The tri-state area known as the Eastern Shore, that peninsula of Maryland, Delaware, and Virginia bounded by the Chesapeake Bay and the Atlantic Ocean, is as unique as any section in the United States. Divided about equally between the agricultural, cattle, poultry, and seafood industries, the region is most noted for the latter. Its oysters, crabs, fish, and clams determine the careers for numerous Eastern Sharemen, as well as a way of life that has made them the independent, resourceful people they are today.

In no other place in this country can one be whisked back into the last century more easily than on Maryland's Eastern Shore, particularly in some of the small bay ports and islands. Operating there today is the last commercial sailing fleet in American waters. This is comprised of the skipjacks (or bateaux, as they are known in some sections of the Chesapeake country) employed in Maryland's oyster-dredging fishery.