Rebuilding the Maryland Dove: A Historically Accurate Replica of a 17th-Century Coastal Vessel

In 1633 a small two-masted square-rigger named the Dove departed the Isle of Wight for the New World. Caught in a sudden storm and last seen by the crew of her larger companion, the Ark, flying distress lanterns, the Dove appeared lost. Remarkably, six weeks later she sailed into Barbados and rejoined the Ark, and the two ships eventually reached Chesapeake Bay. Built as a 40-ton cargo vessel with a seven-foot draft, the Dove was well suited to exploring the Atlantic Seaboard and serving early colonists who settled what became St. Mary’s City, Maryland’s first capital. Over the next two years she operated much like a coastal freighter—trading with Native peoples and transporting goods—before departing for England in 1635 laden with furs and timber, never to return.

Nearly four centuries later the Dove has inspired a faithful reproduction: the Maryland Dove. The first replica, completed in 1978 by James Richardson of Cambridge, Maryland, served for decades as a floating ambassador for Historic St. Mary’s City. Over time that wooden vessel required a major refit, and meanwhile research into 17th-century ship design revealed new information the 1978 replica did not incorporate. The decision was made to build a new, more historically accurate replica based on the latest scholarship.

The Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum (CBMM) in St. Michaels, Maryland, was selected to construct the vessel. CBMM, established in 1965, operates an 18-acre campus with the region’s largest collection of historic Chesapeake Bay craft and a full working shipyard. More than ten of the museum’s vessels remain in the water as exhibits and need regular maintenance, and the shipyard’s workforce manages a growing roster of restoration projects. The museum’s facilities and experienced artisans made it a natural choice to recreate the Maryland Dove using period-appropriate methods wherever practical.

At CBMM the project is a hands-on blend of traditional techniques and careful research. The shipyard reverberates with tools—saws, mallets, chisels, sanders and planers—while wood waits to be milled, dried and shaped. Planks are steam-bent in large plastic sleeves to form the hull’s curves; bronze fittings are cast in sand molds; and apprentices, journeyman shipwrights and master builders collaborate to reproduce 17th-century workmanship. The team is committed to in-house fabrication of as many parts as possible to preserve authenticity, even down to cutting ash trees locally for blocks and morticing them by hand.

To better understand construction techniques from the era, CBMM’s head shipwright Joe Connor and head rigger Sam Hilgartner visited the Vasa Museum in Stockholm to study the well-preserved 17th-century warship. “Crawling around the inside of the Vasa gave us a clearer sense of the workmanship of the period,” Connor says. Work on the new replica began in spring 2019, with space in the museum’s 25,000-square-foot shipyard dedicated to the project and a full-size lofting floor laid out to draw the vessel full scale. Master shipwright Frank Townsend spent weeks creating detailed patterns for the ship’s major components, and the first shipments of lumber arrived—Southern live oak from Georgia, ash from Maryland, and angelique and cortez from Suriname—for the backbone and frames.

Naval architect Iver Franzen of Annapolis provided the initial two-dimensional plans, while Connor and his crew translated those drawings into hundreds of fitted parts. “We try to make everything in-house for authenticity,” Connor explains. “Sometimes I joke that I wish we could just run to a modern chandlery, but the goal is to recreate the piece-specific craftsmanship of the 17th century.” The project team includes skilled shipwrights and a new generation of apprentices learning timber framing, planking, joinery and rigging using techniques consistent with the period.

Work slowed briefly in early 2020 when the museum campus closed due to the Covid-19 pandemic, but outdoor construction resumed in the fall with safety precautions in place. The team set a target to launch the hull in fall 2021 and to deliver the finished vessel to St. Mary’s City in early spring 2022. As the hull took shape, shipwrights and apprentices discovered that building in a museum environment brought additional responsibilities: they answer visitors’ questions and interpret maritime history while completing a fully seaworthy ship.

Head rigger Sam Hilgartner emphasizes the importance of historical detail in the rigging. Research, including period Dutch paintings, informed decisions such as avoiding gaff rigs—known not to have been used before about 1640—so the Maryland Dove reflects rigging practices appropriate to the era. Components are being made to be piece-specific, reproducing how parts were originally crafted and fitted rather than swapped indiscriminately.

Central to the museum’s mission is passing these skills to the next generation. Master shipwright Frank Townsend, who has worked on historic vessels including Mayflower II and the replica of San Salvador, leads the apprentice program. Four shipwright apprentices are enrolled in CBMM’s certified four-year program requiring 8,000 hours of hands-on experience. They work alongside seasoned professionals, learning craft techniques that will sustain careers in traditional wooden boatbuilding.

Frame by frame, the Maryland Dove is being reborn—built to reflect the latest historical research and to teach a new generation of shipwrights. When she is launched and sails to St. Mary’s City, the museum’s shipyard team will take pride in having preserved and revived an important chapter of Chesapeake Bay maritime history.

This article was originally published in the September 2021 issue.