In 1868, Maryland's embryonic maritime law enforcement agency, the State Oyster Police, set out on its mission to enforce the state's laws on the Chesapeake Bay. The force, quickly dubbed the Oyster Navy, met stubborn and often violent resistance. Haynie McKenna, the agency's deputy commander, serves as captain of the Leila. With a crew of untested officers, the Leila sails to the Honga River in search of a rogue waterman, Marrok Blanchard, and his...

Crassostrea virginica, the eastern oyster. These humble bivalves are the living bones of the Chesapeake and the ecological and historical lifeblood of the region. When colonists first sailed these impossibly abundant shores, they described massive shoals of foot-long oysters. But the bottomless appetite of the Gilded Age and great fleets of skipjacks took their toll. Disease, environmental pressures and overconsumption decimated the population by...