Northern Neck Now

The Chesapeake Bay’s once lively skipjack fleet, which numbered 600 to 700 boats in the last half of the 19th century, now has only five working boats. The Claud W. Somers Skipjack typifies the design of these boats, which resulted from the need for a sail-powered oyster-dredging vessel that was capable of maneuvering in shallow areas of the bay. The Reedville Fishermen’s Museum in Northumberland County restored the Claud W. Somers, which was built in 1911 and donated to the museum in 2000, where it is docked and used to educate visitors and for short instructive cruises.

Claud W. Somers Skipjack