William B. Tennison (bugeye)
The William B. Tennison is a Chesapeake Bay bugeye built in 1899 and converted to an oyster buy-boat in 1906–07. With the conversion her sail rig was removed and an engine inserted, and is the only surviving example of this conversion. Her construction marks a transition between log construction and plank construction. She is homeported at the Calvert Marine Museum in Solomons, Maryland. The Tennison is reputed to be the second oldest licensed passenger vessel in the United States.
William B. Tennison Solomons, Maryland, December 2008
Oyster buy-boats like the Tennison carried sale well into the 20th century
The rounded front of the deck house is a characteristic of an oyster buy-boat
The bugeye is a type of sailboat developed in the Chesapeake Bay for oyster dredging. The predecessor of the skipjack, it was superseded by the latter as oyster harvests dropped.
Edna Lockwood, a surviving bugeye.
Bugeye pictured on a visitors' wayfinding compass on Solomons Island
Edna E. Lockwood on display at the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum