Maryland Steamboat Company
company · active 1882-
Chesapeake Bay steamboat line whose new steamer Avalon began Saturday-night excursion runs from Baltimore to Ocean City by way of Salisbury on June 24, 1882 — leaving Baltimore at 8 p.m., landing passengers on the beach at 8 the next morning, and returning them to their Baltimore desks by 6 a.m. Monday. The Baltimore Sun called it the first time Baltimoreans had been able to spend a Sunday at the seaside. The company also ran the steamer Kent on the Baltimore-Salisbury route three days a week.
In the record (2)
1884
The Baltimore Sun's resort round-up: "The Atlantic is the only hotel advertised" at Ocean City.
Quoted in the Annapolis Evening Capital of July 19, 1884: "Ocean City, Md., has a fine beach, a beautiful bay and good society. The Atlantic is the only hotel advertised, and it is first class in every respect. The steamer Kent, of the Maryland Steamboat Company, and the boats of the Eastern Shore Company take passengers to Ocean City via the railroad from Salisbury and Crisfield." The Capital's editor was less charitable about the route: "There is no place on the whole coast that has a better beach and all that; but good heavens, what a roundabout way of reaching it. It beats Robin Hood's barn." His fix — eighty miles of rail and a Kent Island ferry from Annapolis — would have put Baltimore "within a few hours" of the beach instead of "a night and a day of tedious travel". The bay bridge he was arguing for opened in 1952.
Atlantic HotelEastern Shore Steamboat Company
Source · checked 2026-08-06
1889
The Peninsula Express starts running a through coach to Ocean City — no change of cars from Washington or Baltimore.
1889 is the year the trip stopped requiring a transfer. On June 29 the Democratic Messenger announced: "On and after to-day the Peninsula Express will run through from Baltimore to Ocean City without change. The train leaves Union Street Station... at 2.30 P. M. and arrives at Ocean City at 7.33 P. M. This arrangement greatly improves the service between Baltimore and Maryland's popular seaside resort." Three weeks later the Evening Star made the same point for its own readers: "Ocean City Nearer to Washington than ever — Ocean City, Md., is nearer to Washington than ever, since the Baltimore and Potomac railroad has inaugurated its through train service... The Peninsula express leaves for Ocean City, Baltimore and Potomac station at 1:17 p.m. week days," a train that "carries a through coach for Ocean City, and connects closely for Rehoboth." The older routes stayed in service: the Maryland Steamboat Company still ran nightly from Pier 4, Light Street, Baltimore, down the bay and up the Wicomico to Salisbury, thence by the Wicomico & Pocomoke, with a Saturday-evening excursion giving seven hours at Ocean City and two nights' sleep aboard, round trip $4.50.
Four hours and change from Baltimore, five and a bit from Washington, and you never left your seat. The resort's whole future turned on that.
Wicomico and Pocomoke Railroad
Source · checked 2026-08-06