The public is invited to help honor the arrival of the new Maryland Dove to St. Mary’s City, Maryland on August 27, 2022.
In 2018, Historic St. Mary’s City announced that the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum (CBMM) had been selected to build a brand-new Maryland Dove.
The ship, a representation of the late 17th-century trading ship that accompanied the first European settlers to what is now Maryland, is owned by the state of Maryland, and operated and maintained by the Historic St. Mary’s City Commission. An earlier version of the ship, built in the 1970s by Cambridge’s Jim Richardson, was nearing the end of its useful life and decades of new research meant that a new ship could be designed to be a more historically accurate representation of the original Maryland Dove.
Since that first announcement, construction of the iconic state ship has been the central focus of CBMM’s working Shipyard. Work over the past few years, all done in public view, has seen the new ship move from concept to reality,as Maryland Dove finally sails to home port. Historic St. Mary’s City will be having a Commissioning Day ceremony to honor the new ship’s arrival. The St. Mary’s River Yacht Club, as well as bugeye Edna Lockwood from CBMM, will accompany the Maryland Dove on the last leg of her journey.
The arrival of the ship marks a tremendous accomplishment, a symbol of the partnership between the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum and Historic St. Mary’s City, and the culmination of years of research done by the shipwrights and maritime historians from both organizations. Having a new Maryland Dove will allow the outdoor living history museum to further continue its mission in education.
“People learn in different ways, but most people are very tactile and experiential learners, as opposed to reading it in a book,” said Peter Friesen, the Director of Education at HSMC. “So this is a way for us to teach the public at large about life in the 17th century, specifically the voyage over and what life was like on the ship.”
Historic St. Mary’s City (HSMC) will open at 10 a.m. on August 27, 2022, with the ship scheduled to sail in between 10:30 a.m. and 10:45 a.m. (weather permitting). After the ship’s arrival, there will be an 11:30 a.m. commissioning ceremony at the Margaret Brent pavilion, where the ship’s log will officially be given to the museum by the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum (CBMM). The day continues with a ribbon cutting down at the Maryland Dove dock, officially welcoming guests aboard.
Visit the museum’s website at www.HSMCdigsHistory.org for more information on the day’s activities.
Entrance to the museum and outdoor exhibits (including Maryland Dove) will be free for the event day.
The celebration will continue through the year as the new Maryland Dove will embark on a tour of the Chesapeake Bay, sharing the exhibit with Marylanders at different ports of call.
