Claiborne-Annapolis Ferry, Inc.
company
The automobile ferry across the Chesapeake between Annapolis and Claiborne, general manager B. Frank Sherman, running winter, summer and fall schedules advertised weekly in the Worcester County press. In 1926 it put a new double-ended, four-Diesel boat into service, cutting the crossing from ninety minutes to an hour: the first hull was wrecked under tow in Long Island Sound in April and pronounced a total loss; the replacement, the 'Gov. Albert C. Ritchie', took the fall schedule from 28 September 1926 with a capacity of eighty automobiles and trucks and 1,200 passengers. In the same summer the Pennsylvania Railroad stopped buying the bonds of the railway that ran to Ocean City.
In the record (7)
1926 · 1926-09-28
The Claiborne–Annapolis Ferry puts a new Diesel boat named for Governor Ritchie on the bay — eighty automobiles a trip, and an hour instead of ninety minutes.
Worcester Democrat, 10 July 1926: 'High frequency ferry service between Annapolis and Claiborne will be greatly augmented with the maiden trip of the new commodious vessel on the line July 15, according to B. Frank Sherman, general manager of the Claiborne-Annapolis Ferry, Inc. The new ferry boat will be the largest in the Bay service, it is said, with a capacity of 3000 passengers and 70 automobiles. The boat is of the double end type, avoiding the necessity of turning the autos on board. Motive power is furnished by four Diesel engines... The speed of the new boat is much greater than that of the other ferries, requiring but an hour for a trip that ordinarily consumed an hour and a half.' The first hull had been lost: on 17 April the paper reported it 'wrecked in Long Island Sound during a heavy blow' while under tow from Connecticut to Brooklyn, 'pronounced a total loss'. The boat that finally entered service is advertised in the paper of 25 September: 'FALL SCHEDULE IN EFFECT, SEPT. 28, 1926... Our new ferry boat, the 'Gov. Albert C. Ritchie' will run this schedule. Capacity — 80 automobiles and trucks, 1200 passengers.' In the same season in which the Pennsylvania Railroad stopped underwriting the railway to Ocean City, the road to Ocean City got a bigger boat.
Source · checked 2026-08-06
1928 · 1928-06-10
Washington to Ocean City in 1928: 130 miles, four hours' driving plus an hour and three quarters on the Claiborne ferry — and from 25 June a bus meets the boat.
The Evening Star's automobile editor laid out the whole trip on 10 June 1928. "By means of the Annapolis-Claiborne ferry across the Bay, lasting an hour and 45 minutes, the motorist from Washington can make the trip in four additional hours without exceeding any speed limits. Not counting the 15 miles by water, the distance this way is 130 miles." Ferry timetable that summer: leave Annapolis 8 a.m., 11 a.m., 1, 3, 5 and 7 p.m.; leave Claiborne 8 and 10 a.m., 1, 3, 5 and 7 p.m., daily and Sunday, on the two steamers Gov. E. C. Harrington and Gov. Albert C. Ritchie, "good meals served on board." And: "Bus service to Ocean City will be in operation at Claiborne beginning June 25." From Easton the driver follows United States route 213 the whole way in, through Preston, Bethlehem, Hurlock, Rhodesdale, Eldorado, Sharptown and Salisbury — "concrete in places and macadam in others." Three ways back: through Dover and Elkton, 199 miles and six or seven hours, "the most popular one"; a longer 258-mile route avoiding Delaware through Centreville, Chestertown and Elkton; and a third by a ferry off Chestertown.
In 1926 the Board of Trade still listed two railways first and the motor coach last. In 1928 the Evening Star gives Ocean City a whole automobile page, with mileages, a numbered federal highway and a bus meeting the ferry — and never mentions the railroad at all. The road won in the reporting three months after it won at the auction.
Source · checked 2026-08-06
1928 · 1928-07-22
Three dollars bought a Washingtonian a Sunday at Ocean City in 1928 — leave 12th and New York Avenue at 6.15 a.m., arrive 12.30 noon, home at ten at night.
The Washington, Baltimore & Annapolis Electric Railroad advertised the trip in both Washington evening papers through July and August: "$3.00 ROUND TRIP — OCEAN CITY, MD. — Children 5 Years and Under 12, Half Fare — SUNDAY, JULY 22 — GOOD FOR DAY ONLY. Special train leaves 12th and New York Ave. N. W., 6:15 a.m., running direct to Ferry wharf at Annapolis and connecting with non-stop train at Claiborne for Ocean City. (Arriving Ocean City 12:30 noon.) Return leave Ocean City 4:15 P.M. Arriving Washington 10:00 P.M. Ocean City, famous for Surf Bathing Of Uncommon Excellence. Trip includes cool, clean ride through Heart of Maryland, view of U. S. Naval Academy, delightful sail across Chesapeake Bay, Annapolis to Claiborne, thence completely crossing Del-Mar-Va peninsula by rail. GO AND TAKE YOUR FRIENDS." It ran again for Sunday 12 August and Sunday 26 August.
Six and a quarter hours each way for four hours on the sand. That is the shape of the day-trip market the automobile was about to destroy: the Star's own motor page, printed six weeks earlier, put the same journey at four hours' driving.
Washington, Baltimore and Annapolis Electric Railway Company
Source · checked 2026-08-06
1928 · 1928-11-22
On 22 November 1928 the Interstate Commerce Commission authorises the Baltimore & Eastern Railroad Company to take over the 88-mile Claiborne–Ocean City line for $650,000 in stock — the B.C.&A.'s name formally ends.
Associated Press, in the Evening Star of 22 November, under "RAIL LINE PURCHASED — Claiborne-to-Ocean City Road Changes Hands": "The railroad line from Claiborne to Ocean City in Maryland, a distance of 88 miles, will be taken over by the Baltimore & Eastern Railroad Co. upon a payment of $650,000 in its capital stock, under the terms of an Interstate Commerce Commission order issued today. The property, controlled by the Pennsylvania Railroad, was formerly operated by the Baltimore, Chesapeake & Atlantic Co., but was sold out under foreclosure last Spring. The ferry operation across Chesapeake Bay is included in the system." Three days later the Star's financial page added the detail: "The Interstate Commerce Commission has authorized the Baltimore & Eastern Railroad Co. to acquire and operate the 88-mile line formerly owned and operated by the Baltimore, Chesapeake & Atlantic Railway… The Baltimore & Eastern is a subsidiary of the Pennsylvania. The commission also authorized the subsidiary to issue $650,000 $50-par capital stock to be sold to the Pennsylvania at not less than par and use the proceeds to acquire the line of railroad."
The campaign's assumed date for the reorganisation was "1928," unverified. It is now dated twice over — the foreclosure sale of 29 March and the ICC authorisation of 22 November — and it is not one event but two, eight months apart. What the campaign should stop saying is that the Baltimore & Eastern was created in 1928: the 1926 pass found the name already printed in Delaware timetables in May 1926, two years before the ICC allowed the company to own anything. Both readings are recorded below.
Baltimore & Eastern Railroad CompanyBaltimore, Chesapeake & Atlantic RailwayPennsylvania Railroad Company
Source · checked 2026-08-06
1931 · 1931-08-02
A passenger train still reached Ocean City in 1931 — non-stop from Claiborne — and the Baltimore & Eastern, invisible in 1930, advertises all year.
The W.B.&A.'s Sunday excursion advertisement routes its passengers by special train to the Annapolis ferry wharf and then "connecting with NON-STOP TRAIN AT CLAIBORNE FOR OCEAN CITY (arriving 12:37 noon)", leaving Ocean City at 4:15 p.m. The Baltimore and Eastern Railroad, whose name the 1930 pass could not find on a single one of 704 pages, appears on 32 pages of the 1931 corpus, advertising the Love Point car ferry weekly in the Peninsula Enterprise: "Lv. LOVE POINT (B. and E. R.R. Pier) daily... Autos (incl. driver) $2.50 each. Trucks (incl. driver) $4 to $7 each. Fare, one way 65 cents. Round trip (10-day limit) $1.00. SHORTENS the WAY to and from the Eastern Shore." Washington, Marlboro & Annapolis Motor Lines meanwhile advertise "Connections with Ferry for Eastern Shore and Ocean City, Md."
The 1932 pass had to leave open whether a passenger train still reached Ocean City. For 1931 the answer is on the face of a Washington excursion advertisement: yes, non-stop from Claiborne, arriving 12:37. And the railway that ran it was selling car-ferry space in the same breath.
Baltimore & Eastern Railroad CompanyWashington, Baltimore and Annapolis Electric Railway Company
Source · checked 2026-08-10
1931 · 1931-08-09
Three dollars, Washington to Ocean City and back in a day — train, Chesapeake ferry and a non-stop connection at Claiborne.
"$3.00 Round Trip — Ocean City, Md. — Children 5 years and under 12, $1.51 — Maryland's Ocean Resort — Surf Bathing — Sunday, August 9 — Good for day only. Special train leaves 12th and N.Y. Ave. N.W. 6:30 A.M., running direct to ferry wharf, Annapolis, and connecting with non-stop train at Claiborne for Ocean City (arriving 12:37 noon), returning leave Ocean City 4:15 P.M., arrive Washington 10:00 P.M. Tickets on sale Friday and Saturday. Wash., Balto. & Annap. Elec. R. R., 12th and N. Y. Ave. N.W." Repeated for Sunday 30 August. Six hours out, three and a half hours at the beach, five and three quarter hours home.
The retry log has owed this number since the 1930 pass, which had the identical advertisement with the adult fare OCR'd variously as "SO.OO", "$9.75" and "$.00" and only the children's $1.51 legible. One IIIF region crop at full resolution settles it: the figure is $3.00. The 1930 half is still owed, but the layout is identical and the children's fare is the same.
Washington, Baltimore and Annapolis Electric Railway Company
Source · checked 2026-08-10
1934 · 1934-06-21
The 1934 hotel column sold Ocean City by its fishing first and its bus connection second
The Washington Times of 21 June 1934 carried the resort's block advertisement: 'OCEAN CITY — You can enjoy deep-sea, bay or surf fishing. Safe swimming. Sailing. Dancing. Beautiful beach. All amusements. Go by Claiborne-Annapolis Ferry and Red Star Bus... Write Chamber of Commerce for further information.' Under it, the houses: 'STEPHEN DECATUR Ocean Front; American Plan; Thoroughly Modern; AAA! Excellent Food; Good Service; 60 rooms; 39 baths'; 'COMMANDER ocean front, elevator and phone service'; 'THE LANKFORD On Boardwalk, garage. Spring rates. M. B. Quillin, Prop.'; 'IDYLWILD L. Brittingham.' Deep-sea fishing leads the copy in the first summer it was possible, and the way you got there is a ferry and a bus — the railway is not mentioned. On the same page an AP story reported Capt. T. H. Mickle bringing his 40-foot cruiser Admiral up from Miami and in through the new inlet. — 1934 FULL PASS, 2026-08-11 [confirmed]: Provenance repaired. The fact carried a Chronicling America collection-query URL plus an LCCN, date, printed page and reel-level ALTO file number, with a note reading 'THE MERGE MUST RESOLVE A REAL PAGE URL BEFORE PUBLISHING.' It now has one: https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn84026749/1934-06-21/ed-1/?sp=19 — HTTP-verified 200. sp=19 confirmed equal to printed page 19; sp=18 and sp=20 also match 'ocean city' because the feature runs across the spread.
Ocean City BoardwalkOcean City Chamber of CommerceCapt. John Mickle
Source · checked 2026-08-11