Grigg Mullen (center) was joined by Anne (left) and Susan (right) Whaley at the Shipyard Workday on Feb. 18.

Grigg Mullen (center) was joined by Anne (left) and Susan (right) Whaley at the Shipyard Workday on Feb. 18.

ST. MICHAELS, Md., Feb. 24, 2023 – With drill in hand, Susan Whaley received her instructions and turned back toward Mr. Dickie, the 36-foot buyboat named in honor of her late father that continues to spring to life in the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum’s Shipyard.

“Alright, we’ll try not to screw it up!” Whaley assured her longtime friend and the boat’s owner Grigg Mullen, with a playful chuckle.

Mullen started Mr. Dickie’s construction in his own woodshop before bringing the project to CBMM, and one of the benefits of the build’s new home is the opportunity to share the traditional Chesapeake vessel and its story with others.

Last Saturday, Whaley and her sister Anne were special guests at CBMM’s Shipyard Workday and eagerly dove in to lend a hand with the boat that Mullen has named for Dickie Whaley, his former Eastern Shore neighbor who introduced him to the joys of life on the water as a boy.

It was a special day for all involved, offering Mullen and the Whaley sisters the chance to reconnect and reminisce about good times while working on the boat’s cross-planked bottom boards.

“It’s just fabulous to be here today,” Anne said during the group’s break for lunch. “We’re glad to work on it and be a part of it.”

Susan and Anne Whaley work on Mr. Dickie.

Susan and Anne Whaley work on Mr. Dickie.

“It reminds me of how far back the two families go,” Mullen added. “We’ve all gone from being children under the watchful eyes of our parents to being grandparents or great aunts with a chance to honor our parents.”

Mullen spent just a few of his early years living on the former Blakeford Plantation in Queen Anne’s County, but he made lifelong memories on the water alongside the Whaleys.

Mullen served as a big brother to the Whaley sisters, and they spent many days exploring the neighborhood’s creeks and wetlands together.

Along the way, the boy learned the finer points of fishing and crabbing from Dickie Whaley and his wife Sue, often cruising the area in skiffs handcrafted by Dickie, who worked as farm manager at Wye Plantation and was a noted cattle breeder.

“They both had a big influence on my appreciation of Eastern Shore life,” said Mullen, who now lives in Lexington, Va. “They’re a big reason that it’s strong enough that I continue to come back to the area 60 years later.”

In this photo from 1960, Grigg Mullen and Susan Whaley are on the water with Dickie Whaley. (Photo courtesy Grigg Mullen)

In this photo from 1960, Grigg Mullen and Susan Whaley are on the water with Dickie Whaley. (Photo courtesy Grigg Mullen)

This is the second boat that Mullen has built to honor the Whaley family. In 2012, he finished work on a Hooper Island draketail named Miss Sue in honor of Sue Whaley.

That year, Sue and Dickie were able to be part of the boat’s christening and launch at CBMM during the Mid-Atlantic Small Craft Festival.

Now, Mullen has contracted with CBMM’s Shipyard to build Mr. Dickie, a scaled-down homage to the historic buyboat Mundy Point. It’s a posthumous honor for Dickie, who died in 2016 a little more than a year after Sue’s passing.

“This would have meant a lot to my dad,” Anne Whaley said. “He knew there was going to be a boat built, but he didn’t know the specifics. It’s wonderful that Grigg followed through. I think my dad, and my mother also, would be very proud.”

Mullen has stayed in touch with Anne and Susan through the years and reached out recently to invite them to stop by the CBMM Shipyard to see the build in progress.

It was Susan who realized they could be involved in the build by attending a Shipyard Workday.

“We said, ‘Why not?” Susan said. “It sounded like a lot of fun to me.”

Grigg Mullen (left) works with Anne and Susan Whaley on Mr. Dickie.

Grigg Mullen (left) works with Anne and Susan Whaley on Mr. Dickie.

Last weekend, the Whaley sisters made the trip to CBMM, with Susan driving down from Centreville, Md., and Anne making the short trip from Preston, Md.

They jumped right into the action, drilling bottom planks, applying bedding compound, and screwing them in place under the guidance of Mullen and Shipyard Education Programs Manager Jenn Kuhn.

“I’m pleasantly surprised at what we’re doing,” Anne said. “I thought we’d be sweeping the floor or handing a nail. I didn’t realize we’d be actually up there sawing, gluing, and nailing.”

After a memorable day in the Shipyard, Mullen was proud of his friends and thankful for their help working on Mr. Dickie, which is expected to be completed this summer.

“It was great fun,” Mullen said. “By the end of the day, all I had to do was make sure they had planks and screws, and they knew what they were doing and went at it. They really seemed to enjoy the chance to do this in memory of their father.”

CBMM will host a two-day introductory Women’s Woodworking Workshop in March before following up with a four-day intermediate course in July.

CBMM will host a two-day introductory Women’s Woodworking Workshop in March before following up with a four-day intermediate course in July.

By Eric Detweiler, Communications Specialist

Jenn Kuhn’s own introduction to the skills she teaches in the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum’s Women’s Woodworking Workshops came in her first days at boat-building school. Talk about a crash course.

Kuhn, now the Shipyard Education Programs Manager, first offered the class at CBMM in 2012 while an apprentice in the Shipyard, and over the past decade-plus, it’s provided her an enjoyable avenue for sharing her knowledge with dozens of women interested in learning more about the techniques and tools vital to her career.

“The goal in offering a course like this is to make everything a little bit more inclusive and accessible,” Kuhn said. “As a woman in the trades, it would’ve been awesome when I was going through high school if I could have taken shop class. It wasn’t even a consideration. This course is about offering the opportunity to learn.”

Kuhn will be teaching the introductory Women’s Woodworking Workshop again on March 11-12 in the Shipyard, guiding participants through the basics of buying lumber, making a cut list, and using a variety of power and hand tools to construct a wooden mallet. The course has reached capacity, but interested participants can sign up for the waitlist at bit.ly/WomensWoodworkingWaitlist.

On July 21-24, CBMM is hosting a four-day intermediate course in which participants will expand on the woodworking and joinery skills they’ve learned from the intro class to build a stool. The cost is $295, with a 20% discount for CBMM members, and all tools and materials are included. Registration is now available at bit.ly/JulyWomensWoodworking.

CBMM’s Shipyard Programs Education Manager, Jenn Kuhn has been leading CBMM’s Women’s Woodworking Workshops since 2012. (Photo by George Sass)

CBMM’s Shipyard Programs Education Manager, Jenn Kuhn has been leading CBMM’s Women’s Woodworking Workshops since 2012. (Photo by George Sass)

Kuhn models the Women’s Woodworking programming off a course she previously taught at the Center for Wooden Boats in Seattle, and it’s been a consistent hit on the Eastern Shore offering participants the chance to immerse themselves in the sights and sounds of the Shipyard for a few days and come away with a completed project.

Ultimately, Kuhn’s goal with these courses is to provide a comfortable, welcoming, and safe environment for women to learn and work together, regardless of background or even future plans to use a table saw or the other power tools on the project list.

“As they say, knowledge is power,” Kuhn said. “Whether or not anybody ever goes on to do anything else with woodworking, it’s great to have that knowledge and understand how these skills can help you.”

Indeed, Brenda Fike arrived at the introductory course in 2021 with no experience since middle-school woodshop but eager to learn more.

Over two days, the Easton resident found Kuhn’s presentation informative and the atmosphere fun, with the project offering just the right level of challenge.

Fike’s mallet, with a head made of carefully-selected osage orange, hangs in her home workshop as a proud reminder of her work that weekend.

“I thought everything about it was great,” Fike said. “I knew nothing going in, and Jenn made it an experience that was totally educational, interesting, and fun for me.”

Jan Kirsh echoed that sentiment. The local sculptor and landscape designer was looking for a woodworking refresher while putting together a museum show, and she enjoyed a memorable weekend at CBMM in Kuhn’s course, working alongside a group of women who have stayed in touch and become friends. (The mallet that she made remains useful in her art studio, too.)

“Jenn is a great instructor,” Kirsh said. “Her high level of ability rubs off on her students. She has a real comfort in the shop that gives you a sense of how qualified she is, and she transfers that sense of confidence while you’re working with a piece of powerful woodworking equipment on your own.”

The mission of the Women’s Woodworking Workshops is personal for Kuhn, who still uses the first mallet that she ever made as one of her first projects at boat-building school in her day-to-day work. She makes sure to regularly include the courses on CBMM’s Apprentice for a Day programming schedule and also teaches them occasionally at the Finger Lakes Boating Museum in Upstate New York.

Now a seasoned boatbuilder, Kuhn always appreciates the chance to invite other women to the Shipyard and share her woodworking expertise.

“My hope is to help our participants feel more comfortable and less intimidated coming into an area where we weren’t always included,” Kuhn said. “Historically, most of the shop folks were men. Now that’s totally changing. We’re eons from that, which is awesome, but I know there are still a lot of women out there who wish that they would’ve had something like this growing up.”

The CBMM and Chesapeake College are partnering this spring to host a marine welding course, beginning on March 27.

The CBMM and Chesapeake College are partnering this spring to host a marine welding course, beginning on March 27.

 

ST. MICHAELS, Md., Feb. 10, 2023 – The Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum and Chesapeake College are partnering this spring to host a marine welding course.

The seven-session course, WEL: Special Topics–Marine Welding Processes, is scheduled for Monday evenings, March 27–May 8, from 6–8:30pm. The cost is $850 with a 20% discount for CBMM members. Advance registration for the program is required.

Over seven weeks, course participants will delve into marine welding processes, gaining an understanding of the environmental and process-based concerns associated with welding in a marine environment while learning the basics of GMAW (MIG) and GTAW (TIG) processes.

Students will explore different ferrous and non-ferrous metals, focused on steel, stainless steel, aluminum, and copper-based alloy while gaining understanding of galvanic scale, different metals, and degradation above and below the waterline.

All sessions will be held at Chesapeake College in Wye Mills, Md., except for session two held in CBMM’s working Shipyard. No prior welding experience necessary. All tools and materials are included with the cost of registration.

Full and partial participant scholarships are available. Interested participants can email Shipyard Education Programs Manager Jenn Kuhn at jkuhn@cbmm.org for more information.

Scholarship opportunities for this course are supported by CBMM’s Regional Folklife Center under the Maryland Traditions program of the Maryland State Arts Council.

In addition to tuition savings for courses like this one, CBMM members enjoy free general admission as well as access to exclusive discounts, perks, programming, and CBMM’s virtual portal. For more information on becoming a member, visit cbmm.org/membership or contact Membership Services Coordinator Debbie Ruzicka at 410-745-4991 or druzicka@cbmm.org.

In an upcoming workshop at CBMM’s Shipyard to be held Feb. 25-26 and March 4-5, participants will have the opportunity to hone their woodworking skills while constructing their own 19th century sea chest.

In an upcoming workshop at CBMM’s Shipyard to be held Feb. 25-26 and March 4-5, participants will have the opportunity to hone their woodworking skills while constructing their own 19th century sea chest.

ST. MICHAELS, Md., Jan. 25, 2023 – Grigg Mullen is a noted timber framer who stays busy with a variety of projects, both big and small, on-going out of his home in Lexington, Va.

Sometimes, though, the retired college engineering professor heads to his woodshop simply to find peace and quiet. “If I really want to go out in the shop and relax, I do hand-cut dovetails,” said Mullen, referencing the time-tested technique for joining wooden ends by interlocking them after making precise cuts. “They’re a lot of fun. They look wonderful, and they’re not actually that mystifying when you go to cut them. You’ve got to be careful and pay attention to detail, but they’re not impossible.”

Mullen will get a chance to share that traditional woodworking skill and other tips of the trade as part of the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum’s upcoming Build Your Own Classic Sea Chest workshop.

Over the weekends of Feb. 25-26 and March 4-5, Mullen will lead participants in constructing a 16-inch-by-18-inch-by-36-inch 19th-century sea chest. The building process focuses on using hand tools to create the beveled dovetail joined ends and sloping sides that give the pine chest its classic look.

The cost for the four-day workshop is $775, with a 20% discount for CBMM members, and includes materials. Some basic woodworking experience is required. Register now at bit.ly/CBMMSeaChest.

Mullen was inspired to build his first classic sea chest after seeing a seven-page spread in the September/October 2005 edition of WoodenBoat that outlined author Gary K. Larkins’ 24-step process for constructing one.

Mullen has built a few of these sea chests over the years. One he put up for charity auction and was bought by a former student and another he gave to his 2-year-old granddaughter.

Mullen is excited to finally teach the workshop at CBMM after a previously scheduled version was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.

For participants, the takeaway is a unique conversation piece fit for land or sea. By original design, the chest’s sloped sides helped it fit the curvature of a boat and provided a sturdy base for rough seas, but it’s easy to imagine a myriad of potential other uses.

In resurrecting the classic build, the WoodenBoat article’s subtitle promised “sturdy utility from the 19th century.”

Along the way to the finished product, Mullen will guide participants step-by-step. He said the precision required in the process, especially on the dovetails, presents a satisfying challenge for anyone looking to hone their woodworking skills.

“When you’re making dovetails, things can get complicated, but it’s not insurmountable,” Mullen said. “It takes careful layout, careful saw work and then careful chisel work to clean everything up before you fit it all together. It definitely takes patience.”