The buyboat Peggy of New Point turned 100 years old this year. On Saturday, family, friends and old crewmen came together on Gwynn’s Island to celebrate the life of the century-old boat.
Just having come off the railway from Hudgins Horn Harbor Marina, the Peggy was spit-shined to celebrate her 100 years. The boat was built by Mathews County boatbuilder Harry A. Hudgins of Peary in 1925 and is owned today by the Mathews Maritime Foundation.
The style of boat is referred to as a buyboat when being used as a working platform to purchase seafood from watermen out on the fishing grounds. The boats are also referred to as deck boats when decking is installed fore-and-aft over stringers and bulkheads to create a working/standing platform atop the hull.
The Peggy was originally built as an open “trap” boat for the pound net fishery. She was decked over and had a pilothouse installed in 1950 to be worked in Virginia’s winter crab dredge fishery.
This was not unusual in that many large open hul...