Built in 1924, the 62.8-foot F.D. Crockett is one of only two log-bottom buyboats built exclusively for power and represents the apex of log boat building on the Chesapeake.  Alex Gaines of Dare, Virginia, used the same techniques that were used to build the early sailing "canoes", when he designed and built her 9-log hull to accept a gasoline engine.  After Gaines completed the hull, she was taken across the creek to Smith Marine Railway, where John Franklin finished the boat.

For 70 years, the F. D. Crockett was used as a working vessel.  In 1994, she was converted to a pleasure craft.  In 2005 Ron Turner, a descendant of the Smiths, donated the boat and she was towed up the bay from Poquoson arriving in Deltaville on September 5th. 

The construction of the Explorer began February 2006 and was completed the following year. Although there are no images of John Smith's shallop, he described it as an "open barge neare three tuns burthen"-- which meant it could carry up to three tons of cargo. The Explorer is such a vessel and is the museum's interpretation of the John Smith's shallop. 

The Deltaville Museum & Holly Point Nature Park takes its environmental role seriously.  One of our outside projects was to build a living shoreline parallel to our pier to demonstrate shoreline preservation best practices.  This exhibit tells about the project.

This exhibit, erected in cooperation with the Tidewater Oyster Gardeners Association, describes everything associated with scale oyster gardening, and also is a functioning oyster garden.

Oysters, and the reefs they build, are essential components od a healthy Chesapeake Bay ecosystem. Oyster reefs provide many nooks and crannies for other animals to live in, like tropical coral reefs. This exhibit describes the reefs and area efforst to restore them. A visitor looking at this display is facing one of the largest oster restoration sites in the country.

The compass rose originated around 1200 AD. It evolved from the wind rose, a device that used a wind vane and card with a rose-ike design to indicate wind direction. The compass was born when first a lodestone, then a magnetized needle, was substituted for the wind vane. This sculpture is on the south side of the Events Pavilion.

The Dolphin Garden presents two stiking bronze dolphins in a simulated swimming enviroment. The ground cover recalls the rolling habititat of the frolicking dolphins the often are seen individually or in groups (pods) in the nearby bay. The dolphins epitomize the concept of family and community.

Gene Ruark, a founding member of our museum, inspired this woodland garden as an area for contemplation and rememberance. each of the decorative benches and life-sized bronze staues of native birds in natural poses and habittats was ordered and placed by a family to honor their loved ones.

This decorative fountain as built to honor Andy and Evelyn Turner, long-time friends of our museum. Members of the Turner family and frineds established a fund for the fountain and an endowment for educational activities, particularly for children.

Many Deltaville boats were built in backyards and barns away from the water. These ingenious dollies were shared among Deltaville boatbuilders to move their completed boats to the water for launching.

The winch and rails in this exhibit represent the arrangement that many boatyards used to haul small boats from the water beforeadvent of the Rravel Lift. The rails extended far enough into the eater for a rail car to accept a boat. The rail car was hauled out with the winch. 

Tonging has been a primary menas of harvesting oysters for generations. This exhibt shows how the tongs evolved from the long-handled hand tongs that can be used only in shallow waters, to the much higher capacity patent tongs that are used in much deeper water.

The barn quilt displayed on the north end of the Museum was designed and painted by a small grou of volunteers fro the Stingray Stichers Qilt Guild of Deltaville. The star, reminiscent of a compass rose, incorparates many symbols associated with Family Boatbuilding Week and nautical tradition.

The Frances C is a round-stern wooden deadrise built in 1946 by Linwood Price at his boatyard on Broad Creek in Deltaville. It is an exaple of Deltaville boatbuilding in its heyday. Bill Hight of Urbanna donated the boat to the Deltaville Maritimme Museum in 2015.

In 1989 Pette Clark donated her 34-acre property to Middlesex County wishing to establish a nature preserve. In 2002 the Deltaville Community Asscociation leased property for the establishment of the Deltaville Maritime Museum & Holly Point Nature Park.

The flagpole in front of the museum was donated by William and Susan Chaney. It is a gaff-rigged with yardarm, stands 40-feet tall and is 8-inches in diameter. It sits in a 12-inch by 48-inch steel ground sleeve buried approximately 2-feet surrounded by 3,000 pounds of concrete to a level 2-feet above the ground. This base is concealed by a 14-foot circular raised platfom capped by paving stones with a compass rose emblazoned on it.

This exhibit stands at the head of the museum's public kayak and conoe launching ramp and marks us as a stop on the Captain John Smith Chesapeake National Historic Trail. The trail is a series of water routes extending approximatley 3,000 miles along the Chesapeake Bay, The nation's largest estuary, and its tributaries in Virginia, Maryland, Deleware, and in the District of Columbia.