Boat Named After Long-Time Captain of Its Predecessor The Maryland Department of Natural Resources (DNR) has christened the newest boat in its Hydrographic Operations fleet, naming it after a long-time captain of the Crisfield-Smith Island route the boat will serve. The M/V Eddie Somers was christened this week by DNR officials and its namesake at Read the Rest…
For more than four decades, the waters of the lower Eastern Shore have had a large protector. The J. Millard Tawes is the Maryland Department of Natural Resources’ largest vessel at 100 feet long and 167 tons. The boat was originally commissioned by the United States Coast Guard in 1942 under the name Barberry; the Read the Rest…
When Eddie Somers was about seven years old, he saw a large boat approaching his native Smith Island. It was the U.S. Coast Guard buoy tender Barberry, there to remove a navigational beacon. “Boy, that thing looked big to me then,” Somers says. He spent his life surrounded by watercraft and knew he’d work the Read the Rest…