High-Speed Ferry Planned for Bay

Line Would Link Baltimore, Shore Staring in 2006

A sketch of Maritime Applied Physics' planned Chesapeake ferry. (Maritime Applied Physics Corp.)

A Baltimore company, working with researchers from the University of Maryland, said yesterday that it plans to build a high-speed, energy-efficient ferry to run between Baltimore and the Eastern Shore.

The 19-year-old company, Maritime Applied Physics Corp., makes most of its money engineering ships for the Navy and commercial shippers. But last year, the firm's president, Mark Rice, and his team began investigating the possibility of running a ferry service on the Chesapeake Bay.

The company said its intention is to build a fleet of ferries that will carry passengers 18 miles, from Baltimore to Rock Hall in Kent County. The drive to Rock Hall from Baltimore usually takes about two hours, but Rice says his boats will deliver people in about 30 minutes. The boats will not carry cars.

For the first half of the 20th century, passenger ships crossed the Chesapeake regularly, but construction of the Bay Bridge put most of the ferry companies out of business. Rice says he thinks people would be interested in making the journey by boat once again because "the highways are getting more congested and the ferries are getting faster."

The company received $18,600 from the Maryland Industrial Partnerships program to fund research on the ferries by faculty at the University of Maryland's wind-tunnel facility, which can generate wind speeds up to 230 mph. Maritime Applied Physics and the university's researchers are working to create a passenger vessel that combines the underwater blades of a hydrofoil, which elevate a vessel above the water as it picks up speed, with a hull shaped like an airplane wing for added lift.

"The Holy Grail of the ferry business is trying to move people safely and at a high speed, independent of weather and with high fuel efficiency," Rice said.

The company is developing a prototype, and Rice said he expects construction of the $2 million boats to begin in about six months. Maritime Applied Physics executives are planning to establish a separate company to operate the ferry service, which they expect to launch in about 18 months.

P.A.M. Schaller, director of economic development for Kent County, said the ferries could be "a wonderful alternative to another Bay Bridge," delivering tourists to the restaurants of the Eastern Shore and Kent County residents to Baltimore for baseball games and theater productions.