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Good Men Down
[03.05] item
Jane Meneely
There is no doubt in the minds of the Wallace Thompson out that day. I was in debt and the ice was finally broken. It was the property of skipjack Claude W. Somers less than a year and was bound and determined to make good countenance, which was the realization of his dream for a long time to own your own dredgeboat. When the wind rose and the rest of the fleet headed the oyster house, he was there, in open water at the mouth of the River Hong determined to get a few more licks. Then she returned to chance, the small port on the island narrows the salary he had left before dawn on the morning of March. He was not worried about time, but he knew better than anyone how treacherous winds of spring could be, how they could squeeze on you and hammer parts. I do not know is that today, the wind to build near a Hurricane and that neither he nor his team has never set foot on land again.
People who live on the island Deal still shaking his head as happened March 4, 1977. The information you provide differs to some extent, because many people witnessed the event from very different viewpoints, but one thing is certain, you remember the tragedy, as if it were yesterday instead of almost 30 years. Some witnesses have since died, but the community of sailors, who continues to work in the Hooper Strait waters, the sound and the Bay of Tangier in addition, has successfully preserve their stories and tissues in the fabric of island life.
I saw with my own eyes when I started asking questions about W. Claud Somers. I went to Wenona, Maryland, the port at the end of Deal Island is home to some of the latest active bonito Bay. He had gone Holland Arby small tent next to the pier and talked with the father of Paul Arby's. The most important was stationed in the Netherlands at a small table where he tried the other side of loneliness. He said he knew of Somerstragedy, but could not remember the name of the man offered Wallace a trailer. "Wait a second. These people know, "he said, pointing a Crabber ST Webster and one of his friends in the parking lot. Both wore white boots baseball caps Rubber ubiquitous marine work. When they came back a few packing boxes for their few crabs, Netherlands upstream: "You boys remember of that man in drag in children? Wingate Fellow in place, perhaps?
Webster frowned, and thought I would say, "What children? When? "But he knew that meant the Netherlands." I do not remember, he said, but I bet I know Grant Corbin. Webster picked up a package Cookie and join the conversation. "Thompson was a good boatman, a lot of experience. I saw him sailing on the dock more than one times. It is unfortunate that everything he said recalling that all but one of Wallace's crew that day were related.
In my search for life the memory of facts, Grant finally did speak Corbin, I also spoke with Elsworth Hoffman, retired head of the local DNR who oversaw the research, when the boat is not returned, I spoke with Captain Art Daniels long barrel spoke to Esther Wallace, widow of Thompson, and Kevin Wallace, Thompson's son, I spoke to Donald Mills, who left fog in the dark after the storm to try to find the men I spoke Don Simmons, whose father, an officer of Jennings DNR Simmons has been with the group that found and recovered the dead bodies of Windsor has spoken to Snooks, who helped raise the funds Somers once found, sank in 20 feet of water in the mouth of the river Hong, and he saw the drowned bodies were unloaded at Wingate. I spoke with someone who could find who had no recollection of the event, s and little bit of history of Claude W. Somers began to emerge.
Wallace Thompson was born and raised in Deal Island. He was one of 23 children (yes, 23) children of Robert Waterman and James Wallace Roseana. By all accounts, he was affable and well liked and had a sequence of the devil. Fear nothing they say. And he was ambitious. He had set their sights on owning his own boat one day, against all odds.
Wallace has worked in and around boats all his life. He was a jack of all, and had many ships captain ships others. His name appears on the list for 1971 Chesapeake Bay Days assessment barrel racing as captain of Ida May, owned by Elbert Gladden. When Claude W. Somers arrived at the hostel, Wallace was given the shopping list. The ship was a mess Sorry, but to be sure. It leaked like a sieve and the engine of his boat boat was reliable best. But it was not much worse than some other boats Deal Island dredging fleet of 35 vessels at the time. And there was nothing wrong with it Wallace could not fix.
The Somers came from good stock. It was built in the east coast of Virginia by Tom Young in 1911, commissioned by Edward Thomas Somers Crisfield business, and appointed his son Claude Williams Somers. She was 461 / 2 feet long, 14 feet beam, and fast. With Captain Evans then owner Curwin head, which hit the saddle, the rest of the barrel race in 1931 dredgeboats it last before the Second World War. Over 30 years later she achieved all this time with Captain Linwood Benton driving.
But when Wallace bought the boat Jack Parkinson spring of 1976, its days of glory are completed. Wallace led the court in Eldon Willing chance and went to work. At the beginning of the season for the dredging, which had reached a fairly high standards for its at least, and it was not far behind in the ship repair and carpentry. It would be almost sank at the dock every morning, but he would receive the pump current fleet and would be again very soon. It was not known to the barrel of water overnight. In addition, retention Water has always been the bane of the old.
Wallace took all their problems, quietly doing what they could to the boat when he had the time or money after paying the mortgage, there was a lot of money left. We kept the sweat and prayers for the most part. Were those of the island on his face said he was a fool to run the decrepit ship, which was drowning someone. But there were many who thought he knew what he was doing and like generations of oyster farmers before him.
The winter of 1976-77 was a bad season around. There are not many oysters, starting with MSX had begun to ravage the livestock already declining oyster. And worse, the bay has been frozen for two months to reduce the number of days the sailors could even open water. Mariners Island Deal were desperate to return to work when the ice was finally broken at the end of February, during a a warm wind. A few days later the ice had melted, except for large piles of broken ice slab that had been driven ashore by the wind and tide. Even more welcome the news that the MNR had won the oyster season two weeks after cutting usually March 15.
It was gusty Monday morning, March 4 with a sea of four feet and winds of 15-30 mph. In all likelihood, will worsen. Wenona boats could "see" the wind, accordance with Article Daniels, Captain Crisfield City skipjack. They did not that day. But the chance is wearing a shelter blow to the south, and Wallace Thompson 55 has dropped to his boat at dawn and pumped as usual for the race of the day. His crew were meeting: his older brother, "Big George" Wallace, 64, and his nephew Carter Wallace, 20, his wife, a cousin of James Thomas, 20, his son Gerald Wallace 24 and home on leave from the Navy, and an unrelated person, Levin Johnson, 44. Another son, Kevin Wallace, 15, was on the dock ready for long when was called home unexpectedly. "I was there in spring, when left, but for some reason I do not remember, I'm not with them that day, he said today. Another member of the regular crew, Earl White, who died recently stayed at home that day, "Even out of bed," he said. I knew that Gerald would take place.
Captain Elsworth Hoffman, an official of the Ministry of Natural Resources Police luck, toured the port and Wallace advised not to leave that day. Reports indicate developing overcome later in the afternoon. This does not deter Wallace. In light of dawn dark, who launched his boat motor and relieved Yola gun away from the dock. Random TheSomers expelled north of the port in Tangier Sound, past the shark fin Shoal and on the north shore of Bloodsworth Island, due to land dredging Hooper Island, near the mouth of the River Hong. Any boat that was leaving that day would have left the bench in the dark To be in the oyster "Rock" when the sun does not miss a single legal entity "lick" of the oyster. As hunters, bonito can not start harvest until dawn, but they begin at dawn.
Wallace would have been ready for any wind that hit free to leave the port. His crew would laugh the mainsail before nightfall. This has been a common practice of a kite, it is always easier to shake a reef put one in, especially on a cold winter morning. Wallace certainly felt the morning air and left its reefs in three of them. A Kite does not require more than the wind to shoot both a drag. If it builds up too quickly, dredging can be recovered on the bottom. The captain can estimate the wind and increase what you need for your sailing conditions function. Wallace did not need much fabric in the morning.
Then, as now, the barrel was allowed to take 150 tons of oysters a day, but in the 1970s, especially in the lower Bay, where MSX was more frequent, did not throw at 150 tons per day. Half of launching a spectacular setting for Deal chipping. When the wind really started at once, at noon, Wallace had reasonably good, but not enough to stop smoking. Skipjack directed work that day, while Wallace was to get a little more "Jaguar" period Waterman dredge full. He got more than I expected. From all accounts of fierce winds in the afternoon. Men of land that occurred 75 km per hour. Paul Holland, working as a buyer of an oyster in Wenona then said leg 80-85 to its peak. Long before the peak of the storm, Wallace started at home. It was then where the devil takes over. He began to have problems with this boat dinghy engine bad mood, and can be done.
Buddy Jones, aboard his boat tonging Matt Dana, hightailing Chance was when he passed the Claud W. Somers Hooper Strait bound, according to the story printed in the Times SalisburyDaily March 7, 1977. Jones said Wallace problems had appeared, he stopped alongside and offered assistance. Wallace took the spare battery Jones hoped that using your Yola boat started. When this attempt failed, Wallace Jones offers a trailer. "I towed him ten miles in the first two hours," Jones told the newspaper. "When we Hooper Strait, we were in real trouble. "He said that by then the winds had reached 70 mph / H, 15 feet from the sea, and the tow rope broke off their shoes. Jones is the closure of the system, but the line was again. Fearing for his own safety, Jones put on his lifejacket and said Wallace and his crew to abandon ship and board the Matt Dana. Wallace refused, saying: "We will try to save," said Buddy Jones had to get help for themselves and the power there. With In retrospect, he saw that Thomas James was wearing a life jacket and went aboard the skipjack Yola, probably in another effort to get the engine started.
Meanwhile, Art Daniels had seen the Somers leave, but he had not reviewed. He called the DNR to say Wallace could be in difficulty. Corporal Webster Walton set out to find the boat gone, but the conditions were so rough, turned away. When the Somers has not returned to port at 5 pm, Elsworth Hoffman, Agent DNR randomly decided to pick himself. He alighted from his boat, but could not get the engine running. Conditions deteriorated in that time, recalls that even though he got the boat going, he was not sure he could have open water. Back in his office, bedroom sun almost received a radio call from the tug to another, probably heading to Salisbury with a cable of coal. The tug reported seeing a boat difficulty in Hooper Strait. From your description, Hoffman thought he was probably the Somers, but was unable to do anything whatsoever, and DNR boats were too far. He could only hope and we hope that the brave and capable Wallace was able to climb or get your boat in protected water. Maybe he already had.
The news spread quickly that Wallace was in difficulty. When time has decreased, which could go look for him, and the Coast Guard and DNR has undertaken a large-scale research. Donald Mills, head of the bishops remember there was a thick fog of the night. He met a 55-gallon floating in the water, the type of a captain of skipjack were used to transport gas engine with rotary pistons. "I knew I was not far, and I kept looking. When he saw the drum, I knew that the boat cast, but I thought that maybe some of these children hanging on the mast. "He found nothing.
According to some reports, users Wingate, Maryland, saw the boat about 9:00 boat was separate lists and was stranded on the beach head of the bishops. A few hours later, the body of James Thomas, still in a lifejacket, was found floating in the
Bishops head light rescue and Hooper Strait, and "knew that the chances of finding the ads and the rest of his crew have been limited. Between the dark fog and visibility was nil. At this time, around midnight, they have concentrated their efforts in the area where it was found the body of James, thinking that Wallace had left Hooper Strait, running before the wind to the port of Wingate. Or perhaps he had tried to execute its mission in shallow water to avoid submerging if it sank. Helicopter searchlights swept the area but found nothing yet.
Finally, shortly before midnight, Henry Gootee Golden Hill found the boat on their radar, west and north of where people had been looking for. "Do you know a place Well, you can see something on the radar had nothing to do, "he said from his office in the Marine Gootee Church Creek. He had left his Wharf at 7:30 pm after the hearing that the ship was in difficulty. In the thick darkness that my eyes peeled on their radar screen, as in the water ahead. One by one, came to markers on the screen of his family as he expected, but something unknown was presented in the water above the Hooper Strait Light. Indeed, when it opened and could no longer highlighted, I could see the top Somers of the mast, the slope of the water about 300 meters Norman Cove. There was no sign of life.
The Morning News spread quickly discovered, and not less than 50 boats gathered on the site. The captain Ben Parks Cambridge Remember to leave the island with his father Hooper aboard the family boat. arson Hooper Island, he said, was the only body drag and have always been known to use. Not device enough to hear described. It is a long steel rod on rollers, with sharp, three-pronged hooks suspended her. "There will be no problem," said Parks. Once on board the boat to help the police officer Harold Pritchett distance, but they were having some luck. Back and forth, back and forth, combing the whole area around the gun, without any result. It was not until Charles Abbott and some men Chance had slightly changed from barrel to its elevation above the bottom of bodies of four men Levin Wallace and Johnson were below ship's mast. One by one the men were transported aboard the police boat and taken to the public wharf Wingate.
"I remember these boys lying on the police boat, as if it were yesterday, "said Snooks Windsor, who was in the dock when the ship in a port still works Sports and train there. "He will not forget you."
Meanwhile, the Claud W. Somers was refloated and towed to chance. Thirty-three tonnes of oysters lying on their blankets. In one month, it was sold to DK Bond, who went from Chesapeake Beach, Maryland is now owned and navigated by the Museum Reedville Fisherman, one of only a few bonito built left Virginia.
Nobody can say how or why Somers went to the mouth of the river when Hong, on behalf of Buddy Jones, the ship was almost through the Strait of Hooper, when he left for help. Captain Ed Farley skipjack HM Krentz Tilghman, speculates that the yawl boat, with Thomas James still on board and trying to start the engine, must be released from Somers. Wallace may have tried to continue boat to retrieve the child. The list, loaded with oysters, and although course, taking on water faster than anyone could pump, only sink, settle on the bottom with its cargo of oysters on the bridge yet.
Regardless of how and why, the result remains the same. It is part of workload water. Boat sinks; people drown. Perhaps the story of Claude W. Somers is still so ingrained in the collective memory, precisely because nobody can know What actually happened. Or maybe the story and the narration is a community first line of defense, a warning to their children the vagaries of nature and the dangers inherent in the water. It is, after all, a cautionary tale, and anyone "to come in the water, Islanders like to say, should take account of the lesson.
About the Author
By Jane Meneely, writer for Chesapeake Bay Magazine. For more great articles and photos on boating, sailing, fishing, and cruising, visit http://www.ChesapeakeBoating.net
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