Sunset on the Chesapeake’s Miles River, as seen over the bowsprit of the skipjack HM Krentz. “The Krentz,” as she is commonly referred to, is a working skipjack based out of St Michaels, Maryland. Constructed in 1955 in Harryhogan, Virginia, the HM Krentz was built during one of the Chesapeake’s ‘mini oyster boom’ years, which happened twice in the 20th century after World War I and World War II. Watermen, returning home, found the oyster populations had rebounded after several fallow years while the oystermen were overseas.