Anne Arundel shipyard key to Revolution

If you turn off Muddy Creek Road onto Plantation Boulevard in West River, you find yourself in yet another suburban enclave carved out of the swampy woods.

On the night of March 31, 1781, about 100 British marines landed on Chalk Point in the West River and raided Stephen Steward's Shipyard, where swift gunboats were being built to harass King George's warships on the Chesapeake Bay.

The marines burned part of the house, a nearly complete gunboat, and much of the stores on hand, but did not knock out production.

What remains is now called Norman's Retreat, named for the subsequent owner who built the current home around 1815.

But evidence of the shipyard still abounds on the grounds and in the creek, where present day owners Dean and June Hall are determined to keep the history alive.

In his upstairs office, recently converted from a bedroom, Mr. Hall has several shelves of books and notebooks filled with notes and a draft of a book he is writing on the shipyard. Years of research at the Maryland Archives and elsewhere have turned up documents recording some of the business transactions of the colonial shipbuilder and merchant.

Shipbuilding artifacts excavated in an archaeological dig in the early 1990s are now housed at the Galesville Heritage Society Museum. But on the grounds one can make out the spot where material, like lumber from the Eastern Shore, was hauled ashore.

At a real low tide, the shipyard's kingpins, on which the ship keels were laid, poke out of the mud in the creek, a finger called Norman's Creek at the headwaters of the West River.

Outbuildings, believed to the be from the period, still stand. The home has a two-story porch overlooking the creek and sits on 25 acres left from the original farm. Inside, wide planked floors span sections of the house believed to stretch back to just after the Revolution. The stone foundation of the original home from the 1650s sits under the current dining room.

During the Revolution, the shipyard turned out roughly 32 ships, dozens of small gunboats and larger craft about 100 feet long, according to records Mr. Hall has found.

"He was a successful merchant in Baltimore, but he liked building ships - and he was good at it," Mr. Hall said.

Steward grew up in the Shady Side area.

In 1752, he bought 16 acres along the creek and built a house next to remnants of a cabin built on the site in the 1650s. Within a couple years, he added more land totalling 43 acres.

He started building boats almost immediately and did not stop until he died in 1794.

"He built all kinds apparently," Mr. Hall said. "Most interesting were those modeled on the xebec, a centuries-old model with a pointed bow and somewhat pointed stern too."

Two of the largest craft built were the Johnson and Conqueror, both over 100 feet "at the deck."

The shipyard and environs became the home base for the Maryland Colonial Navy. Not only did Steward build the ships, but he arranged for their outfitting and crews to boot.

He was appointed by the Annapolis Safety Council, a forerunner of today's County Council, to be the medical procurement officer. He also was one of the first delegates from Anne Arundel County.

But those pesky gunboats drew the attention of the British.

"He built a lot of gunboats. They were some 40 to 70 feet long with a 9-pound bow gun and two 6 pounders on the gunwales," Mr. Hall said. "They had a lot of sail, when they caught the wind they got out and moved."

The Safety Council sent him to Philadelphia to study the defenses set up there to defend the Delaware River. Mr. Hall found documents indicating he returned with a plan for those gunboats plus a rounded barge, "in effect a rampart with guns" to protect the Severn River. Mr. Hall has yet to find any evidence the barge was built, but the gunboats certainly were.

That might be why British Captain Josias Rogers crept up the West River to offload the 100 marines to torch the shipyard.

But later he got his. He was the commander of the General Monk, captured by a smaller ship captained by an 22-year-old lieutenant, and later commodore, Joshua Barney, who outsmarted the more seasoned British officer in the Delaware Bay.

James Fenimore Cooper in his "History of the Navy of the United States of America," called the battle "one of the most brilliant that ever occurred under the American flag. It was fought in the presence of a vastly superior force that was not engaged, and the ship taken was in every respect superior to her conqueror."

The Steward family had more involvement in the Revolution. Stephen Steward's son John joined the Maryland Line in February of 1776. He was one of 32 survivors of the famous unit that held at the Battle of Long Island, saving George Washington's army. He served in virtually every battle from then until Yorktown.

General Washington had a silver coin cut by order of the Continental Congress, equal today's Congressional Medal of Honor, honoring John Steward's valor at the Battle of Stony Point.

Mr. Hall has a copy of the letter Washington wrote to Stephen Steward noting his son's bravery.

The land soon passed on to William Norman, who built the current house on the property. Norman was a planter by trade, but again the owner of the West River property was called to arms against the British. During the War of 1812, Norman was handed command of the West River Militia, whose muster list reads like a south county phone book today - Crandell, Wayson, Phipps, Chaney.

That unit was involved in a skirmish against the British at the Battle of Kirby's Mill, a small encounter on a farm in Shady Side.

But that is just part of the story Mr. Hall will tell of Norman's Retreat when he addresses the Galesville Heritage Society's dinner on Tuesday night.

Mr. Hall will use drawings, maps and illustrations of the period to help tell the story of south county, Anne Arundel and Maryland's bit in the Revolutionary War and beyond.

The dinner, beginning at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday at the Galesville Memorial Hall, will include meatloaf, mashed potatoes, a vegetable, a salad and dessert. Make reservations by calling Dee Dixon at 410-867-3622.