The masts of historic sailboats sway gently in front of a screwpile lighthouse perched on stilts. The setting that welcomes ships to St. Michaels sets the tone for the call, as coastal cruise vessels dock right in the heart of the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum, on the site of a former Maryland shipwrights' village. Few ports let you step ashore straight into a living museum like this.

A museum at the water's edge

The grounds cover about seven hectares of shoreline and bring together some ten exhibition buildings devoted to the maritime heritage of the Chesapeake. Here you follow the story of the oystermen, blue crab fishers and skipjack builders, the working sailboats typical of the region, a few of which still sail. The exhibits combine period artifacts, restored boats and recorded accounts from the last fishermen under sail. The museum's boatyard is still in operation, and craftspeople restore historic vessels before visitors' eyes, amid a scent of wood shavings and tar that beats any staging.

The Hooper Strait Lighthouse

The site's icon, the hexagonal Hooper Strait tower, built in 1879, was moved here to escape demolition. You climb into the keeper's quarters, scan the bay from the gallery and quickly grasp the hardship of this solitary life surrounded by water. From the gallery, the view takes in the Miles River, the anchored sailboats and the town's rooftops, one of the prettiest panoramas on Maryland's Eastern Shore.

Talbot Street and the pleasures of town

A five-minute walk from the museum, Talbot Street runs through the small town past shops, galleries and cafés set in softly coloured wooden houses. Local restaurants celebrate the blue crab in every form, as crab cakes, in soup or simply steamed, with a glass of Eastern Shore wine. Ice cream parlours and candy shops delight those with a sweet tooth between antique shop windows, and the galleries display the region's marine painters. The old homes on neighbouring streets recall the colonial trading-post past of this village, which lived from farm trade, then shipbuilding and the bounty of the bay.

The historic fleet and the Miles River

At the museum's docks floats a fleet of historic vessels maintained with jealous care: cotton sails, wooden hulls and rigging from another age. In summer, you can sometimes see these sailboats under their original canvas, a rare sight on the Atlantic coast. Narrated outings on the Miles River leave the site regularly and help you grasp the unusual geography of this inland sea, a maze of estuaries, coves and peninsulas where working sail reigned for two centuries. An hour on the water is enough to understand why locals speak of their bay as a living being.

The bay in slow motion

When it's time to reboard, many passengers take a last moment on the docks, watching the evening light play across the Miles River. St. Michaels distills a way of life made of varnished wood, seafood and unhurried conversation. The call leaves the memory of a well-kept, welcoming maritime America that has preserved its know-how without standing still, and you leave its docks reluctantly, as you would close a beautiful picture book.