Bugeye Restoration Goes To The Bottom

Bugeye Restoration Goes To The Bottom

- Gary Reich

The campus of Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum in St. Michaels, Maryland, is typically quiet and serene. Things were much different on this morning. As I walked the grounds, the high-pitched whines of chain saws and power planers filled the air.

Shipwrights were responsible for the cacophony of woodcutting sounds. As I rounded the boatbuilding shed, I could see a museum crew member prepping the topsides and decks of the bugeye Edna E. Lockwood to mesh with her newly crafted log bottom. The scene looked like a large-scale boatbuilding jigsaw puzzle.

I’ve tracked the restoration of the Edna E. Lockwood — a traditional Chesapeake sailing craft used for oystering — since the museum started looking to replace her original 1889 log bottom about five or six years ago. The search for new logs took longer than expected, but in March 2016, 16 suitable loblolly pine trees were sourced on the Eastern Shore.

In September 2016, shipwrights started cutting the trees with chain saws, axes and adzes. Within three or four months, Edna’s new bottom took shape. This past March, the crew drove long, galvanized pins through the logs, tying them together into a structure that looked like a Fritos corn chip. Next, the shipwrights worked to separate Edna’s relatively intact cabin houses, decks and topsides from her tired, distorted bottom.