Save the National historic Rebecca T. Ruark

On December 27th, 2022, a pickup truck ran through a piling on Tilghman Island and landed on the starboard portion of the stern of the Rebecca T. Ruark. Insurance will not cover the expense of repairing the damage. We are asking for your help in repairing and preserving this historic vessel. Please help us in restoring a piece of history. Below is more information on Rebecca T. Ruark.

Listed on the Maryland.gov website......

In July 2003, the U.S. Department of the Interior designated the skipjack Rebecca T. Ruark as a national historic landmark. The 117-year-old Rebecca T. Ruark is the oldest vessel in the Chesapeake Bay Skipjack Fleet.

An excerpt from the Maryland Historical Trust website....

This vessel is significant as being one of the 35 surviving traditional Chesapeake Bay skipjacks and a member of the last commercial sailing fleet in the United States. Out of a fleet of hundreds of skipjacks that worked Bay waters in the early years of this century, today only this small number remain to carry on the tradition of working sail. REBECCA RUARK is of interest as being one of the oldest skipjacks still dredging in the Chesapeake fleet. She was built in 1886 on Taylor's Island, Maryland, and last rebuilt in Deltaville, Virginia, in 1969. She is unusual among the oyster-dredging fleet because, although she carries a typical skipjack rig, she is round-bottomed and fore-and-aft planked, instead of the more typical cross-planked, V-bottom construction. The round-bottomed boat is very strongly built in comparison to the V-bottom type, but, due to her age, little remains of her original construction. The vessel is one of the 21 surviving working skipjacks to have been built previous to 1912 and one of only 2 surviving to have been built previous to 1900. REBECCA RUARK has enjoyed a reputation as the best dredger in the state of Maryland.

Statement of Significance (as of designation - July 31, 2003) from the website National Park Service for National Historic Landmarks:

The Rebecca T. Ruark is the oldest vessel in the skipjack oyster dredging fleet, the last commercial fishing sailing fleet in North America. Of the estimated 2,000 skipjacks built on the Chesapeake Bay before World War II, only about 16 survive. The Ruark is the only vessel in the oyster fleet with a sloop hull and is known as one of the best sailing skipjacks in the fleet. After sinking during a gale in 1999, she was subsequently raised and restored to operation.

Update....

The first step....The Rebecca has been lifted to land