Norfolk Landmark, January 19, 1877

Experiences of Oystermen.

reprinted from Baltimore Sun, January 15, 1877 Weather -- Snow stormsSea -- Shellfish - Oystering : BaysideSea -- Shellfish - Oystering : PricesTransportation -- Water - Personal injurySea -- Shellfish - Oystering : Packing

The hardships of the Winter have been particularly severe on the oyster trade. The oysters, indeed, have been so long covered by ice that they are getting weak, and many will die, as is usually the case under such circumstances. Nearly a thousand schooners and pungies owned in Maryland, and largely in Baltimore, are engaged in the oyster trade on the Chesapeake bay and tributaries. The sufferings during the Winter on board these vessels, which are usually provisioned only for very short voyages, have been unprecedented. Beginning with the polar hurricane of December 9th, the oyster fleet has been subject to repeated vicissitudes. In Chester river five schooners were stranded and a number of lives were lost. The tale of suffering from freezing, starvation, and other privations would fill a volume. Much has been written from time to time of these sufferings, but the half has not been told or realized, even when enforced by the terrible sufferings of the two Tegler brothers, who have each suffered amputation of both of their feet from Chester river experiences, or the loss of the schooner Laura, Captain Hitch, with a crew of eight men, beneath the frozen waters of the Chesapeake.

For some time past eighty or ninety vessels of the oyster fleet were locked up in Eastern bay. These vessels are generally provisioned for two weeks, and as some of them have been out of port for three weeks or longer, the crews have suffered for food. The aggregate number of men so situated has not been less than five hundred. They have subsisted as best they could by foraging on land when foraging was practicable. Not a few of the more adventurous spirits have crossed the ice to the Eastern Shore, where the hospitality of the people has been taxed to the utmost. In many cases the captains have been obliged to compel the crews to leave the vessels and make their way to Baltimore as best they could, arriving as tramps in squads, after untold sufferings, crowding the station houses and hospitals, often with frozen extremities, thinly clad, penniless, sick, and without resources. Nothing could be more pitiable than the evidences of extreme suffering presented by some of these previously strong men, broken down in a few weeks by their bay experiences, and nothing could be more touching than the brief narration of the thrilling incident and sacrifice that some of them have told of instances of friendship not dissolved even by death, as in the case of the two colored men who were "partners" as they called each other, and who both expired on the sands after their struggles in the ice to reach the shore on Chester river.

The Oyster Trade.

In a business point of view the winter has been very disastrous to the oyster trade in all its branches. Vessel-owners will scarcely pay expenses, except the few who have fortunately reached port at times when there was great scarcity and sold out at unusually high rates. Even these could not be tempted by money to make a second venture until milder weather comes. The packing-houses have been unable to respond to demands, and the employees, including shuckers, can-makers, and others, have suffered accordingly from want of employment. Some firms have been compelled to cut down their working force; in others, shuckers and can-makers have earned a bare livelihood. The restauranteurs, too, have had to pay $5 and $6 a barrel for oysters usually sold for $3 and it is difficult to find any connected with the trade, or navigation indeed, unless it be tug-boat owners, who have not sustained losses or suffering.

Not Settled.

reprinted from Alexandria Gazette.Sea -- Shellfish - Oystering : BaysideInfrastructure -- Public - Government : Maryland-Virginia boundary

It now seems that the rumor published some time ago, to the effect that the commission appointed to define the boundary between the States of Maryland and Virginia had agreed upon their report, was incorrect. There is still a point in controversy, and that is the original location of Fox Island in Chesapeake bay, which, it appears, has been changed by the action of the wind and tides since the line was first drawn. Senator Beck contends for the original site, three miles above its present one, Judge Black proposing that the boundary line shall divide that island, but as the latter proposition would give much the larger part of all the valuable oyster beds in the Chesapeake to Maryland, it is not probable the Virginia commissioners will agree to it.