Customer Reviews

Tidewater by Steamboat: A Saga of the Chesapeake

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This book is a real treasure for anyone interested in the grand old steamboats that used to ply the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries. The story follows George Weems as he struggles to establish his fledgling steamboat service on the Chesapeake, George's son Mason L. Weems who turns the company into a highly successful business, and Henry Williams who pilots the company through its most successful years and then - seeing an uncertain future for steamboats - sells the company to the Pennsylvania railroad in 1904.

Not only did the late Mr. Holly tell a great story, but he also filled the book's appendices with an incredible wealth of information on the Weems line and its steamboats. This includes information on the individual boats and the routes and landings they served, as well as representative data on the operating and construction costs of the vessels, minutes from several stockholder meetings, and a history of the Weems family. Moreover, the evocative photographs of the steamboats at work are worth the price of the book all by themselves. All in all, a great book.

As a long time resident of Tidewater Virginia, I found the book fascinating. I dimly remember the Washington to Norfolk daily steamer in the 1950s, and this book does an excellent job of detailing the many, earlier Bay steamboats that preceded it. The book has a wealth of detail: steamboat dimensions and furnishings, individual landings (piers with passenger and goods storage), steamboat races, and a well written, readable book about a time -- now long gone -- when there were little or no passable roads on the Western Shore (and much of the Eastern, as well) of the Chesapeake Bay and the steamboats were the only reliable transportation link to the wider outside world of Baltimore, Norfolk, Washington and Fredericksburg with their railroad terminals and stations. The book also has excellent maps and black and white photos to further amplify its contents. HIGHLY recommended for the student of area history or just more familiarity with an age now receding further into the mists of time. An easy, enjoyable read at an affordable price....