CHESAPEAKE FOLKLORE

CHESAPEAKE FOLKLORE

DON'T PAINT THE BOAT BLUE

It is considered bad luck to paint a boat blue. There is a belief that the similarity of the color

to that of water, entices the bay to swallow the blue boat.

Another account out of Cambridge tells of a sailor navigating a blue hull boat , caught in a storm, just out of reach of safe harbor, the life savers could hear him but not see the blue boat on the waterline, and he was drowned, but the story was remembered.

The mose unique supererstition comes from Elliotts Island. “There was a waterman so enhanced by a woman's blue eyes while out sailing that he lost 'his water sense' , went aground and

perished a slow horriible death.

Most boats have womens names, a name to whom the master of the vessel is to be 'true' during

the voyage.

Also green boats cause fear of rotting and falling apart. A crow flying over the bow of a

boat is bad luck.

AUNT CAROLINE

Aunt Caroline, an Indian half breed, said to have ethnic powers, once prayed to the

Lord God to spare watermen caught off shore in ice during a storm. Sure enough, while still on her knees, the ice flow opend in the creek and the boats were able to come right in to shore. A fact, says Elsie Brimer of Smith Island, in 1972.

MENIAH

In the gneral area of Somerset county there is an Indian maiden who comes to help those

who are in trouble. Her names is Meniah and this is a beautiful legend. It is not known just how it began, but whenever you are in deep trouble in that county, she comes to help you. Many a sailor

has said that there was an unusual woman at the wheel when they knew neither what way to go,

and she , at the wheel, guided them in the right direstion and to port. A fact, says Thomas Flowers,

Hoopers Island, 1972.

New technology, sometimes viewed as threatening tradition, bring anxieties. Steamships,

as early as 1813, took new routes which the sailing vessels could not navigate against the flow and tide and the wind direction. This was not accepted by all who for years had labored on the sea.

This brings up “Irish Jack” set sometime in 1893 when steamer had become a common sight in

the Chesapeake.

IRISH JACK

1893 PRESIDENTIAL INAUGURATION

There was an old sailor around here and they called him Irish Jack, his last name never

was heard. He told he came from Ireland on a log and people believe “Irish Jack knows and no one can do it better”. To the 1893 inauguration steamships ran excursions from Crisfield to Washington

and one this trip, about half way across, they ran up on Irish Jack in his 16 foot skipjack, sweating and

happy and all, he was invited to come aboard or at lest take a tow, but told the steamer crew “it would be no honor to go by steamer”. The steamship moved on.

LEGEND OF CAPTAIN JOHN MARSH

Back when several families would 'get together' and take a big boat on a trip to Baltimore

for a bit of fun and merryment, they took along ost everythng hey needed for a day of so, even the chicken coop, with chickens, for the eggs. One on a crossing, Captain John Marsh, told others of the bunch that he can tell their location and the water depth, from the smell of the sounding line.

Bets were on and he went in the cabin so not to see where they were. He gave correct locations and depths several times, before, one ogf the group decicded to 'trick' him. The next sounding, the bottom of the sounding line was rubbed in the chicken coop and passed down to him. Captain john told them there were in 45 feet of water, off Bloody point, or were back home in the back yard in

the chicken pen. So tells Alex Kellam, Smith Island, 1971.

So ends, folk tails of the Chesapeake, until more come to light.

Source: Aaron Lumpkins' Waterman's Tales, Folklore of the Chesapeake, June 2009,

'Shoreline” Magazine, Nabb Center , Salisbury.