Historians Matthew and Juliann Krogh interpret the lives of US Navy and Revenue Cutter Service mariners during the War of 1812 in a living history program at the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum.

The program explored the shipbuilding traditions, uniforms, navigational techniques, rope work, small arms, medicine, games and sailing terms of marlinspike sailors, a fascinating chapter in the Chesapeake Bay’s long maritime history.

The food was bad, the work was hard, and the medicine was downright ugly, but there was opportunity for a regular wage and a bed (even if it was hanging from the rafters of a ship) for the courageous men and women who dared a seafaring life.