The 2024 Christmas in St. Michaels Collectors Ornament is the 21st in the series and depicts the Chesapeake deadrise workboat with its crew and a friendly canine companion. The image was provided by local St. Michaels artist, Sherry Smith.

The deadrise workboat has been a staple among Chesapeake watermen for decades. “Deadrise” refers to the almost flat, V-shaped hull which provides a shallow draft to accommodate the waters in creeks and rivers of the Eastern Shore. Boats range from 25-45 feet in length and are powered by large, inboard 4 or 6 cylinder engines, usually diesel-fueled.

These wooden workboats typically have a forward housing or small cabin and a large open stern area that can accommodate various tools of the trad including nets, oyster tongs, wire mesh crab pots, bushel baskets to hold the catch and myriad other bits and pieces of the watermen’s equipment.

The shallow sides of the craft provide easy access to the water, a necessity for trot-lining for crabs and maneuvering oyster tongs. A wooden or canvas roof protects watermen from the sun although in other seasons, a large metal clamming device is attached near the stern and the roof is removed.

Workboats typically sport women’s names on the transom or bow, paying tribute to wives and daughters. Others, such as the one in this ornament, make reference to the town, river or creek the boat calls home port.

It is typical to see dozens of these deadrise workboats plying the waters of the Eastern Shore in the wee hours of the morning as they seek the day’s catch, returning to the pier in early afternoon to get their catch to market. As life on the Bay offers more and more recreation opportunities, many non- commercial boaters are finding the deadrise a great recreational boat for family fishing and crabbing parties and just pure enjoyment. It’s “a Shore thing.”