feet, jib 370 square feet
Speed capability: The fastest we’ve seen her sail was about 8 knots over the ground as measured by GPS. She was triple reefed in about 20 knots of wind on the quarter. Tonnage: Somers was originally registered at 8 Gross Tons, 6 Net Tons, but note that the ‘ton’ in this context doesn’t refer to its weight, but its cargo-carrying capacity (a measurement ton is 100 cubic feet of cargo space). We estimate that the boat actually weighs about 30,000 pounds. The name: The boat’s namesake, Edward Somers’ son, spelled his name Claude. However, it’s thought that when the boat was initially registered the “e” was inadvertently dropped and she’s been Claud W. Somers ever since.
