Cover photo: Photograph of sign advertising Claiborne-Annapolis Ferry by Pickering Studio, c. 1926-1930. Collection of the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum, 0899.0008
Today, the small village of Claiborne, nestled off the Chesapeake Bay between Eastern Bay and Tilghman Creek, is a quiet residential community well off the beaten path without a commercial or industrial presence. Travelers generally don’t go through Claiborne to get anywhere else.
Yet with careful inspection, one can see evidence of Claiborne’s former role as the vital hub in the transportation networks crossing the Chesapeake, linking Baltimore and Annapolis with Maryland’s Eastern Shore.
For four decades, passengers undertaking this journey, first by rail and later by car, would transition between water and land at Claiborne. The village hosted a rail terminal, two major steamboat wharves, and local businesses catering to the travelers.
The history of steamboat and car-ferry service to Claiborne often omits the reason these transportation links were centered in this remote hamlet, which is farther from Baltimore or Annapolis than other Eastern Shore locations such as Kent Island. So, why Claiborne?
It all began with a flawed business concept that cratered after only nine months. Yet that early choice, however unsuitable, continued to drive cross-Bay transport networks for the next 40 years.
Building a Railroad Across the Chesapeake
Maryland’s Eastern Shore saw a surge in railroad construction after the Civil War. By 1885, every major town on the peninsula was connected to rail. But from Baltimore’s standpoint, there was a problem: All of the rail networks led north, through Delaware to Baltimore’s commercial rival, Philadelphia. Marylanders became concerned that Philadelphia would displace Baltimore as the economic hub for the Eastern Shore.
A group of Eastern Shore politicians holding important roles in state government decided to act by forming a new railroad company in 1886. The leaders included Joseph B. Seth of Easton, (Speaker of the Maryland House of Delegates), Elihu E. Jackson of Salisbury (President of the Maryland Senate), and Theophilus Tunis of Claiborne (Maryland State Senator).
The name of the company, The Baltimore & Eastern Shore Railroad Company (B&ES), telegraphed the founders’ intent. They wanted to build a new rail line linking Baltimore with communities on the Maryland Eastern Shore, terminating in Ocean City.
The plan was to have the city of Baltimore and four Eastern Shore counties fund that construction with government-backed bonds. When that effort failed, B&ES was forced to issue its own interest-bearing bonds. Plans, nonetheless, moved forward.
Planning the Route
Some of the choices of planning the route were simple. There was already a line connecting Salisbury to Ocean City, the independent Pocomoke & Wicomico Railroad. B&ES acquired it, covering a quarter of the land distance between Baltimore and Ocean City in one move.
On the western shore, the closest rail link to the eastern side of the Bay was in the growing resort of Bay Ridge, which connected to Annapolis and Baltimore by rail and covered another quarter of the distance over land.
To connect Salisbury with Bay Ridge, it was logical that the new railroad should run through two existing rail hubs, at Hurlock (linked to Cambridge) and Easton (linked to Oxford). That left only the choice of how to connect Easton, by land and water, to Bay Ridge.
Railroads are expensive to build, but the water over which a steamboat travels is free. B&ES could have placed the hub closer to Bay Ridge in Kent Island, but the railroad from Easton to Kent Island would have been one-third longer than a straight run west from Easton to Broad Cove on Eastern Bay, which was adjacent to a small community at the tip of Tilghman Creek known as Claiborne.
This plan stood to benefit the B&ES founders. President Seth, Secretary Tunis, and their families owned extensive landholdings around Broad Cove and Claiborne. They purchased additional land there after B&ES was launched that stood to increase in value. Plus, a railroad running through Salisbury, Easton, and Claiborne would simplify the commute to Annapolis for the three founders.
Ultimately, the decision was made. B&ES would construct a new ferry terminal and rail station at Broad Cove, in a community named initially Bay City but soon changed to Claiborne. (The existing community at Tilghman Creek became Old Claiborne.)
Crossing the Chesapeake
Since its intention was to build a railroad, not a ferry line, and a bridge was impractical, B&ES sought a creative solution for crossing the Bay.
The answer was found in Connecticut, where for years the railroad from Boston to New York shuttled train cars across the Thames River using special rail-transfer ferries. Railcars were transferred onto rails on the steamboat decks, the ferry crossed the river, and the railcars were pulled off to continue their journey.
The timing proved fortuitous. In 1889, just a year before B&ES was to begin its service, a bridge was built over the Thames River. B&ES acquired the ferries, named Groton and Thames River, and sent them on the voyage down the Atlantic to the Chesapeake Bay.
With the acquisition of these vessels, the laying of the rail line, and the construction of the terminals, the pieces were coming together.
Things Go Wrong
During the journey down the Atlantic, these plans literally went up in flames when Groton caught fire and sank. There would be no modern rail-transfer steamboat available to B&ES, only the older, smaller, and trouble-prone ferry Thames River.
After Groton’s demise, Thames River made its way to Baltimore to be prepared for the Bay Ridge-Claiborne route, a process that took far longer than expected.
Meanwhile, the financial problems at B&ES mounted. In August 1890, B&ES launched its service with only Tockwogh, a regular passenger steamboat unable to carry railcars.
Rather than a seamless rail service, passengers faced multiple connections. They took a train from Baltimore to Annapolis, another train to Bay Ridge, the ferry to Claiborne, and then another train to Ocean City. It was not a popular service.
Thames River was finally placed into operation in November 1890, but after just a few weeks, its sidewheels failed, and the ferry was dispatched back to the shipyard for repair. The steamboat Olive was brought into service, but it could not carry railcars.
Once again, there was no simple rail connection between Baltimore and Ocean City. Thames River returned to service briefly in 1891, only to suffer a major boiler failure that took it out of operation for good.
Amid these issues, B&ES’s finances became critical. The original plan was to have government bonds fund $700,000 of the original $728,000 budget. Instead, the bonds funded only $25,000 of a capital expenditure that had ballooned to $2,077,000.
The $1,469,000 in bonds B&ES was forced to issue incurred annual interest costs far more than any profit the operation could reasonably generate.
Insolvency and Appointment of Receiver
In April 1891, a judge ruled B&ES was insolvent. After only nine months of operation, Capt. Willard Thomson was appointed to take over the operation, with the mandate to protect the interests of the bondholders. The leadership team of Seth, Jackson, and Tunis was removed.
Thomson, an experienced manager of both railroads and steamboat companies, declared the Bay Ridge-Claiborne route unworkable. Thames River was simply not suitable. Without a rail-transfer steamboat, the idea of moving passengers to Baltimore via rail connections to Annapolis and Bay Ridge made no sense.
Thomson decided to bring passengers to the rail line directly from Baltimore, using conventional steamboats, including B.S. Ford and Tangier, that eliminated the rail-transfer.
Bay Ridge and Annapolis were no longer hubs, but what about Claiborne? Claiborne was three times as far from Baltimore as other potential locations on the Eastern Shore.
In a perfect world, a new rail line would have been laid from Easton to a closer location and the transfer hub moved there. Since trains traveled three to four times faster than steamboats, it would have shortened the travel time considerably, but without funding for a new rail line or ferry terminal, Thomson had to use Claiborne.
The flawed decision to build a rail-transfer link between proximate rail terminals across the Bay had failed in one year. But that decision created a railroad and wharf in Claiborne, an infrastructure that would drive subsequent decisions about transportation in the region.
The Next Forty Years
Thomson’s new model worked, to an extent. By 1894, the company was generating an operating profit, but it was still far too low to cover the unplanned interest costs.
That July, a court ruled B&ES was bankrupt and put its assets up for sale. A group of New York investors saw the opportunity to create a dominant transportation company across the Bay and created a new company, the Baltimore, Chesapeake & Atlantic Railway Company (BC&A).
BC&A combined the rail and steamboat operations of B&ES with the simultaneous purchase of three major ferry companies. Once again, since there were no practical options short of laying an expensive rail line, Claiborne’s role as the linchpin terminal of cross-Bay rail connections was reaffirmed. Newer and more luxurious steamboats, including Cambridge, took over the Claiborne-Baltimore route.
In 1912, Claiborne’s dominant role was enhanced when the Eastern Shore Development Steamship Company began direct passenger service between Claiborne and Annapolis, and built a new ferry terminal in Claiborne alongside BC&A’s existing steamboat/rail terminal. BC&A crushed the new competitor, driving it out of business by 1916. But now, there was a second ferry terminal in Claiborne, just waiting to be used.
In 1916, newly elected Maryland Governor Emerson C. Harrington committed to building a car-ferry service to challenge BC&A’s stranglehold on rail and ferry service. Since many people did not yet own cars, it made sense to align this new service with an existing rail line. Because its line terminated on the Eastern Shore and there was already an idle ferry terminal there, Claiborne became the hub for the new Claiborne-Annapolis Ferry, Inc. (CAF). The small community was now served by two major steamboat lines.
Geography Strikes Back
By 1924, the success of CAF forced BC&A to abandon its steamboat service to Claiborne and shift operations to Love Point. In 1929, CAF’s competitors proposed a shorter car-ferry operation between Annapolis and Kent Island.
Harrington, who had become CAF president months after leaving the governor’s mansion, aggressively protected his company’s monopoly on car ferries across the Bay. In 1930 , he struck a deal with Queen Anne’s County for CAF to add a terminal on Kent Island to serve in parallel with Claiborne, in return for exclusive rights for a car-ferry service to Kent Island.
Harrington’s new terminal at Matapeake soon overtook Claiborne as the preferred destination from Annapolis. By 1938, cross-Bay service to Claiborne was finally ended, replaced by a short shuttle from Romancoke on Kent Island. With the construction of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge in 1952, CAF ceased operation, as well.
The End of the Line
With Claiborne’s role in transport operations over, the ferry infrastructure at Claiborne was dismantled.
Today, the original BC&A ferry terminal from 1890 serves as the Small Boat Shed at the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum. Two of the ticket offices were moved from the Claiborne wharf and converted to homes that still stand nearby. The Sea Gull Inn at the ferry pier is now a caretaker’s cottage in Bozman. The 1,200-foot long BC&A ferry pier is decaying, but still visible. The CAF ferry pier survives and was upgraded in the 1970s to become Claiborne Landing. A careful eye can still make out the original path of the rail line.
It has been over 70 years since ferries bearing travelers called at Claiborne. While this quiet community’s days as a bustling hub are long gone, its residents, according to the town’s official motto, are still “Waiting for the Second Coming of the Ferry.”