The Mallory Ritz

Supernova International Ska Festival

Today in Hampton History
1843 - The schooner Perseverance receives its carpenter’s certificate and is enrolled at Norfolk and Portsmouth. The schooner was built on the Back River near Fox Hill by Thomas Dobbins. It was owned and sailed by William Phillips.

The Perseverance was most likely used for oystering and may have been sailed by a multi-racial crew, including enslaved sailors or oysterers. The boat was 51 feet, 40 60/95 tons, and had two masts and a square stern.

In the 19th and early 20th centuries, shipyards in Hampton and Fox Hill built many schooners and other vessels used for fishing and oystering, and to transport farm produce and cargo to markets.

Image: A two-masted oyster buy-boat, probably owned by J.S. Darling, c.1900. HHM Collections.

Find more Fox Hill and seafood history in the Museum’s collections online:
https://hampton.catalogaccess.com/search?search=%22Seafood+Industry%22&includedFields=Objects%2CPhotos%2CLibrary%2CArchives%2CPeople&page=1&size=10&withImages=false

https://hampton.catalogaccess.com/advanced-search?includedFields=Objects%2CPhotos%2CArchives%2CLibrary%2CPeople%2CContainers&Geography+and+Place=%22District05--Fox+Hill%22&page=1&size=10&withImages=false

Explore more:
https://gcbsr.org/schooners/

https://encyclopediavirginia.org/entries/enslaved-fisherman-and-mariners-in-virginia/

https://www.dailypress.com/news/dp-xpm-20030201-2003-02-01-0302010020-story.html

https://cbmm.org/tag/schooner/

https://jeffersonpatterson.wordpress.com/2011/09/29/artifacts-from-a-19th-century-chesapeake-bay-schooner/