SOLOMONS, Md. — This year, Capt. Tom Ireland celebrates 50 years of sailing with his vessel, the Patience, through the waters of the Patuxent River and Chesapeake Bay. Patience is a 42-foot-long charter fishing boat powered by twin Cummins diesel engines, which provide 450 horsepower each.
What kind of fishing anglers can enjoy on his boat depends on the time of year, Ireland said.
“We’re gonna try to catch some fish no matter where we might have to go to do it,” he told The BayNet. “Spring and fall, that means running. Through the summer, the bottom fishing, that’s right at the mouth of the river. We fish trolling primarily and bottom fishing. I do not live line. I have, it’s just not my thing.”
Ireland said that Patience is Coast Guard-certified for up to 14 passengers, but he tends to serve groups that are slightly smaller than that.
“Most of my trips are eight to 12,” Ireland said. “Six-pack boats are limited to six. So we get a group of guys, seven, eight, 10—12 every now and then—that want to go, and I can accommodate them. Some boats can’t.”
Ireland, a retired Maryland State Police officer, sold a smaller boat and used his family’s funds from growing tobacco to pay for Patience’s construction in the 1970s.
“When the idea first came to me, I was looking around to see if I could find somebody to build a boat,” Ireland said. “I was hunting over on the Eastern Shore with a fellow trooper, it was over in Bishop’s Head, and I asked the trooper’s father if there were any local boat builders. He told me about a gentleman named Shannon Dawson. So after the next morning’s hunt, I looked Mr. Dawson up, had a little conversation, and he agreed to build me a boat.”
Ireland said that he and Dawson made a deal in October. Ireland put down a deposit, and Dawson procured lumber for Patience, including the keelson, which would act as the boat’s spine, and the band boards that would act like ribs and support the structure of the vessel. Construction was slated to start the following January. Tragically, Dawson suffered a stroke and died before the project began in earnest.
“His widow asked me if I would consider taking the material in lieu of the deposit, which I did,” Ireland said. “My uncle was retiring from the Navy at the time and he said, ‘We’ll build it,’ and we did.”
Ireland said that three or four of his most memorable trips with Patience have been getting caught in storms—trips he wishes he had stayed ashore instead.
“One day off of Tillman, I had a couple pilots and some stewards all aboard, and we got caught in a waterspout. They took refuge under my dinette table. Couldn’t run from it. We rode through it,” Ireland said. “I’ve been in a couple of them.”
Ireland said he’s not planning on doing anything special for Patience’s 50th year in service, but he is looking forward to when the fishing season starts on May 1, 2026.
“Just another year to go to work,” he said.
Anglers who want to head out with Patience and Capt. Ireland can learn more at patiencesportfishing.com or call (410) 535-1554 for information and to make reservations.
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