A CENTURY OF SKIPJACKS
TRANSCRIPT

An oyster dredge boat, a skipjack, under sail. A skipjack captain yells to his crew to bring up the dredge.

NARRATOR

Every autumn and winter, for a hundred years and more, they harvested this Chesapeake -- watermen by the tens of thousands on workboats by the hundreds.

Watermen haul up a dredge full of oysters.

NARRATOR
(continuing)

On huge double-masted schooners and bugeyes and pungys, and on smaller, dirty-white sloops they called skipjacks.

NARRATOR
(continuing)

In Maryland they called this work drudgin' -- and they still do.

A slow tour around the skipjack under sail.

NARRATOR
(continuing)

With single masts and shallow drafts and iron dredges, skipjacks are still hauling up a harvest of oysters --

Watermen on deck throw a dredge overboard. It disappears underwater.

NARRATOR
(continuing)

but now it's a dwindling harvest and hardly anyone builds skipjacks anymore.