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Builders of commercial fishing boats on Chesapeake Bay either started out working the water and then picked up the trade, or bypassed the waterman route and immediately started working in a boatyard, learning from their father, grandfather or others who had been watermen.
Watermen usually built their own boat first, and if it was well built and had nice lines, it wouldn't be long before other watermen wanted a similar boat. In short order, the fisherman would have worked himself into a land job building workboats.
Billy Joe Groom, a boatbuilder in Shady Side, Md., could have been one of those who quickly gave up the water for the boatyard, but he loved working the water, too.
When Groom started fishing more than 30 years ago, he made most of his income from crabbing and oystering. On the side, he repaired workboats and engines. But three years ago, he retired from the water and now spends all his tune in the boatyard.
Grooms boatshop is on Parrish Creek at Shady Side on Maryland's western shore of Chesapeake Bay. At his shop, Groom recently completed a total restoration of the 42-foot Miss Edith, a classic wooden...