Via Flickr: The Governor R. M. McLane was built in Philadelphia in 1884 by Neafie & Levy. She was built for the State of Maryland and was named after Robert Milligan McLane, Governor of Maryland 1884-1885. The boat had a steam engine and two masts. She was 114 feet long and 21 feet wide and weighed 144 tons. The boat was rebuilt by Spedden shipyard in 1920 after a devastating fire. From 1884 to 1931 she was the flagship of the Maryland Oyster Navy. During the Oyster Wars the Oyster Navy enforced fishing laws on the Chesapeake Bay that limited the amount of oysters that could be dredged. The boat was armed with a cannon, which was used in armed exchanges with renegade oystermen. During World War I and World War II the Governor R. M. McLane was commissioned in the United States Navy and patrolled the Chesapeake Bay. The boat also served as an inspection tug, a towboat, and a personal passenger boat for Governor Albert Ritchie. In 1954 the boat was abandoned, and she sank in the Baltimore Inner Harbor near what is now the Baltimore Museum of Industry.
