Rebecca T. Ruark

The Rebecca T. Ruark is a typical sloop-rigged skipjack, built for the shallow draft, low freeboard and high stability needed to work the Chesapeake Bay oyster beds. She has a rounded chine with a sharp, convex clipper bow on a sloop hull. The Ruark is fore-and-aft planked. Her wood plug rudder is carried well forward beneath the transom, astern of the centerboard. As part of her 2000 U.S. Coast Guard certification to carry passengers for hire she received a watertight bulkhead ahead of the mast. An aluminum hatch provides access into the new space, which is used for sail and line storage. The deck is {{convert|2|in|cm|adj=on}} fir forward of the main hatch and pressure-treated pine aft. Deck beams are oak, with two {{convert|11.5|in|cm|adj=on}} king planks running from the bow to the main hatch. A central hatch measures {{convert|55|in|cm}} long by {{convert|64.75|in|cm}} wide. Behind the hatch is a small trunk cabin with a three-sided doghouse aft, with double doors leading from the doghouse to the hold. A fuel tank for the push boat is on the starboard side of the cabin. Pipe rails have been added for passenger carriage.{{cite web|url={{NHLS url|id=85001095}}|title=National Historic Landmark Nomination: Chesapeake Bay Skipjack Rebecca T. Ruark|last=Eshelman|first=Ralph E.|date=April 21, 2001|publisher=National Park Service|accessdate=2009-03-30}}

The Rebecca T. Ruark carries a standard skipjack rig of jib-headed mainsail and a large jib. The present mast is new from 2000 and is {{convert|12|in|cm}} in diameter and {{convert|69|ft|m}} high. The Dacron mainsail is laced at the bottom and carried by hoops on the mast. The jib is clubbed along its foot. For dredging work the Ruark carries a powered pushboat from davits over her stern.

The Ruark has been extensively rebuilt, with her keel, keelson, some ribs and portions of the centerboard trunk believed to be original. She does, however, retain her original appearance, with some concessions to the passenger excursion trade.

She is assigned Maryland dredge number 29.{{cite web |last1=Miller |first1=Cyndy Carrington |title=Skipjacks by dredge number |url=http://lastskipjacks.com/dredgenumbers.html |website=The Last Skipjacks Project |access-date=21 March 2022}}

The Rebecca T. Ruark is the oldest skipjack in the Chesapeake Bay fleet. Her rounded chines went out of style in favor of simpler-to-build sharp chines, at the cost of favorable sailing qualities in the newer flat-bottomed boats. She was built by Moses Geoghegan in 1896 at Taylor's Island, Maryland for William T. Ruark, and named for Ruark's wife. She is stated to have originally been rigged as a two-masted schooner and converted to a sloop. The saddle for a mainmast was claimed to have existed until a 1986 rebuild, however, she is known to have carried a sloop rig since 1896. She was homeported in Baltimore, Maryland until 1899, then moved to Crisfield, Maryland before moving back to Baltimore in 1902. In 1923 W. Alvin Cook of Cambridge, Maryland bought her and moved her to Cambridge. He sold her to Herman B. Cook in 1939 for $5.00. In 1951 Emerson G. Todd and his wife Linda bought her, again for $5.00, and sold one-third shares to Donald S. Todd and Emerson Todd, Jr. for $5.00 each. In 1979, following an accident in which two crew members drowned, she was placed in a corporation, Rebecca T. Ruark, Inc., for $30,000. The Todds continued to own her until 1984 when Wade H. Murphy of Tilghman Island, Maryland bought her and kept her at Tilghman.

Murphy took Ruark to Deltaville, Virginia and had her rebuilt in 1986 at a cost of $80,000. Afterwards he continued to use her as she was intended, to dredge oysters. On November 3, 1999 she was caught in a gale at the mouth of the Choptank River and sank in {{convert|20|ft|m}} of water, despite attempts to tow her to shelter. A $12,000 grant from the Maryland Port Authority raised her, and she was rehabilitated at a cost of $60,000 in 2000. At that time, her original, damaged mast was cut up and distributed to wood carvers who lived along the Chesapeake Bay. Charles Jobes, of Havre de Grace, Maryland, carved a duck decoy from one of these pieces. It is now on display in the On the Water exhibit at the Smithsonian American History Museum in Washington, DC.

On December 30, 2022, the Ruark was struck and damaged by a car while docked at Tilghman Island.{{Cite web |last=Bulletin |first=Bay |date=2022-12-31 |title=Truck Crashes into Bay's Oldest Skipjack at Bulkhead, Driver Charged |url=https://chesapeakebaymagazine.com/truck-crashes-into-bays-oldest-skipjack-at-bulkhead/ |access-date=2023-04-25 |website=Chesapeake Bay Magazine |language=en-US}}

{{commons category|Rebecca T. Ruark (ship, 1896)|Rebecca T. Ruark}}

• List of National Historic Landmarks in Maryland
• National Register of Historic Places listings in Talbot County, Maryland

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• {{MHT url|id=877|title=REBECCA T. RUARK (skipjack), Talbot County}}, including photo in 1983, at Maryland Historical Trust

{{National Register of Historic Places}}

{{fishing vessel topics}}{{Oldest surviving ships (pre-1919)}}

Category:National Historic Landmarks in Maryland

Category:Skipjacks

Category:Ships in Talbot County, Maryland

Category:Ships on the National Register of Historic Places in Maryland

Category:Ships built in Maryland

Category:1896 ships

Category:National Register of Historic Places in Talbot County, Maryland