David C. Holly

This book tries to do much in its 336 pages. It is at once a biography, a technical history, a local history, and a cultural history. In the hands of its author, David C. Holly, I believe the book succeeds in its purpose. A Maryland native, Dr. Holly weaves the tale of a determined Maryland family, the Weems, as generations of the family build slowly and painfully a shipping line dedicated to the Maryland and Virginia tidewater community. Dr. Holly, with his 22 years of naval experience, pieces together a credible relating of the technical developments of steam shipping on the Chesapeake, from the early crude paddlers of the early nineteenth century to the sophisticated propeller steamers of a century later. Dr. Holly puts a human face to the developments by introducing who rode these craft and who worked them, how the various vessels of the Weems Line made an impact on the Tidewater communities they served, reflecting both regional economic conditions and cultural norms.

So if you think Tidewater by Steamboat is merely a story about ships, think again. Anyone with interest in the Chesapeake region will be delighted by Dr. Holly’s work.… (meer)