The Oyster Boom in the Chesapeake Bay

By the mid 1880s, people were hauling millions of bushels of oysters out of the Chesapeake Bay annually. By 1871, Tongers were regularly firing on dredgers that worked into their territory. Maryland formed an oyster police force in 1868. It was commanded by a man named Hunter Davidson and he patrolled an esteemed boat called Leila. But he stayed with it only for a handful of years because The oyster pirates outnumbered him much better.