Edward S. Clark collection of sailing craft photographs

The creator of this collection was Edward Story Clark (1894-1952) who worked in shipping in Baltimore and elsewhere. A Baltimore native, he moved in the course of his career to San Francisco, New York, and Boston. Clark was active in the Maritime Museum of the Maryland Historical Society, continuing his involvement even after leaving Baltimore.

The number and variety of small sailing vessels employed in the Chesapeake Bay region was partly due to the preponderance of creeks and estuaries navigable only by means of shallow draft vessels. Many later types derived from the log-canoe, itself an enlargement of the type of vessel carved out of a single log. The log-canoe was made from 3 to 5 logs, averaging 25-40 feet in length, and used with and without sharp sails, especially in tonging in the oyster industry.

The skipjack was a common type of sloop. As originally built circa 1815-1820, it was an open boat 30-50 feet in length, with a single sharp sail and a jib, a square stern and flat bottom. It may have derived from the log-canoe, although some detect an influence from the sharpie, as well. After the Civil War, a V-bottom form developed. In general, the skipjack could be produced at a lower cost than round-bottomed sloops.

The bugeye, so named because the craft handled so easily it could turn "in a bug's eye", is thought to have resulted from an enlargement of the log-canoe. Developed in the Chesapeake between 1835 and 1850, the craft was common in oystering fleets of the 1870s and 1880s. By the 1940s, the 60 or 70 bugeyes remaining in the Chesapeake were used in the oyster trade or for transporting bulk cargoes such as fruits, vegetables, grain, and fertilizer.

The pungy was a sharp-keel schooner built for the oyster and fruit trade starting as early as the 1840s. The boat's draft was 8 or 12 feet, limiting its usefulness to deep water oyster beds. By the 1930s, only six pungies remained afloat in the Chesapeake Bay, including Amanda F. Lewis and Wave.

The scow-sloop resembled a flat barge with square ends and one or two masts. Drawing only a foot to eighteen inches, it was developed especially for use in waters at the head of the Chesapeake Bay around the Susquehanna flats; it was typified by Elsie, built in 1875.