ST. MICHAELS, Md – During National Apprenticeship Week, the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum is pleased to share that, thanks to the generous support of two major benefactors, its apprentice program has received significant new funding and has been renamed the Maynard W. Lowery Apprentice Program.
This transformative gift honors the legacy of legendary local boatbuilder Maynard Lowery, who helped train CBMM’s first shipwright apprentices in the 1970s.
CBMM’s long-standing apprenticeship program is unique in its scope and ambition as the nation’s only state-certified apprentice program in the trade of traditional wooden boat building and maintenance. The program was recently expanded with the addition of a Boat Captain Apprentice track to teach traditional and modern seamanship skills.
Lowery built wooden boats out of his shop on Tilghman Island for more than 50 years before his death in 2008. His celebrated career included a stint in CBMM’s working Shipyard, leading the original restoration of the 1889 nine-log bugeye Edna E. Lockwood. During this time, he introduced an apprenticeship program to pass down traditional Chesapeake boatbuilding skills and techniques.
“We are proud to honor Maynard Lowery’s tremendous impact on Chesapeake boatbuilding and CBMM’s history,” said Kristen Greenaway, CBMM’s Ellen & Richard Bodorff President & CEO. “Maynard’s passion for teaching this craft continues to guide our Shipyard, and his legacy lives on through every apprentice who trains here.”
A third-generation shipwright, Lowery was a prolific boatbuilder, particularly known for his catboats, who worked up to his death at age 88. He’s remembered as the last builder of traditional wooden Chesapeake yachts and workboats on Tilghman Island.
Lowery already had a reputation as one of the region’s finest craftsmen when he was tapped to oversee an extensive restoration of Edna E. Lockwood, which had been donated to CBMM in 1973.
Lowery’s team dismantled the nearly 90-year-old bugeye down to its nine logs and then built it back over a period of years with additional structural support designed to make it stronger than at its launch. The success of that effort is a major reason why Edna survives today as the world’s last historic sailing bugeye with designation as a National Historic Landmark.
In 1976, a reporter from the Baltimore Sun visited CBMM’s Shipyard to spotlight the work that Lowery was doing to share the trade with a pair of apprentices.
“It’s good to perpetuate the old crafts,” Lowery told the newspaper. “We shouldn’t lose sight of the fact that on the past we’ve progressed to this point. I feel we’d be doing a job for posterity by showing the younger generation a job well done.”
That spirit remains at CBMM through the newly named Maynard W. Lowery Apprentice Program.
Daily, CBMM’s shipwright apprentices are learning the trade by working alongside CBMM’s talented team of boatbuilders who preserve and represent the time-honored traditions of a working waterfront.
The two-year apprentice program requires 4,000 hours of hands-on experience, plus additional skill development training, to prepare graduates to take on an entry-level shipwright position. These paid apprenticeships include housing down the street from CBMM’s waterfront campus.
Right now, there are three apprentices learning and working under the direction of Shipwright Educator Walter Atkins.
A St. Michaels native who got his first taste of boatbuilding in CBMM’s Rising Tide after-school program, Caden Lewis is in the final year of his apprenticeship and busy right now assisting with the annual maintenance of CBMM’s floating fleet of historic vessels after a stretch helping on the refit of CBMM’s 1920 Chesapeake Bay buyboat Winnie Estelle.
Newcomers Ben Heyer and Roland Payabyab continue to work on their introductory project, a Lighthouse Skiff. This 14-foot wooden vessel was designed at CBMM in the 1990s by Winslow Womack, Richard Scofield, and Tom Howell.
CBMM has recently added a two-year boat captain apprenticeship. This apprentice will learn under the direction of On-The-Water Lead Captain Matt Gauthier with the goal of earning their United States Coast Guard 100-ton Master’s License. Interested candidates can learn more at cbmm.org/Careers.
CBMM is proud to continue and share these traditional maritime skills with the next generation through the Maynard W. Lowery Apprentice Program, supported by the generosity of its donors.
The Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum is a non-profit educational organization that preserves and explores the history, environment, and culture of the entire Chesapeake Bay region, and makes this resource accessible to all.
Every aspect of fulfilling this mission is driven by CBMM’s values of relevance, authenticity, and stewardship, along with a commitment to providing engaging guest experiences and transformative educational programming, all while serving as a vital community partner.
More information: cbmm.org
