Cooperative Living July 2022 - 15

COOPERATIVE FOCUS
A donation of $5,000 from
Choptank Electric is helping to
underwrite the all-volunteer effort.
" This is an important part of the heritage
of the Eastern Shore and we're pleased
to contribute in a way that brings back
memories for past generations and
creates new ones for the future, " says
Mike Malandro, president and CEO
of the cooperative.
Collier and his colleagues have
and the Virginia portion of the bay.
By the early 1990s, the bay, which
once supplied one-half of all oysters
in the U.S., produced 1% of what it
did in the 1890s.
A lot of would-be watermen thus
ventured afield. Collier worked at
DuPont for nine years, then moved
to Florida with his wife Linda as a
commercial fisherman with 1,100 lobster
pots, before they returned to Maryland
and joined the museum board.
Whitelock learned overhead line
work with the Seabees in Vietnam.
He landed at C.W. Wright, an electrical
contractor, for $3 an hour in 1970
before starting his own business and
contracting for years with Choptank
Electric Cooperative and A&N Electric
Cooperative.
Now, the Crisfield and the museum
have become a rallying point for the
greatest generation of skipjack captains.
After Daniels died, the museum took
ownership of the City of Crisfield, which
had deteriorated far from the mastery of
the bay it displayed in winning nine Labor
Day skipjack races from 1965 to 2008.
applied their share of elbow grease to
the project. His wife says she watched
in amazement as they took 15-foot-long
moistened pine boards, clamped them
every 18 inches, drilled holes, and
precisely fit the planks to the exterior.
" Within an hour, they had bent it to
match the design of the boat. That was
impressive, " she says.
To Collier, it is a way of keeping his
uncle's prized boat from the burn pile.
" I would have been sorry if we didn't
do something with the boat, " he says.
" All of us leave our trails somewhere. " 
For more, visit skipjackheritage.com.
Poet of the Chesapeake
HE WAS NICKNAMED " DADDY ART, " but Art Daniels Jr. was more than
daddy. He was the first father of Chesapeake Bay skipjacks. Born in 1921,
he followed his dad's footsteps into skipjacking, gaining his greatest fame
with his City of Crisfield boat.
Maryland Public Television featured him in three productions and
executive producer Michael English said Daniels " sort of epitomized the
legend of the Chesapeake Bay skipjack captain " after he died in 2017
at the age of 95.
" Yes indeedy, it's still fun workin' on the water, " Daniels told
Chesapeake Bay Magazine. " It's an adventure, greatest thing in the
world. You're always looking for that oyster goldmine. I'm always lookin'
for that next good lick of oysters. " A deeply religious man, Daniels
authored numerous poems. One of them, " The Mariners Song - The Sea, "
is on the wall of the Skipjack Heritage Museum. In part, it reads:
Ah, but the sea has a side that is boisterous with rage
And has provided for many a watery grave.
k
er is what they say
en another to rest today.
And I am a sailor and one thing I know
The Sea is so great and I am so small.
● Cooperative Living ●
13
http://www.skipjackheritage.com
Cooperative Living July 2022

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Cooperative Living July 2022
