Pocomoke Shipbuilding • Vane Brothers - Chesapeake Bay ...

Lady
ine’s low free board, clipper bow, varnished bright work and
tiller steering give her a sleek, yachty look.
She is back on land next to Dickson’s dock after taking
on water following the christening. “Anyone who knows
anything about wooden boats would expect it to leak at
first,” he says.
“We will have her finished in three months and be sailing
by fall,” Dickson says.
He named her after his late, great aunt, Katherine May
Edwards of Pittsburgh. He says she was an indomitable
woman, who was born in 1873 and lived an adventurous life
that included driving an ambulance during World War I and
being an early aviator.
“She formed the Pittsburgh Ambulance Corps,” he says.
“She bought an ambulance, had it shipped over and drove it
to the front to pick up wounded soldiers.”
The two-masted, “man-and-boy” rig will make the Katherine
easy to handle with a crew of two, he says. He plans to
use her to deliver fresh produce to ports on the Bay, selling his
products under the “Bugeye Brand.”
Dickson, who describes his previous occupation as “moving
large, live trees with machinery,” says building the bugeye
came from a desire to revive the classic Bay workboat that has
all but disappeared. He and Hawkinson collaborated in the
“...but then we took a 17-year hiatus,
because we were occupationally
handicapped. We had jobs.”
Dickson gives the history of his collection of boat-building
tools mounted on the wall of his workshop office.
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