Skipjack George W. Collier

12/02/2025

George W. Collier's sister...E.C. Collier

Project Rewind-Talbot County: A special thanks to Elizabeth Swaine for sharing this photo of the Skipjack E. C. Collier in 1983! The Skipjack E. C. Collier was built on Deal Island, Maryland by C. W. Horseman in 1910. The E. C. Collier’s deck length is 52 feet and her beam 17.9 feet. After many dredging ownerships she was retired in 1985 from her lifetime of dredging oysters. Pauline and John Cummings donated the E. C. Collier to the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum in 1988 where she is on permanent display as an historic craft. Facts: “ lastskipjacks.com” , photo from the Elizabeth Swaine Collection at the Talbot Historical Society. Contact: Cathy Hill [email protected] to share your old photos and purchase our collections photos. Comment, Like our page and join the Talbot Historical Society!

09/14/2023

So many good people wanted to help save the Collier. The people we needed to help turned their backs on the Collier and let her rot.

An island teen sold peppermint oranges, raising hundreds of dollars toward skipjack restoration, heritage awareness

08/25/2023

Awesome news!

America's oldest skipjack, the Rebecca T Ruark finally returned to the water today. Back in Decemeber, a truck crashed into the ship and caused major damage.

07/03/2023

A update on George W. Collier sister

Another background story added to the LSP website, this one about Skipjack E. C. Collier, on exhibit at the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum. http://lastskipjacks.com/boats/eccollier.html
Comments and additional info welcome.

01/02/2023

"Deadeyes on the Skipjack NORFOLK when she came out of Krentz Marine Railway at Harryhogan Point on the Yeocomico River, 1981." -- Michael Connelly

12/11/2022

From 1990 when the G.W. Collier was the darlin of the City of Norfolk as the Skipjack Norfolk.

09/19/2022

This is the E.C. Collier...she is the sister to the G.W. Collier. I can't understand why they did not restore her and put her back into the water. What a waste making her into a display

09/17/2022

You'll never know what you may find...This is a model of E.C. Collier...sister to G,W. Collier....I got teary eye thinking about what has happen to both of them. E.C. was made into a exhibit at St. Micheal Museum with half her hull cut away...G.W. was never restored like was promised by Deal Island....A chain saw was her demise and all of her good lumber was put on another skipjack. So Very Sad

07/09/2022

A Bugeye may not be a Skipjack but she was just as important

ORIGINS OF THE CHESAPEAKE BAY BUGEYE: The clip on the left is from the Baltimore Sun 1910 where they’re interviewing Capt. George Stephen McCready. He lived on the corner of Somerset Ave & W. Main St & owned the railway/boatbuilding business on Jersey Island in Crisfield. Capt. Stephen, as he was called, built as many - & likely more - bugeyes & skipjacks than anyone on the Bay. He’s an authority on the history of the bugeye. To the right is a bugeye in Baltimore’s Inner Harbor, c.1910. - Joe Paden