|
The old steamboats have come and gone,
but pleasant thoughts of those days still linger…
Every year as soon as the school year ended, my sister and I visited my grandmother in Ocran, Virginia for the summer. This year it was decided that we would travel by steamboat since my father could not take the time from work to drive us there. We were up at the crack of dawn to get ready and, needless to say, we were quite excited. My mother rode with us on the streetcar to the Light Street pier at the Baltimore Harbor. As we boarded the steamboat Piankatank we were introduced to the Captain, and if memory serves me, his name was Captain Jack Willing. He was a good friend of my grandmother and agreed to keep and eye on us during the voyage since we were traveling for the first time on our own. However, he assigned his purser, Mr. Crandall, to take over when he became busy.
Out of the harbor we sailed. It was 12:30pm and the steamboat came to life. Ah, what happy music the bay boats blow, echoing from Light Street, soft and low. Our vessel took a good amount of time to leave the harbor because of all the excursion boat traffic. My sister and I watched all the activity on the calm waters of the harbor till we reached the Chesapeake Bay. We were fascinated by the rougher water and the wind in our hair. I remember thinking what a lucky little girl I was to be taking this trip on a real steamboat. We struck up conversations with other youngsters traveling with their families and everyone was just as excited as we were.
When it was time for dinner, some of the passengers entered the dining room to be served, but my mother had packed us a box lunch and we were to eat in our stateroom, which was included in the price of our passage. Our tuna sandwiches, Ritz crackers, and bananas tasted better than and dinner served in the finest restaurant on dry land. After dinner, the Captain showed us the pilothouse, explained some of the jobs assigned to the crew and even allowed us to handle the wheel. It was such a lovely view from “on high” as I called it. He was quite a nice man and really did check on us during the entire trip. At dusk, the Captain suggested we go to our stateroom to rest and he assured us he’d call when we docked.
The Piankatank docked at approximately 2:30am at Westland Wharf just inside the mouth of the Rappahannock River, which is now Windmill Point. This was one of several stops the steamboat made from Baltimore. Our uncles Joe and Bill Toleman met us at the wharf, checked with Captain Willing, gathered our luggage and thanked him for his services before driving us to my grandmother’s house in Ocran. After our “happy to see each other greetings,” we soon went to bed. We awoke the next morning to roosters crowing and looked out the window onto Tabbs Creek, much different than the big city of Baltimore. How nice it was to start our summer vacation in the country.
I have since taken the cruises to the Carribean and other points of interest but for a girl of nine years, nothing could compare with the experience of sailing down the enormous Chesapeake Bay on the steamboat Piankatank to see grandmother for the summer.
The steamboats have come and gone but these vessels are bests remembered as the link between Baltimore and the eastern and western shores of Maryland and Virginia from the 1800s till the mid 1900s.
|
locations
Comments