Overview

The progenitor, David Steward, was born in Gauldry, a village in Fife, Scotland. During the Third English Civil War, He was a Scottish warrior who had been banished to the American colony by British General Oliver Cromwell. He gave David a choice of dying by the sword or being exiled to the American colonies. David chose to be exiled and lived on the West River, Maryland. Moreover, to fight for freedom another day. He never lost his dislike for the British, and his rebelliousness toward the British would be his legacy. Moreover, this passed through the generations of Stewards as David's legacy to his future generation of Stewards. They fought and suffered for one thing on their minds: America, freedom, and to live by the law. The next was Stephen Steward, 4th Gen; in 1752, he built the largest shipyard on Fords Creek at the head of the West River. He built ships for the Chesapeake Bay and Merchant Ships to carry goods to Europe and the Caribbean. For Stephen, the war started in the middle of April 1775 when the British attacked Lexington and Concord. Embracing the stories of grandfather David's legacy ended any further dialogue of peace for Stephen. This was to change the entire operation of his shipyard. Stephen was in full support of the new Maryland government. He immediately offered his services to the new Maryland Council of Safety, which was Maryland's war department. His shipyard served as Maryland's Naval base, and he was an agent for the Council of Safety and Congress. His operation of building ships for the Chesapeake Bay and Merchant Ships immediately changed. He started building tenders, freighters, warships, and gunboats. He repaired captured enemy ships, and under the Council's orders, he sold the ship or rigged them as a warship for Maryland's Navy. In charge of the safety of Maryland, the Council of Safety was put in a massive situation. Their main goal was to protect Maryland's land, the Chesapeake Bay, and its contributors. They had an army, but they needed more troops and a navy. Their enemy was not only the British but the Tories & Picaroons, and the British and Picaroons already had their navy. There are numerous wartimes stories of Stephan attending to the needs of the Maryland Council of Safety. His shipyard grew significant when embracing Maryland's Navy. Foremost in his capacity was as a shipwright building warships for Maryland. He served as Maryland's Navy storage for their supplies, ship equipment, cannons, anchors, and armament, launched missions, and supplied captains with crew members for each ship. As an agent for the Council, he was responsible for acquiring food, pork, beef, whiskey, and rum. Not only for his men but the ship's crew and marines, and when Congress sent one hundred continental soldiers to guard the shipyard, more food. In a letter Stephen sent the Council asking for more money, he explained that he had seventeen ships in Fords Creek or some construction phase in the shipyard. He had as many as two hundred men working at the shipyard. There were freemen, indentured servants, and slaves. On occasion, severing a need of the Councils, he ran blockades to take money to John Hancock, captained warships, supplied ships on the bay, and as a delegate, he served Anne Arundel County's Committee of Observation, supported the enrollment of minutemen and the gathering of ammunition and arms for them. One of his jobs for General George Washington was to impound ships, captains, and crew members on the Chesapeake to move General Lafayette's troops from Elton to Norfolk. Stephen Stewart lived with the fact that if the British caught him, they would have hung him and his family. After all, he was in charge of a nest of rebels aiming to overthrow the king's control of the colonies.

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9781098353285

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The source of information for my book, The Stewards of West River, was created through a lifetime of adventure. I spent the first 18 years on a farm. One of our large fields had Arrowheads all over. This indicated a possible Indian village in the past and created a deep interest in me about their history. I also had a deep interest in airplanes. I built model airplanes during my teens and had them hanging all over the ceiling. During the Korean War, I enlisted in the Airforce and served four years active and four inactive as an S/Sgt on an RB36 Strategic Air Command [SAC] during the cold war. The commander of SAC was General LeMay, and we were at war with Russia. It was the atomic age, and our goal was Mutual Assured Destruction [MAD] with Russia. From my SAC career, I joined a major airline and retired thirty-six years later. For 40 years, my office consisted of a windshield that opened the world to me. I visited many countries, created many new friends, and had many exciting adventures. In 1960 I was furloughed, and I took a 6-month contract as a flight instructor for the Syrian Airlines. Flight schedules and layovers through the Holy land created a vast knowledge of Africa and the Mediterranean. When that contract was over, I went to work for a nonscheduled airline called United States Overseas, which had a contract to fly troops to Berlin, Germany. During my airline career. I had a flight school with five planes, and I taught ground school, primary flight training, and commercial and multi-engine. Sailing was also another adventure. Living in Annapolis, Maryland, was almost a requirement. I had a 38-foot Columbia sloop. With an experienced sailing buddy, we explored the Chesapeake Bay from Elkton to Norfolk. Then we headed south to New Providence, where I kept the ship for a year. I lived onboard and commuted to work. My experienced sailing buddy wanted a larger ship and more incredible adventures. When I got my sailboat back to Annapolis, he had bought a 60ft Trawler in Los angles, California. We sailed from Los Angles through the Panama Canal to Florida and Annapolis, Md. In 1985, I bought a historical site on the West River in Maryland called Norman's Retreat. It was recorded as a historical 19th-century farm and raised my past interest in 20th-century farming. It wasn't long before I learned that the site had extensive archival remains of an 18th-century shipyard through fortunate events. Shipwright Stephen Steward owned and operated the shipyard as the naval base for Maryland's navy during the American Revolutionary War. On March 31, 1781, the British attacked and burned the shipyard. This excited my love of history and soon led to extensive research: people, places, traveling to the Revolutionary War battles, and researching historical persons associated with the Steward shipyard. This research led to the shipwright's son, who fought under Generals Washington and Green from Brooklyn Heights to Yorktown. The grandson of the shipwright Stephen Steward accompanied Francis Scott Key through the rescue of Doctor Beames and the bombardment of Fort McHenry. After many years of research, I was encouraged by many to put it in print as a viable documentary of Maryland's history. Thus, I began the journey of writing this book.

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