|
The New Board: 1864-1920 67
ever, soon undertake more serious business with respect to the Fishery Force. In June
1880 it appointed the commander and deputy commander. In August of that year the
board authorized repairs to the Leila, and in September it approved the purchase of
a schooner.30
Acting as the state's admiralty involved more than purchasing, equipping, and
repairing ships. The board also became the focal point for complaints about the way
its navy operated. Some citizens complained that the force was not aggressive enough;
others, apparently those who were apprehended, complained that it was too aggressive.
In either case, the board was called upon to listen to these complaints and to hold
quasi-judicial hearings into the efficiency of the force in general and the competence
of the officers in particular. Complaints were heard from Somerset County and An-
napolis watermen on 4 February 1881, again from the Annapolitans on 22 December
1882, from the state's attorney for St. Mary's County Daniel Hammett in March 1883
and from his counterpart Daniel M. Henry in Dorchester County later the same month.
More complaints were heard in December 1883.31
The complaints against the Fishery Force generally concerned the lack of pro-
tection—the "depredations of Dredgers and the inability of the Police sloop to give
the necessary protection." The board responded for the most part by summoning the
commander and his deputies and ordering them to be more vigilant. Occasionally it
issued more direct orders. On 6 December 1883, for example, the board ordered the
sloop Governor Hamilton 32 to the Choptank River, where it was to establish a line
from Black Walnut Point to Sharps Island and from Sharps Island to James Point and
to remain there and enforce an observance of the line.33 There was little else the board
could do except to make sure that the fleet remained in good repair.
Some of the complaints concerning the Fishery Force were more particular, in-
cluding charges leveled against individual officers. On 8 April 1881 the board con-
ducted a hearing of sorts into charges against Capt. J. B. Wilson of the sloop Mary
Compton. In September 1881 it considered complaints against Capt. C. J. B. Mitchell
and actually examined witnesses. Mitchell, who was acquitted of wrongdoing, sub-
sequently asked the board to pay his counsel fees. On 19 January 1882 the board
rejected the request, noting that there were "no funds out of which the same could be
paid."34
Occasionally these complaints were of a pecuniary nature. Several times, for ex-
ample, crew members grumbled about not being paid on time, and on 10 July 1884
the board announced that the failure of any deputy commander to pay his crew
promptly would be deemed sufficient cause for his immediate removal from the service.
Some problem must also have arisen about the deputy commanders ordering repairs
to their vessels without proper authority, for on 29 September 1881 the board decreed
that no commander or deputy commander should "create any debt for repairs or oth-
erwise for or on account of any vessel under his command, without the previous sanc-
30. Ibid., 8 June, 5 August, 9 September 1880, vol. 1851-83, pp. 335, 337-39.
31. Ibid., 4 February 1881, 22 December 1882, 8 March, 22 March 1883, pp. 342, 409, 413-14; 6 December
1883, vol. 1883-1905, p. 2.
32. The board apparently adopted the practice, without recorded discussion, of naming the sloops after the
mothers, wives, and daughters of the members of the board, and later after the board members themselves.
The first sloop purchased by the board, the Ida Moore, was renamed the Julia Hamilton, probably after the
daughter of Gov. William T. Hamilton, who served from 1880 to 1884. The sloop Afary Compton was probably
named for a relative of Treasurer Barnes Compton. Other sloops were named the Bessie Woolford (the
comptroller being Levin Woolford) and E. B. Groome (the governor being James B. Groome), the Nannie
Merry man (an earlier treasurer [1870-72] being John Merryman), and the Louisa Whyte (the governor being
William Whyte). Later vessels were named for the members themselves, as with the Governor Hamilton,
the Thos. J. Keating (a state comptroller), and the Governor Robert M. McLane. At some point this practice
changed, perhaps because the fleet became so large that there were not enough worthy public officials to
supply names for all the boats. By 1916 most of the original boats had been scrapped or retired from service,
and the new boats were either named after the counties or sported such names as Music, Archer, Snookums,
Murray, Buck, Folly, and Frolic.
33. Ibid., 22 December 1882, vol. 1851-83, p. 409; 6 December 1883, vol. 1883-1905, p. 6.
34. Ibid., 8 April, 29 September 1881, 19 January 1882, vol. 1851-83, pp. 349, 372, 378.
|
 |
