Shipbuilding

Shipbuilding. Lewes Maritime History Trail. , For nearly 200 years, towns along the Delaware Bay were renowned for shipbuilding centers., In Lewes, one of the earliest-known shipcarpenters was William Beverly in 1683. Among the last were John and Peter Maull, whose final boat left their Pilottown yard in 1866., A black man named Cato Lewis learned the trade here as a slave in the late 1800s. After he obtained his freedom, he launched his own shipyard somewhere along the Lewes-Rehoboth Canal. Historians believe that Cato Lewis and Sons was one of the earliest, perhaps the very first, U.S. shipyard owned by an African American. The shipyard continued to operate at least into the 1830s. It was managed in its later years by Cato's son Peter, who was also a minister at St. George's African Methodist Episcopal Church., There are no known photos of the Lewes shipyards, but there are photos of many boats of the same era, from barges to four-masted schooners, that were built on the Broadkill River in nearby Milton., [Captions:] , A boat launch at a local shipyard was a festive occasion. Families came from miles around with parasols and picnic baskets to sit on the leftover lumber and wait for the big splash as a boat slipped into water. Many vessels could not be completed in the shallow creeks where they were built. They had to be sailed to deeper water before they could be fully fitted out and rigged., The Florence Creadick, a cargo ship of the 1890s, was built in Milton. She's seen here at a wharf in Christiana River with a load of lumber., The Marie Thomas was a handsome three-masted ship also built in Milton. Unlike many Milton-built ships that quickly left the Delaware and traveled far and wide, the Marie Thomas was a frequent sight along the Sussex shore., Southern Delaware was blessed with vast forests of virgin white oak. The trees grew tall and straight and thick, and the strong wood was excellent for shipbuilding. Most vessels built in area shipyards were made of local white oak timber.