Mildred Belle Facts


Buy Boat ­ A vessel whose function was to purchase oysters directly from sailing workboats on the fishing grounds and then carry the oysters to market to sell for a profit. This saved the oyster fleet a long sail to market. Sailing buy boats (like Pungies) were used during the 1800's and then motor vessels like Mildred Belle were used in the 1900's. Recently, buy boats have also been used to seed oyster bars (transplanting young oysters to a new destination).

Mildred Belle's Purpose ­ A buy boat that carried oysters, freight and people on the Chesapeake Bay. Other Mildred Belle workboat functions included: dredging for crabs, trawl fishing and even pioneering sportfishing in the Atlantic Ocean off the Virginia Capes and Cape Hatteras, North Carolina. The Living Classrooms Foundation purchased Mildred Belle from the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum in 1988 to operate as a Living Classrooms Foundation educational vessel assisting student exploration of Baltimore Harbor, Chesapeake History, economics, and ecology through fun learning adventures.

Built ­ in 1948 in Odd, Viginia on the Chesapeake Bay's Western shore. Her builder, Odell Carmines, used yellow pine (known as Bull Island mahogany) to construct her. The wood was hand picked by the builder in 1947 and dragged by a team of mules to a salt marsh to season properly. One year later, the logs were hauled out of the marsh to dry out and then sawed into planks for Mildred Belle's construction. Carmines was such a fine builder that he didn't even use a sketch plan!

Name ­ Originated from the first owner's (Capt. Garland "Porgy" Evans) two daughters ­ Mildred Lee and Hattie Belle.

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