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“CHESAPEAKE RELIC”
September 4, 2019 Chesapeake art, Chesapeake Bay, Deadrise Boats, john barber, John M. Barber 0 CommentsOver my 40 years of exploring the Chesapeake region, I’ve often seen these once- proud vessels reduced to derelicts. Called deadrises, due to the configuration of their hulls, they are well suited to the bay’s short, choppy seas and shoal waters. Constructed of native wood and built by local craftsmen, they are perfectly suited for harvesting the bounty of the Chesapeake. They could easily be adapted for fishing, crabbing, clamming, and oystering and were beloved by their owners. In 1988…
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“Day’s End on the Chesapeake”
August 22, 2018 Barber Art, boats, Chesapeake, Chesapeake art, Chesapeake Bay, Chesapeake fishing, Deadrise Boats, Maritime Art, sailing, Skipjacks 0 CommentsIn this oil painting, we see a skipjack sailing for home after a long day of work. These wooden vessels were designed and built to haul general cargo and dredge oysters on the Chesapeake Bay. There are a few still oystering even today in the Maryland waters of the bay. On the horizon, we see massive storm clouds, which can easily threaten these vessels, some over one hundred years old. Notice the green light on the skipjack. This is…
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The Chesapeake's Bounty
January 23, 2012 Barber, Barber Art, boats, Chesapeake, Chesapeake art, Chesapeake Bay, Deadrise Boats, Marine art, Maritime Art, SkipjacksNear the end of last December I was invited by my friend Captain Brian Dillistin to join him for a day on the bay. We would run from his home on the Corrottoman River down the Rappahannock and then to the southern Chesapeake near the eastern shore of Virginia. Our targeted species was Morone saxatilis, also called “striped bass” and locally “rockfish”. These fish are, for the most part, anadromous- migrating from the ocean in the spring up fresh water…
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