Historic St. Mary’s City (HSMC) is proud to announce Maryland Dove will be sailing to different ports of call around the Chesapeake Bay in 2023, thanks to a grant from the Maryland Heritage Areas Authority and matching funds from Historic St. Mary’s City Foundation. After being built in partnership with the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum on Maryland’s eastern shore, the state-funded ship was commissioned and delivered to Historic St. Mary’s City in August of 2022.
During the Bay Tour, Maryland Dove will be open to the public for dockside deck tours at each of the heritage areas for one to three days at a time. “We look forward to partnering with fellow heritage areas,” said HSMC Director of Education, Peter Friesen, “to help connect the traveling exhibit with communities further away than our typical audience.”
Maryland Dove and its dockside exhibits emphasize the waterways of the region, pre-colonial heritage, and interactions between different cultures. The ship and its exhibits are designed to elicit conversation, highlighting the depth of history represented in the area and the interactions between Native peoples and European colonists. Maryland Dove is a unique representative of the complicated history, representing colonization and the effects on those that called the land home.
The first stop on the Bay Tour will be Baltimore, docked in Fells Point, and will be there for three days. The hours of operation will be June 20, 10 a.m.—4 p.m.; June 21, 10 a.m.—5 p.m.; and June 22, 10 a.m.—1 p.m. Docking will be Broadway Pier, 920 South Broadway, Baltimore, Maryland. Street parking and parking garages are available.
From there, the ship will sail to Havre de Grace and be open to the public on June 24 and 25 from 10 a.m.—5 p.m. on both days. Docking will be at Hutchins Memorial Park, 100 Congress Avenue, Havre De Grace, Maryland.
The next stop will be Cambridge on June 30 and July 1, both days open from 10 a.m.—5 p.m. Docking will be at Long Wharf, 2 Yacht Club Drive, Cambridge, Maryland.
Finally, the ship will be docked in Crisfield from September 1 to September 3 as part of their National Hard Crab Derby. You will be able to find Maryland Dove docked at Somers Cove Marina, 715 Broadway, Crisfield, Maryland. The ship will be open to the public from 10 a.m.—5 p.m. all three days.
Maryland Dove sails as a steward of Historic St. Mary’s City and a representation of a cargo vessel that arrived, along with the passenger ship Ark, in 1634. When not traveling, it can be found docked in southern Tidewater Maryland at the living history museum.
This Project has been financed in part with State funds from the Maryland Heritage Areas Authority, an instrumentality of the State of Maryland. However, Project contents or opinions do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the Maryland Heritage Areas Authority.
A full schedule of port visits is available at www.HSMCdigsHistory.org.