The Urbanna Oyster Festival Foundation has named boatbuilder Bryan Miller of Deltaville captain of the 2024 Urbanna Oyster Festival set for Friday and Saturday, Nov. 1 and 2.
Urbanna Oyster Festival Foundation (UOFF) first began naming captains of the festival in 1988 as a way of honoring people who are either a part of the area’s oyster heritage or who have played a role in enhancing and preserving that heritage and culture.
Bryan Miller comes from a long line of boatbuilders and oystermen. His paternal grandfather, the late B.U. Miller, was an oysterman/boatbuilder in the Locust Hill area and his maternal grandfather Lee Deagle was owner of Deagle and Son Marine Railway on Fishing Bay in Deltaville.
Bryan Miller’s father, Virgil Miller, was one of the first in the Deltaville area to build steel-hull vessels for the New England lobster fishery. Bryan Miller got his start while still in high school when his family purchased Rice’s Boatyard in Northumberland County in the late 1960s and he managed the railway.
Today, Bryan, along with his wife, Debbie, and their two sons, Blake and Bryan Allen, own and operate Miller Marine Inc. on Broad Creek in Deltaville and have built 60 tugboats there since the 2000s.
“I grew up on Lovers Lane next door to my grandfather, Lee Deagle, and across the street from Captain Johnny Ward,” he said. “That in itself was a unique cultural experience.”
Lee Deagle purchased old Price Railway on Fishing Bay in 1935 and repaired and built boats there. Captain Johnny Ward was a renowned waterman known up and down Chesapeake Bay and owned a fleet of bay buyboats.
“I learned a lot about how a boat was supposed to look by just growing up on Lovers Lane here in Deltaville,” said Miller at the firm’s office in Deltaville on Monday. “When I was a kid, there were 15 or more boatbuilders right here. Dick Norris, Wimpy Calls, Ishmael Jackson, Willard Norris, Hugh Norris, Lewis Wright, the Green brothers, the Walden brothers and Rob Dudley — that I can recall off the top of my head.”
All of the boatbuilders mentioned were wooden boatbuilders and built from “rack of eye” without construction plans. “My Dad (Virgil Miller) was one of the first here in Deltaville to build boats off plans and to build in steel,” he said. “When they started offshore lobstering in New England, fisherman Harry Hunt came to my father and asked him to build him a boat. Dad had (naval architect) Harry Bulifant draw the plans and he built off those plans.”
When Virgil retired, Bryan picked up on that business and built several New England lobster boats and trawlers. One of his most famous clients was Bob Brown, made famous in the book and movie “Perfect Storm.” Brown owned the vessel, F/V Andrea Gail, that was lost at sea along with six crew members during that 1991 “nor’easter” storm.
The Rachel Leah was built by Bryan in 1988 for Bob Brown’s son, Peter. Bob and Peter Brown, along with Miller, were interviewed in Deltaville during the building process. The firm was featured in the December 1988 issue of National Fisherman. The article stated that “Miller’s has a reputation up and down the East Coast as a yard that turns out a quality product for northern offshore fisheries.”
In the early 1990s, the firm made a business decision to move away from building commercial fishing boats to building tugboats and other maritime items. This would prove to be a good move.
Bryan’s wife, Debbie, who has worked side-by-side with him for their 46 years of marriage, said, “The reason we have been successful at boatbuilding is because we have been willing to change and recognize that we needed to change,” she said.
Urbanna Oyster Festival Chairman Joe Heyman said, “Bryan Miller comes from a boatbuilding tradition and he has adapted by building boats using modern methods and innovative designs.
“Small business is the backbone of Middlesex County and we are thrilled to recognize his contributions and leadership by naming him captain of this year’s oyster festival,” said Heyman.
Miller will ride in the two festival parades — one Friday evening and one Saturday afternoon, and will be honored throughout the weekend at the festival.
