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About the Book
The Stewards of West River is the story of a Norman's Retreat, a Maryland shipyard that served as the base for America's Navy during the revolutionary war. The story starts with John Steward. He was the first shipwright of the Steward family. When he died, his son Stephen Steward found his own site on the West River and built his own shipyard that operated from 1752 to 1792. Stephen designed and built warships for the Maryland Navy and Congress. The story of his shipyard is associated with the many services he provided for the Maryland Council of Safety. Norman's Retreat Shipyard is still around today, and the story of the Steward family is a classic American tale of perseverance in the face of ultimate odds.Book Synopsis
Steward's son, John Steward joined the army as a lieutenant and fought with the elite regimentAbout the Author
I was raised on a dairy farm operated by my father, me, and an adopted boy my age. The day started at 05:00 am every morning, and during the summer, we were lucky if it ended at midnight. This problem was resolved by two of us working and one sleeping, which did not always work out. During the Korean War, I enlisted in the Airforce and served four years active and four inactive as a S/Sgt on a RB36 in the Strategic Air Command [SAC] during the cold war. The commander of SAC was General LeMay, and we were at war with Russia. It was the atomic age, and our goal was Mutual Assured Destruction [MAD] with Russia. From my SAC career, I joined a major airline and retired thirty-six years later. As a sideline, I started a flight school and majored in primary flight training. In 1985, I bought a historical site on the West River in Maryland called Norman's Retreat. It was historically recorded as a 19th-century farm. It wasn't long before I learned-- through fortunate events-- the site had extensive archival remains for an 18th-century shipyard. The shipyard was owned and operated by shipwright Stephen Steward as the naval base for Maryland's navy during the American Revolutionary War. March 31, 1781, the British attacked and burned the shipyard. This excited my love of history, and soon led to extensive research: people, places, traveling the Revolutionary War battles, and researching historical persons associated with the Steward shipyard. This research led to the shipwright's son, who fought under Generals Washington and Green from Brooklyn Heights to Yorktown. It was the grandson of the shipwright who accompanied Francis Scott Key through the rescue of Doctor Beames and the bombing of Fort McHenry. After many years of research, I was encouraged by many to put it in print as a viable documentary of Maryland history. Thus, I began the journey of writing this book.