Growing up in West Denton on the Upper Choptank River

(From Chapter 3)

I remember the time that a sailboat captain tried to leave Denton during a storm that was bringing a high tide and strong winds. He requested the draw to be opened so that he could leave, which in the minds of a few local people around the drawbridge was a questionable action in view of the storm.  Along with the strong wind, the tide was flowing very rapidly through the draw part of the bridge, so fast that his little yawl boat couldn't push the vessel through the drawbridge.  It lingered there in the draw part of the bridge for quite a few minutes.

The captain was a fiesty old salt who listened to no one, and all the while he was bellowing out orders, interspersed with numerous curse words, to his one shipmate in the yawl boat - all of this to the delight of the local I-told-you-so citizens who on previous occasions had a dislike for the old salt because of his cockiness. 

All of a sudden he decided that he could do the job better himself and ordered the shipmate out of the yawl boat and jumped in himself.  By some freak action he caused that yawl boat to rush forward, climb the ropes that attached it to the stern of the vessel, and then drop straight down into the water stern end first, submerging the engine and carrying the old captain with it. 

He came out of the water like a drowning rat clinging to whatever was available.  Naturally, the engine was dead, and without its push the strong tide caused the vessel to drop back out of the draw.  The old capitan had managed to get back on board and he had to throw lines over  to the wharf where some local residents helped tie up the boat again. 

The next couple of days were spent in dismantling the yawl boat engine, drying it out, and preparing for another attempted departure.  All of this had tied up the drawbridge and traffic for the best part of an hour.

(From Chapter 6)

I became acquainted with the crews of [the] oil tankers, especially the Standard Oil crew, and primarily the captain and first mate.  Although they were strict about allowing visitors aboard the tanker, I was always allowed in the captain's and crew's quarters, partly because I worked around the oil yard and also because they knew my dad and often purchased items at his store, sometimes sending me to the store for them. 

The crews of these oil tankers were rough men and I received a kind of education from them that probably would not have received the approval of my dad and mother, although I'm now sure that my dad knew more than I gave him credit for.  But since it did not take them long to unload the tanker, my exposure to their language and philosophy about women and life in general was minimal in terms of the influence it may have had upon me.  Nevertheless, I was exposed to the language associated with playing cards and shooting craps as well as expressions about the wild and wooly ways of woeful women.

(From Chapter 10)

Captain Lord was the name of the captain of the old steamboat JOPPA.  He as a big and kindly man and visited with my dad as well as purchased things from him on each of his visits to Denton.  His most outstanding physical feature was his big red nose - the W. C. Field's type - a little frightening at first to a small boy but later an insignificant feature compared to his compassionate personality.  He was always friendly to the children of the community and usually had a sucker or piece of candy for each of them.

The only black captain that I remember was Captain Waters, who commanded the "Edward V. Hendrixon," a sailboat owned by L.B.Towers ofDenton.  Captain Waters later purchased the boat from Towers and operated it independently.  Loads of fertilizer and other products were brought to Denton rather regularly by this sailboat and it usually took a load of canned goods from the Towers Cannery on its return trip to Baltimore. 

Captain Waters always visited with my dad and I would say that they were very good friends. He was not married and the sailboat was his home.  I remember on one occasion that the blacks of Denton and surrounding vicinity were having a camp meeting just east of Denton,  Captain Waters wanted to take a date to the camp meeting but he had no means of transportation and there were no taxis available. 

So he rather reluctantly and apologetically asked my dad if he would let me drive him in my dad's Whippet to the campgrounds with his date and then return for them about midnight.  My dad and I consulted with each other and decided that I could do it especially since there was about $10.00 in it for me.  Now for the time, that was a switch - a white person as a chauffeur for a  black couple.  Had it been anyone other than  Captain Waters, I doubt if either my dad or I would have agreed to it.  Captain Waters was a fine, trustworthy man. 

When the appointed evening came he was dressed up in the very best and I drove him to the lady's home.  He escorted her (who was also immaculately dressed) to the car and they both got in the tack seat.  He introduced her to me and off we went.  I dropped them off at a certain spot on the campground and received instructions from Captain Waters to check at that exact spot at 11:30 p.m. promptly. 

So at that point I returned home, awaited the appointed hour and made the return trip to pick them up.  When we arrived at her home, Captain Waters escorted her to the door, said his "goodbye" and I brought him back to his boat which was tied up at the wharf across from our home. 

It was an interesting experience and one that I didn't mind because I had shared many a hot biscuit with him in the galley of the old Edward V. Hendrixon. 

I don't know when I saw Captain Waters last.  A book entitled "Chesapeake Circle" by Robert H. Burgess, 1965, states that "the Edward V. Hendrixon made a locker for herself in the mud flats on the shore of the Tred Avon River at Oxford, Maryland, about 1943." I'm sure that Captain Waters probably retired long before then and likely sold his boat to someone else. The same book indicates that the last of the schooners ceased operating by sail power around this same date, although a few of them were converted to diesel power and operated until the late '50s.