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September, 1910 'THE MARINE REVIEW 347 MOTOR BARGES OF THE CHESAPEAKE N no "body of water in. this country, "has the woorking motor boat reachet as high a devel- opment as on the Chesapeake Bay, that great inland sea that, with its num- erous tributar- ies, penetrates deeply into the states of navigable water for light draught ves- sels. Ever since the states of Maryland and Virginia have been settled the mari- time interests have been large, especially those interests of the bay and great BAY By Stuart STEVENS Scorrt. a change so great that only those fam- iliar with the conditions can appreciate it, and it has been brought about by the perfection of: the internal combus- tion engine, a power so cheap and ef- fective that it has not only almost en- tirely killed the industry of building sailing craft, but it has entered closely in competition with the river steamers, besides opening up entirely new sections of the tidewater counties to direct com- munication with the cities of Baltimore and Norfolk. It is estimated that there are not less than 3,000 working boats of all classes on the Chesapeake carrying on com- merce in all of its phases. From Balti- more alone there hails 84 documented power craft, most of which are working boats and their aggregate tonnage is Bertie E, Tur, Larcest GASoLINE Boat ON CHESAPEAKE BAY. numbers of sailing craft that ply be- tween Baltimore at the head of the hay and Norfolk at the foot, and the hundreds of steamers that run from the two cities named along routes leading Up the various rivers and to the hun- dreds of wharves along their banks, made but small inroads upon the sailing craft that hauled lumber, cordwood, arm Products and general merchandise. During the past decade, however, there has been wrought an enormous change, 2,035 tons, gross. Of these, eighteen are of more than 15 tons each and they are engaged in freight and passenger work, Three of them haul passengers exclus- ively. These eighteen craft represent the largest gasoline boats on the bay and their combined tonnage is 1,079 tons, or more than one-half of the tonnage of the entire fleet of documented erate To cite the tonnage of the boats that hail from Baltimore, however, is not altogether fair, for the majority of the power craft hail from many of the small tidewater towns--Annapolis, Cris- field, Cambridge, Oxford, Tappahannock, Cape Charles City, Hampton, Newport News and Portsmouth--where they are built or the closest town where their interests lie. For example, there is a shipyard at Madison, Md., that has turned out some excellent examples of the gasoline barge, some of which are of nearly 40 tons. While the gasoline barge has been of vast benefit to general merchandising its greatest value has been to the farm- ers, whose lands are washed by creeks of a few feet depth. Many of these estuaries could not be navigated by a sailing vessel because of narrow chan- nels. Likewise is the lack of water prohibitive to a steamer. With the gasoline barge, however, the streams af- ford ideal conditions. No longer does the farmer have to haul his produce to the nearest wharf, let it lie there until the steamer comes and perchance to perish in the interim. He either buys or builds a motor boat, or makes a deal with some of his neighbors, erects his own wharf on his own prop- erty, loads when it suits him and gets his vegetables and fruit to the market in time to command the maximum prices. Scores of farmers in the tidewater counties own and operate their own motor boats, while there are _ several companies that operate motor barges on regular schedules, just as the steamers are, and they have all made money. Indeed, some of the general store keep- ers in the lower part of Maryland have found it advantageous to patronize these motor boat lines, getting their mer- chandise not only quicker by that means, but even cheaper freight, which counts considerable. There are few states that have such a large number of men employed in making a livelihood from the water as in Maryland and Virginia. The oyster, fish and crab industries employ many thousands and in these lines the motor boats play a most important part. In Maryland the law prohibits the use of other than sail power in the dredging of oysters, but in Virginia, where the "rocks" and "bottoms" are leased, there is no restriction and there are at least 75 motor dredgers hailing from Hamp- ton alone. While the Maryland dredger may not