CHANCE, Md. - Bob Fitzgerald has already spent months working to restore the City of Crisfield- a skipjack built in 1949. Fitzgerald works four hours per day on the ship, trying to beat the noon heat.
“I get here at seven o'clock in the morning and work four hours. I only work a four hour day I try to, even in good times I try to work a four hour day because I'm 82 years old,” Fitzgerald said.
The skipjack heritage museum in chance owns the city of Crisfield which is stored at Scott's Cove Marina. today Fitzgerald is not the only one working on a skipjack. Jackie Carew has to paint the hull of another skipjack and says the Marina provides no relief from the heat.
“This is the hottest place in the world right here, no breath at all, no wind at all,” Carew said.
Delmarva has a rich history of using skipjacks to harvest oysters. Fitzgerald continues to work in the intensive heat, to preserve a piece of that history.
“I just fell in love with it and wanted to do something with it and I did not want to see it destroyed because the City of Crisfield, the boat, the City of Crisfield has quite a heritage to it,” Fitzgerald said.
Fitzgerald does not know when he will complete the City of Crisfield's restoration, but still hopes to launch the ship again one day.
