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HOME > HISTORY INTRODUCTION > CHAPTER 1 > CHAPTER 2 > CHAPTER 3 > CHAPTER 4 > A NEW WAY > MARY BUTLER DAVIES
Chapter One
The Vane Brothers: 1898-1923
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Today’s visitor to Baltimore might not think immediately of the port's rich maritime history. The Inner Harbor is a convention and tourist attraction. Its sweeping plazas, shopping arcades, corporate towers, and themed restaurants hardly speak of the place's storied past.
Eighty years ago, the Redman Vane Shipyard sat conveniently at the foot of Warren Avenue, among the numerous other shipbuilders that flourished along the piers there. To the north, across the basin of the Inner Harbor, and easily visible from Federal Hill, Captain Vane's ship chandlery, Vane Brothers, could be seen where it sat, hard by the Long Dock, on Pratt Street downtown.
The Vanes come ashore
As an older man, William Burke Vane, or Burke, as he was known, boasted that he had owned and operated a boat of his own by the time he was twenty-one. After the Civil War, the shipping trade out of Baltimore was vigorous and diffuse, offering plenty of opportunity for a resourceful young man to find a vessel. It was a rambunctious and speculative atmosphere, and Burke Vane made the most of it.
Late in the century, Burke began to recognize the wisdom of expanding his trade away from the difficult and dangerous (though often profitable) work of a ship's captain. By 1898 Burke Vane and his brothers had come ashore in Baltimore. They began by launching a ship chandlery they called Vane Brothers.
The Fell's Point chandlery
Their shop was created to cater to the working vessels that docked at Back Basin, Lancaster and Caroline Streets. Ship chandleries were one-stop shopping for vessel operators and their crews. The chandler coordinated the time-consuming tasks of dealing with the butcher, the baker, the fishmonger, the cooper, the ironmonger, and even the post office.
In the dark recesses of the warehouse, suits of oilskins and sou'wester hats hung from the rafters. In those years, seafarer's hats and skins had to be constantly fed with fish oil to keep them waterproofed and pliable. Beneath them on the storehouse floor lay 500-pound kedge anchors and piles of heavy anchor chain. There were fog horns, large ships fog bells in brass, bilge pumps, shackles, belaying pins, mast hoops, kegs of nails, cork lifejackets, kerosene lanterns, ships' running lights, anchor lights, masthead lights with ten-inch Fresnel globes, and copper bottom paint. The chandlery even sold iron pot-bellied coal stoves for heating crews’ quarters. Above on the second floor was stored the line: coils of manila rope that ranged in circumference from one inch to twelve.
 The move to Pratt Street
Business was sufficiently good by 1910 to justify a move to larger quarters at 602 and 604 East Pratt Street, across the street from Pier 4 and in the heart of the Inner Harbor. Known as ‘Long Dock,’ Pier 4 housed the steam plant for East Baltimore and the Baltimore trolley car system. The spot was ideal for the chandlery business.
Ship chandlers principally involved themselves in provisioning for their clients, but their involvement in the merchant marine far outreached that single function. Most importantly, chandlers, along with shipbuilders, sailmakers, and ship brokers very often owned shares in their clients’ vessels and provided financial backing.
Claude Venables Hughes
The early years at Vane Brothers can be drawn from the reminiscences of another native of Dorchester County, Claude Venables Hughes. Born in 1887, Claude and his brothers, Verner Vane Hughes and Charles Fletcher Hughes, were, according to family lore, distant cousins of the Vanes. Sailors by trade, it took a twist of fortune to lure Claude in from the Bay and the booming schooner trade:
"About that time I was courting a young woman on the Shore and we considered marriage," Claude wrote for the Baltimore Sun. "But she said, 'What's the use in getting married, you're never home.'" As was not uncommon for the time, Hughes turned for advice to his cousin, Captain William Burke Vane.
"While talking to Captain Vane about my dilemma, I asked him if there was any way I could work in his business. He happened to be in a receptive mood and told me he'd sell out half ownership. That was 1920. Within six months I was married, and had sold my farm and the R. E. Powell."
 Shipyard Row
In fact, the Vane brothers had branched out even further from ship owning and ship chandlering. In 1917 they purchased the J. S. Beacham and Brothers Shipyard, located at the foot of Federal Hill since 1854, as well as the Maryland Block and Pump Company.
One description of the shipyard noted: "The yard repaired all types of bay craft, including sailing vessels, yachts, barges, scows, steamboats, tugboats, government revenue cutters, and lighthouse vessels, and did boom, spar, and mast work. Wood caulking was a specialty of the yard. Among the lines for which the yard serviced or repaired steam vessels were the Baltimore Chesapeake and Atlantic Railway Company; the Maryland, Delaware and Virginia Railway Company; the Ericsson (Philadelphia) Line; Tolchester Steamboat Company; Chesapeake Steamship Company; Baltimore Steam Packet Company; U. S. Coast Guard; U. S. Lighthouse Service; Baltimore and Onancock Line; Rock Creek Steamboat Company; and the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company, to name a few.
The fortunes of war would bring an end to the Redman-Vane enterprise. The prosperous shipyard became a casualty of World War II in January 1942, when Redman-Vane, Booz Brothers, and the Baltimore Marine Repair shops were condemned by the United States Navy to allow the Bethlehem Shipbuilding repair plant to expand. After twenty-four years in business, Redman-Vane closed forever.
 Charles Fletcher Hughes Sr.
Claude Hughes's arrangement with Captain William Burke Vane went well from the start. Within a year of his assuming a share in the business, Claude persuaded his younger brother, Charles Fletcher Hughes Sr., to join him. At the time, Charles Sr., who had just completed two years in the Air Corps, was planning to study law, but Claude won him over.
When Charles F. Hughes Sr. had worked at Vane Brothers for only a short while, a friend of his from the Eastern Shore, Captain William Jarrett, came into the chandlery. He asked Charles Sr. if he wanted a share of the John R. P. Moore, a two-masted schooner built in 1877 in Snow Hill, Maryland.
"Jarrett asked if I wanted to buy a part of this schooner with him and Captain Vane as owners," wrote Charles F. Hughes Sr. in a recollection of his first investment. "I answered I would very much like [to] but I had no money. Captain Vane heard this conversation and asked me if I would like to own a part of this vessel. I assured him I did but I didn't have $1,500.00. He replied, "Get your coat on and we will go over to the Bank and see if you can borrow this money." I was hesitant, but we went to the Baltimore Commercial Bank, which later merged with the Union Trust Company. Vane had quite a lot of stock and was well known over there. He said to the cashier 'This young man wants to borrow $1,500.00.' 'What security does he have?' Captain Vane said 'Not a damn bit, but I will endorse his note.' I got the money, but then Captain Vane said, 'Now Charlie, if you don't pay the interest and something on the Principal when the note comes due, they will put you in jail.'"
Charles F. Hughes Sr. did not go to jail. In two years, he had paid off the note, and his share of the schooner John R. P. Moore proved to be quite profitable. He later wrote that Captain Vane had been like a father to him and had helped him in many ways. The brothers Hughes had become vivid partners in Captain William Burke Vane's ship chandlery, and the company's next chapter had begun.
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