Tidewater Triumph:
The Development and Worldwide Success of the Chesapeake Bay Pilot Schooner
by Geoffrey M. Footner

Through twelve chapters, Geoffrey Footner relates the history of Chesapeake Bay in the 18th and 19th Centuries and the continuous and indispensable rote played by schooners, particularly in the upper Bay. The subject of this thoroughly researched book are the early pilot boats of the Bay. He surveys the various models of the pilot boat, first of which was a commercial baycraft adapted haul cargoes of grain to mills at Baltimore. As the 18th Century neared an end, these commercial pilot boat schooners were used in the Revolutionary War as privateers, in Maryland and Virginia's state navies and to haul cargo offshore on voyages to the West Indies with produce, flour and tobacco where their American masters exchanged their small cargoes for guns and powder and other manufactured wares needed to successfully wage war against England.

Following the reopening of war between France and England in 1793, Chesapeake Bay pilot schooners increased in size until, very quickly, they reached 200 tons or more burden and became France's first line of attack in her course de Guerre against British merchant shipping and subsequently, against American commerce too, following the signing of the Jay Treaty between President Adams' administration and Great Britain. Then, as French (and British) attacks on American vessels operating in the transshipment trade, hauling principally West Indies sugar and coffee to Europe via American ports, increased, Baltimore merchants converted their fleets to Baltimore [clipper] schooners, as these large offshore, fast, and weatherly flyers out sailed other types of vessels encountered. The swift schooners, pilot boat built, a design indigenous to Chesapeake Bay, sat low in the water with one flush deck and tall raked masts which carried a cloud of sail. Their hulls raked noticeably at the bow and stern and had substantial deadrise. Hulls were long in relation to their depth and keels dragged dramatically from bow to stern. The schooners gained initial stability as builders provided ample beam compared to their depth and by balancing vessel weight and buoyancy, which provided them with sufficient stability. With proper sea handling, they would easily out sail all other vessels on the high seas.

With the development of large offshore Baltimore Schooners in the 1790s, use of these schooners began to spread almost immediately to other regions. The United States Revenue Service and Navy, quickly placed pilot schooners in their fleets. During the War of 1812, privateers out of Baltimore, about fifty-five schooners in number, engaged the British merchant fleet, capturing or sinking about forty percent of the total of 1500 prizes taken by American vessels. The book's last four chapters trace the worldwide use of the Baltimore schooner including its participation in the slave and opium trades, as American pilot boats, in the coastwise and West Indies trade, for yachting and in the oyster trade following the Civil War. Undoubtedly, the Chesapeake Bay pilot boat schooner was the most original and important design developed during the last age of commercial sail.

What the reviewers wrote about Tidewater Triumph:

"One cannot imagine research that is more complete. Footner has identified new sources and researcher into Chesapeake Bay maritime history now have new guidelines. This is an important, affordable book that belongs in the library of every person with an interest sailing ship design and history."
- John M. Bobbett in the Nautical Research Journal

"In telling of this fascinating and important story, Footner brings to bear a subtle grasp of naval architecture and a passion for history, especially Chesapeake Bay history. The result is a remarkably detailed account of the forces that motivated the various changes in architecture of the pilot schooner. Footner generally manages to keep his reader engrossed with clearly written accounts of trade, military conflicts, Chesapeake communities, leading merchants, shipbuilders, spies, individual vessels and other particulars of great interest."
- Philip Gillesse in The Northern Mariner

"Geoffrey Footner of Baltimore brilliantly chronicles the long and little-known story of why and how an inconspicuous pilot boat, designed to meet local needs in about 1730, gradually developed into a national and international type and may be considered to be the foremost contribution of Maryland and Virginia to ship design. This story is meticulously documented and admiralty illustrated. Footner emerges as today's colossus of Chesapeake Bay maritime historians, and mystic Seaport Museum deserves congratulations for recognizing the importance of the manuscript."
- Arthur Pierce Middleton, Retired Director of Colonial Williamsburg and author of Tobacco Coast: A Maritime History of Chesapeake Bay in the Colonial Era.

"Baltimore Schooners also exerted a marked impact on Atlantic sealanes in wartime. They were used successfully by the U. S. during the Quasi War with France and the War of 1812. In addition, when the U. S. Revenue Service needed fast maneuverable vessels, it turned to Fells Point builders. So did the French Navy. French naval authorities sent Jean Baptiste Marestier designed the French Navy's LA GAZELLE class of schooners after a Fells Point vessel. The L'ANEMONE class or smaller schooners was also based on Chesapeake designs. Britain's Royal Navy was also impressed with pilot schooners and promptly inducted captured American craft into the King's service. Similarly, in 1812 the king of Sweden purchase the Baltimore schooner EXPERIMENT for use as a dispatch and coastal patrol vessel. EXPERIMENT remained a commissioned vessel until 1858 and was the prototype for other schooners built for the Swedish Navy. Impressive archival research supports Footner's major arguments.
- Carl E. Swanson in the International Journal of Maritime History

265 pages; 70 illustrations
including photographs of original line drawings from archives in America, England and Europe, appendices and index.
8x10 inches, hardcover
Mystic Seaport Museum and Tidewater Publishers, 1998
Price: $39.95; including shipping (USA) and handling.
Books will be individually autographed on request