Dove at sea

Historic St. Mary's City

The Dove was a small vessel, "of the burthen of ffortie tons." On the first voyage to Maryland, it accompanied the Ark as its pinnace, a tender and scout, and carried some baggage and supplies. No precise information about the rig, dimensions, or layout of the Dove is known. Some representations show her with three masts, some with two. She is variously reported to be of forty to fifty tons burden.

For the voyage with the Ark she had a crew of seven and carried several passengers. Using the information available and his extensive knowledge of seventeenth-century ships and boats, William Avery Baker, a preeminent expert in seventeenth-century naval architecture, designed a vessel to show what the Dove may have been like. The result was a full-scale seagoing "reproduction of a three-masted, square-rigged pinnace circa 1634" that displaces (weighs) 42 tons and has a nominal cargo capacity of about 50 tons; that is of about 1,700 cubic feet. This Dove was commissioned in October 1978 and is based at St. Mary's City, Maryland. As built the vessel has an overall length of 76 feet, a waterline length of 51, a beam (width) of 17 and a draft of 6 to 7 feet.

Carr, Lois Green and Papenfuse, Edward C., "The Charter of Maryland." in A DECLARATION OF The Lord Baltimore's Plantation in Mary-land February 10, 1633. Booklet. Annapolis: Maryland Hall of Records Commission Department of General Services, 1983.

Carr, Lois Green. "Expedition to Maryland." A RELATION OF the Successefull Beginiings of the Lord Baltimore's Plantation in Mary-Land, ANNO. DOM. 1634. Booklet. Annapolis: Maryland State Archives, Hall of Records Commission, 1990.

Hall, Clayton Coleman, ed. Narratives of Early Maryland 1633-1684. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1910.

Lowe, William. "The Master of the Ark." Maryland Historical Magazine, 95 (2000): 261–89.

Newman, Harry Wright.The Flowering of the Maryland Palatinate. Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc., 1984.