Out of the shell, oysters quickly go bad. Until the 1800s, most Chesapeake oysters were harvested for local consumption. By the mid-1800s, shucked oysters could be packed in ice or canned for shipment to distant markets. As American cities grew, demand for oysters surged, and Chesapeake oysters found ready markets in Pittsburgh, Detroit, Minneapolis, and points west.

Oysters for Sale

Oysters were for sale even at the J. M. Karmany meat market in the small town of Mankato, Minnesota, in 1881.

Courtesy of the Minnesota Historical Society

Cove Oysters

Thomas Kensett, an Englishman, began canning food in New York in the 1810s. His son and namesake was one of the first to process oysters in Baltimore, beginning in 1849. “Cove” on the label refers to Cove Street, a lane in Baltimore where several oyster houses were located.

Cannery Workers

Thousands of people worked in Baltimore’s canneries, packing oysters in winter and fruits and vegetables in summer. Many immigrants, especially women from Eastern Europe, worked opening oysters. In this 1914 image they are opening, or “shucking,” steamed oysters, a process that loosened the oyster muscle and separated the shells, making the work less difficult.

Oyster Shuckers on the Shore

After the Civil War, many African Americans found work in the Chesapeake seafood industries. Packing houses in small communities such as Crisfield, on the lower Eastern Shore of Maryland, primarily employed African American women as oyster shuckers. In this 1891 image, the workers are atop the detritus of their handiwork—a pile of oyster shells.

Courtesy of the National Archives and Records Administration

An oyster house surrounded by shells in Crisfield, Maryland, 1891

Courtesy of the National Archives and Records Administration

Oyster Knife

This oyster shucking knife was made by a blacksmith and used in the area of Crisfield, Maryland, probably in the early 1900s.

Oyster Champion

The U.S. National Oyster Shucking Championship is held in St. Mary’s County, Maryland, every October. Ruth Smith won the contest in 1981.

Photograph by John Gibbs

Courtesy of the Calvert Marine Museum

A Chesapeake Icon

A law passed in 1865 still helps skipjacks—one-masted, sailing oyster boats—survive today. The law prohibits the use of dredges—the most efficient oyster harvesting gear—on an engine-powered vessel. Since skipjacks rely on the wind, they can use dredges. But because of the severe decline of oysters in the bay, very few skipjacks have been used in the fishery since the 1990s.

Oyster Boats in the City

Chesapeake working craft crowded Baltimore Harbor, about 1900.

Shipping Barrel, early 1900s

Oyster packers used specially designed barrels for shipping oyster meats by rail or steamboat. This barrel contains two galvanized, reusable metal cans that were filled with oyster meats. With ice loaded on top, the cedar-sided barrel kept the oysters fresh during transport.

The Sage’s Oyster Fork

The fashion for eating raw oysters diminished in the early 1900s, largely due to health scares linked to oyster consumption. But true oyster enthusiasts continued to indulge their passion for the bay’s succulent bivalves. This oyster fork, made in Baltimore in the 1920s, was used by the “Sage of Baltimore,” journalist and satirist H. L. Mencken.

Oyster Pirates

In the dark of night, dredgers were known to sneak onto tonging grounds to harvest oysters. Dredgers could make short work of oysters in shallow tonging areas.

From “The Oyster War in Chesapeake Bay,” Harper’s Weekly, March 1, 1884

Courtesy of the Library of Congress

Favorite bed for small boats—Gathering and dressing oysters under difficulties

From Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper, February 8, 1879

Courtesy of the Library of Congress

Log Canoe, late 1800s

In shallow waters, oystermen worked out of small boats, including canoes built of logs hollowed out and pinned together lengthwise. Chesapeake watermen used log canoes well into the 20th century.

This model is rigged with hand tongs. The tonger lowers the baskets into the water and pulls the handles apart. Using a raking motion, he works them back together until the baskets are filled. He then lifts the catch to the surface, hand-over-hand, and swings the baskets aboard. Imagine doing this in a rocking boat in the middle of winter, and you’ll know why oyster tonging was a dangerous occupation.

Bugeye Lillie Sterling

First built in the 1860s, bugeyes were unique to the Chesapeake. They were large, decked-over versions of log canoes. They ranged in length from 30 to 65 feet and carried three sails on two masts. Worked by a captain and crew of six, bugeyes were used for dredging oysters in winter and hauling produce in summer.

Skipjack Gertrude Wands

First built in the late 1800s, skipjacks—one-masted, V-bottom vessels—gradually replaced bugeyes in the oyster dredging fleet. Their simple rig and hull design proved easier to build, operate, and maintain. Like other watercraft, some skipjacks were built in established shipyards, but many more were built by carpenters and watermen in small communities around the bay. This dredge boat was named for a little girl who lived in the community of Inverness.

Afterlife of an Oyster Dredger

When there aren’t enough oysters to keep a skipjack in business, a waterman’s mind can take a creative turn. This canvasback decoy was carved from the mast of the venerable oyster sloop Rebecca T. Ruark, built in 1886. Made in June 2000, it is one of 82 ducks carved by Charles Jobes of Havre de Grace, Maryland, from Rebecca’s mast.