Our Town Revisited: Richard Maritime Museum
CAMBRIDGE, Md. – Continuing our flashback to the past, we’re headed to Cambridge to revisit the Brannock Maritime Museum as we did 25 years ago, in April 1999.
Brannock’s Beginnings
Back then, it was located on the beautiful grounds of Talbot Street in Cambridge and was a great resource for finding out just about anything you wanted regarding the exciting life on the bay.
Earl Brannock, who the museum was originally named after, had collected over 7000 pictures, 4000 books, magazines, diaries, and letters about the many phases of Chesapeake Bay, and local maritime interest. The Brannock had become known as a research center worldwide for information in this area, even earning the title “Maritime Museum with a Twist.”
Revamping as Richardson
Over 2 decades later, many things have changed, including the name, but what remains is the hard work, and heart, that goes into the creation of a boat. The Chesapeake Bay is known for its craftsmen, especially in Cambridge, Maryland.
What was once the Brannock is now The Richardson Maritime Museum. All existing boat models, pictures, and historical artifacts were combined to create the facility that is now standing. Whether they built shallow-drafted work boats or specialized vessels suited to the bay, the Maritime was known for what it could put on the water.
Dugouts in Dorchester
82-year-old Peter Zukoski has been a volunteer with the museum for the past 12 years and says they display everything from the Dugouts that were created in the 1600’s to the skipjacks in the 1880’s, and much more. “Dorchester County has really been a center on the Eastern Shore for building wooden yachts, for building fiberglass yachts, for building fiberglass go-fast power boats. There are lots of opportunities here for people to do that.”
Zukoski says he’s been working on boats since he was 6 and says many of the boats were used commerce 25 years ago, but now, not so much. “A lot are used for crabs or fishing; a lot are used for pleasure boats. Just taking a ride in it, it’s fun, getting out on the water.”
Children and Carpentry
He says the art of crafting hasn’t died, but it is fading out, and the museum’s mission is to educate and inspire. “Some boatyards around here, they try to hire people, and they can’t even read a tape measure… Wooden boats by any means, hands, or power tools, they don’t know how to do it. There’s a science to it; there’s a lot of mathematics involved in it. There’s a lot of measuring and you have to have weighted materials. you have to know those things.”
Peter says the younger generation, is the future generation and this hands-on skill can take someone a long way in life. “Kids as young as 6th grade, coupled with the why, teaching them how to use hand tools. All of these skills are applicable to carpentry, building houses, and building buildings.”
Wealthy Watermen
And in Maryland, he says those who fish, can potentially make a fortune. “There’s still a lot of watermen now, I don’t know the number, but there are hundreds of them. And people still eat crabs, and they still love oysters…you don’t have to go to Harvard to get a good job. You can get a good job here, you know if you work at it.”
There are many early boats that flooded Dorchester County years ago, and if you would like to discover more, you can visit their website, or come on down to Cambridge and visit them Monday, Wednesday, or Friday from 11:00 am- 2:00 pm at 103 Hayward Street.
