Originally published in the Cecil Whig
I was paging through a copy of A Pictorial History of Cecil County, Maryland, published by the Cecil Whig, when, on page 83, I happened upon a familiar picture. It was a picture of a boat launching from the Wiley Manufacturing Company, late of Port Deposit from about 1979. The boat was called the “Surry,” and it was bound for ferry service on the James River between Surry County and Jamestown, Virginia.
The connection between Cecil County, Maryland and Jamestown goes back over 400 years. It was in 1608 that Captain John Smith of James Fort fame (and no, he did not have an affair with Pocahontas!), piloted a small schallop up the Chesapeake Bay and into the Elk River all the way to Elkton. He even mapped it in his 1612 map of Virginia.
Back in 1925 the James Ferry service company began ferry service between Surry County, Virginia on the south side of the James River and Jamestown, Virginia on the north side. The original ferry was called, appropriately enough, the Captain John Smith of Elk River fame. It ferried people and vehicles across the river for about 25 years before being retired in the 1950s. The second ferry in the fleet is the Virginia which has been in service since 1936. However, it is the third oldest ferry, now owned and operated by the Virginia Department of Transportation, The Surry, built in 1979, that now cements the relationship between Jamestown and Cecil County.
According to a March 9, 2013 Cecil Whig article, “Cecil History: Wiley Manufacturing in Port Deposit” by Erika Quesenbery Sturgill, the Wiley Manufacturing Company was founded in 1939 and closed in 1982 after delivering sections for the I-95 tunnel under Baltimore Harbor. The Wiley site is now occupied by condos.
Back in 1979 the Surry was launched with much fanfare followed by its delivery to Virginia. The ferry is 190 feet long and weighs 825 tons. It carries 50 cars and their passengers and makes the James River crossing in 15 minutes. That ride, by the way, is free and operates 24 hours per day, 7 days per week. The Virginia Department of Transportation web site has a 4 minute video of a ride on the Surry (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GwYTwno-72U). Not very exciting, but it will give the viewer an idea of what the ride is like and some of the landmarks the passengers may observe. Those landmarks include the historic James Fort and the reconstructed Jamestowne Settlement on the north side of the river. The view of the river’s south side includes the 1665 Bacon’s Castle, Smith’s Fort, and the Chippokes Plantation and State Park, one of the oldest working plantations in existence, having been farmed continuously since 1619.
Back in 2006, the Surry gained some unwanted notoriety when it inadvertently started to pull away from its peer while vehicles were still loading. One of those vehicles plunged into the James River, its driver still inside. Fortunately, according to newspaper accounts, that driver escaped with only a bloody lip and the Surry was cleared to continue operations which it does to this day.
So the next time you’re in the Jamestown area, catch a ride on the Surry and experience a little bit of Cecil County history in the process.
More information on other types of Cecil County history is available at the Historical Society of Cecil County located at 135 East Main Street in Elkton and on our web site at www.cecilhistory.org