CHESAPEAKE, Va. — A new exhibit at the Great Bridge Battlefield and Waterways Museum highlights 250 years of transportation, naval, and working vessels that shaped Virginia and American history.
The "Sailing Virginia's Waterways" exhibit features scale ship models tracing the role Virginia's waterways played in the nation's development, from early colonial transportation routes to the working boats that harvested the Chesapeake Bay for centuries.
"This exhibit, it's called 'Sailing Virginia's Waterways.' It shows you 250 years of transportation, war, and work vessels," Allison Esthay, the museum's collection specialist, said.
The exhibit opens with a model of the James River Bateau, a vessel built in the 1700s to navigate the rough, rocky upper James River. Large crews used poles to steer the flat-bottomed boats through treacherous waterways while hauling heavy loads of tobacco. From there, the exhibit moves through naval vessels, including the Schooner Liberty — the longest-serving vessel in Virginia's first Navy — the row galley, and a brigantine. The display then shifts to working boats that fished and transported goods along the Chesapeake Bay and its rivers, including the Sharpie Schooner and the Skipjack, Maryland's state boat and an enduring symbol of the bay's oyster industry.
Esthay said the waterways of Chesapeake were central to the region's role in American history.
"Of course you know about the Battle of Great Bridge but also just the very vital water routes that we have here and all of the, kind of, vernacular shipbuilding where we had to adapt ships from other places to fit the waterways here," Esthay said.
Esthay developed the exhibit while taking a maritime history course as part of her master's program at Old Dominion University. She said the working boat section of the display holds special meaning.
"The watermen culture and the history in the Chesapeake Bay is just so fascinating and they still keep it alive at other museums and in other places where they're preserving this knowledge and history," Esthay said.
Mike Johnson, a member of Brethren of the Coast the Privateers, is also on hand this weekend to teach visitors about privateer ships and their role in the nation's founding.
"Privateers are really, really important because we didn't have a big Navy like we do now. The government reached out to merchant men and asked them to arm their vessels and seize the enemy's merchant ships," Johnson said.
Johnson encouraged the community to visit and connect with the nation's history right in Chesapeake.
"Just come out and learn why this spot that we're actually standing on, is so important," Johnson said.
The exhibit runs through July 2, ahead of the museum's Fourth of July celebration. This weekend, the City of Chesapeake is also hosting the Sail 250 "Charter to Chesapeake" event outside the museum, featuring free tall ship tours, history walks, and a battlefield walk through the adjacent battle park. Inside the museum, visitors can take part in kids' activities including building and testing their own sailboats and nautical knot tying, along with additional living history displays.
Museum admission is discounted to $5 per person Saturday and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. The exhibit is included with admission and is not an additional charge.
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