Capt. Crunch, A True Story
Erick Sahler • October 27, 2020
Tugboats are like the tortoise in the old fable. Slow and steady wins the race. They’ve got one speed and they don’t take kindly to stopping or changing direction.
I learned this firsthand the summer after seventh grade, when I spent two weeks aboard the tugboat Holly S.
My dad and my uncle were half of the four-man crew, and I was allowed to live with them while they worked.
There was only one rule. Don’t fall overboard.
“Chances are we won’t see or hear you,” they warned me. “And even if we did, we can’t stop or turn back.”
The Holly pushed petroleum barges from Norfolk to Baltimore to Philadelphia and back.
Life aboard comprised long hours of boredom broken by moments of sheer terror.
Sailing the southern Chesapeake was like crossing the ocean. It’s so broad, there’s water from horizon to horizon. Even TV signals don’t reach the middle of the bay.
To entertain myself, I climbed on the barge and walked its football-field length. The steady chug of the Holly’s twin diesel engines faded behind me. Then I could hear the waves below as they gently slapped against the bow. A bell buoy, rocked by waves, clanked softly in the distance.
Docking, on the other hand, was a hair-raising experience. Sidling two massive vessels bound by thick cables to a pier in strong currents or high wind was terrifying. Men shouted as heavy lines were tossed in quick succession. One slip and a man could be crushed or drowned instantly.
This is why I made myself at home in the wheelhouse, away from the danger.
Or so I thought.
It was a sunny afternoon as we sailed north with a barge bound for Baltimore. The Bay Bridge loomed ahead and recreational boaters raced around us like wild hares.
I joined Capt. Raymond in the wheelhouse to take in the view.
The wheelhouse is the command center on the top deck of the tugboat. Windows fill the upper halves of all four walls, and below, facing forward, is a cockpit with dozens of switches and levers to operate the boat.
The odd thing about a wheelhouse is there’s no wheel. The rudders that steer the tugboat are adjusted by the captain using a metal box about the size of a bar of soap. It has two small buttons mounted side by side, one for turning left, the other for turning right.
As we approached the Bay Bridge, Capt. Raymond fine-tuned our course, like a teenager playing a video game.
Tap. Tap. Tap-tap. Tap.
Except instead of manipulating pixels on a screen, he was guiding a barge filled with a half-million gallons of scalding hot liquid asphalt.
Tap. Tap-tap. Tap.
Then he was gone.
“Take her,” he said, popping off his seat and hustling down the stairs. He probably needed a pee.
I was alone in the wheelhouse as the Holly churned toward the Bay Bridge. Capt. Raymond had the barge pointed directly in the center of the shipping channel, marked by the bridge’s two tallest towers.
Chug. Chug. Chug.
And then it looked like we were slightly off center. Just a hair, maybe, to the left.
Chug. Chug. Chug.
It started to worry me.
I picked up the metal box and considered tapping the button on the right.
Chug. Chug. Chug.
I looked up. The Bay Bridge was growing bigger in our window, and we were clearly headed off center to the left.
My OCD kicked in.
Do something. Now.
I tapped the right button. Just a tap. Like hitting the spacebar. Except maybe in my anxious state, I held it longer than I intended.
EEEERRRRRGGGGGGG. With a deep groan and prolonged creaking, I watched in horror as the barge pivoted around sharply. Half a minute later we were aimed directly at the right tower of the Bay Bridge and closing in fast.
Chug. Chug. Chug.
I froze.
What to do? What to do?
Tap the left button?
Holler for help?
Confess my sins?
I could see traffic on the bridge. When we crashed through the tower, they’d rain down on us. Cars and trucks and buses splashing and sinking into the bay, like Matchbox toys dropped into a bathtub. The carnage of dozens — maybe hundreds — of people dead and injured. An environmental catastrophe. Traffic snarled for months. Lawsuits for years. They’d never let me back on the Holly again.
Chug. Chug. Chug.
I was picturing an asphalt-soaked cormorant when the wheelhouse spun around me. My vision flickered and started to go dark. I smelled coffee.
Wait. I smelled coffee?
Then a steaming mug, followed by Capt. Raymond’s arm, appeared rising up the wheelhouse stairs.
Back in his seat, he surveyed the scene, and tap-tap-tapped the buttons.
The barge slowly came around to the center of the channel.
Maybe he knew what I had done.
Or maybe he thought it was the work of the currents or the wind.
Or maybe after years at the helm, this was business as usual — one more crisis calmly averted by a steady old salt.
He sipped his coffee and we sat in silence as the two spans of the Bay Bridge glided overhead.
Afterward, I excused myself.
I needed a pee.
Erick Sahler is an artist and writer. He has exhibited his serigraph prints across the Eastern Shore and they are available in shops throughout the region. Erick holds a B.A. in Visual Arts from UMBC and is a member of the Society of Illustrators in NYC.
Common Sense for the Eastern Shore
Right now, Congress is working on a fast-track bill that would make historic cuts to basic needs programs in order to finance another round of tax breaks for the wealthy and big corporations.
The House Agriculture Committee recently voted, along party lines, to advance legislation that would cut as much as $300 million from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. SNAP is the nation’s most important anti-hunger program, helping more than 41 million people in the U.S. pay for food. With potential cuts this large, it helps to know who benefits from this program in Maryland, and who would lose this assistance. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities compiled data on SNAP beneficiaries by congressional district, cited below, and produced the Maryland state datasheet , shown below. In Maryland, in 2023-24, 1 in 9 people lived in a household with SNAP benefits. In Maryland’s First Congressional District, in 2023-24: Almost 34,000 households used SNAP benefits. Of those households, 43% had at least one senior (over age 60). 29% of SNAP recipients were people of color. 15% were Black, non-Hispanic, higher than 11.8% nationally. 6% were Hispanic (19.4% nationally). There were 24,700 total veterans (ages 18-64). Of those, 2,200 lived in households that used SNAP benefits (9%). The CBPP SNAP datasheet for Maryland is below. See data from all the states and download factsheets here.
Apparently, some people think that the GOP’s “big beautiful bill” is a foregone conclusion, and that the struggle over the budget and Trump’s agenda is over and done. Not true. On Sunday night, the bill — given the alternate name “Big Bad Bullsh*t Bill” by the Democratic Women’s Caucus — was voted out of the House Budget Committee. The GOP plan is to pass this legislation in the House before Memorial Day. But that’s not the end of it. As Jessica Craven explained in her Chop Wood Carry Water column: “Remember, we have at least six weeks left in this process. The bill has to: Pass the House, Then head to the Senate where it will likely be rewritten almost completely, Then be passed there, Then be brought back to the House for reconciliation, And then, if the House changes that version at all, Go back to the Senate for another vote.” She adds, “Every step of that process is a place for us to kill it.” The bill is over a thousand pages long, and the American people will not get a chance to read it until it has passed the House. But, thanks to 5Calls , we know it includes:
Let's talk about our Eastern Shore Delegation, the representatives who are supposed to fight for our nine Shore counties in Annapolis, and what they actually got up to this session.
For the first time in recent memory, Virginia Democrats have candidates running in all 100 House of Delegates districts — a milestone party leaders and grassroots organizers say reflects rising momentum as President Donald Trump’s second term continues to galvanize opposition.
The 447th legislative session of the Maryland General Assembly adjourned on April 8. This End of Session Report highlights the work Shore Progress has done to fight for working families and bring real results home to the Shore. Over the 90-day session, lawmakers debated 1,901 bills and passed 878 into law. Shore Progress and members supported legislation that delivers for the Eastern Shore, protecting our environment, expanding access to housing and healthcare, strengthening workers’ rights, and more. Shore Progress Supported Legislation By The Numbers: Over 60 pieces of our backed legislation were passed. Another 15 passed in one Chamber but not the other. Legislation details are below, past the budget section. The 2026 Maryland State Budget How We Got Here: Maryland’s budget problems didn’t start overnight. They began under Governor Larry Hogan. Governor Hogan expanded the state budget yearly but blocked the legislature from moving money around or making common-sense changes. Instead of fixing the structural issues, Hogan used federal covid relief funds to hide the cracks and drained our state’s savings from $5.5 billion to $2.3 billion to boost his image before leaving office. How Trump/Musk Made It Worse: Maryland is facing a new fiscal crisis driven by the Trump–Musk administration, whose trade wars, tariff policies, and deep federal cuts have hit us harder than most, costing the state over 30,000 jobs, shuttering offices, and erasing promised investments. A University of Maryland study estimates Trump’s tariffs alone could cost us $2 billion, and those federal cuts have already added $300 million to our budget deficit. Covid aid gave us a short-term boost and even created a fake surplus under Hogan, but that money is gone, while housing, healthcare, and college prices keep rising. The Trump–Musk White House is only making things worse by slashing funding, gutting services, and eliminating research that Marylanders rely on. How The State Budget Fixes These Issues: This year, Maryland faced a $3 billion budget gap, and the General Assembly fixed it with a smart mix of cuts and fair new revenue, while protecting working families, schools, and health care. The 2025 Budget cuts $1.9 billion ($400 million less than last year) without gutting services people rely on. The General Assembly raised $1.2 billion in fair new revenue, mostly from the wealthiest Marylanders. The Budget ended with a $350 million surplus, plus $2.4 billion saved in the Rainy Day Fund (more than 9% of general fund revenue), which came in $7 million above what the Spending Affordability Committee called for. The budget protects funding for our schools, health care, transit, and public workers. The budget delivers real wins: $800 million more annually for transit and infrastructure, plus $500 million for long-term transportation needs. It invests $9.7 billion in public schools and boosts local education aid by $572.5 million, a 7% increase. If current revenue trends hold, no new taxes will be needed next session. Even better, 94% of Marylanders will see a tax cut or no change, while only the wealthiest 5% will finally pay their fair share. The tax system is smarter now. We’re: Taxing IT and data services like Texas and D.C. do; Raising taxes on cannabis and sports betting, not groceries or medicine; and Letting counties adjust income taxes. The budget also restores critical funding: $122 million for teacher planning $15 million for cancer research $11 million for crime victims $7 million for local business zones, and Continued support for public TV, the arts, and BCCC The budget invests in People with disabilities, with $181 million in services Growing private-sector jobs with $139 million in funding, including $27.5 million for quantum tech, $16 million for the Sunny Day Fund, and $10 million for infrastructure loans. Health care is protected for 1.5 million Marylanders, with $15.6 billion for Medicaid and higher provider pay. Public safety is getting a boost too, with $60 million for victim services, $5.5 million for juvenile services, and $5 million for parole and probation staffing. This budget also tackles climate change with $100 million for clean energy and solar projects, and $200 million in potential ratepayer relief. Public workers get a well-deserved raise, with $200 million in salary increases, including a 1% COLA and ~2.5% raises for union workers. The ultra-wealthy will finally chip in to pay for it: People earning over $750,000 will pay more, Millionaires will pay 6.5%, and Capital gains over $350,000 get a 2% surcharge. Deductions are capped for high earners, but working families can still deduct student loans, medical debt, and donations. This budget is bold, fair, and built to last. That’s why Shore Progress proudly supports it. Click on the arrows below for details in each section.
