Editor, Smithfield Times

    On the Forum page of this week’s Smithfield Times there is a picture of an oyster buy boat (which, by the way, has been in the paper before on this page).

    I have information on this picture that you might find interesting. The name of the buy boat is the “Pattie May.” Her Captain was my father, Captain Herbert N. Sadler Sr., and the picture was taken May, 1955.

    I know this because the exact picture hangs in my breezeway. My father worked for Ballard Fish and Oyster Company for many years, then went to work for the Virginia Marine Resources Commission and later retired from that agency. This picture hung in his office in Newport News for many years.

    The plaque that is on the bottom of the picture reads:

    “Boat Pattie May, May, 1955, Captain Herbert N. Sadler, buying seed oysters from the catchers in James River to be transplanted in Chesapeake Bay for Ballard Fish and Oyster Company.”

    The picture I have is rather large (in a frame approximately 27” deep and 32” wide.)

    I hope you can use this information.

Deborah Sadler Vaccarelli
Battery Park