The Skipjack Ada Fears was built in 1968 by Curtis Applegarth at Applegarth's Boatyard in Oxford, Maryland as a two masted skipjack for Dr. Irving Marks, which then was sailed as Mark's Ark. She is believed to be the last true skipjack built by this yard, and the largest Mr. Applegarth ever built. In 1977 Dr. Marks donated the skipjack to the the Maryland Maritime Museum in St. Michaels.

Capt. Jim McGlincy bought the skipjack from the Maritime Museum in 1977 and converted her to the now more common two sail skipjack plan, and outfitted her with working gear, including wheel and steering gear, from the Skipjack Upshur Q (Justisville, VA 1905) which then laid at Scott's Cove in Chance. He renamed her Lady Agnes, in honor of his mother. Capt. McGlincy dredged oysters in the Chesapeake Bay and Choptank River, mainly out of Cambridge and Oxford from 1977-1981. In 1981 she was sold to Clarke Reed. Capt. McClincy went on to own and work the oyster dredging Schooner Kathryn M. Lee.

Clarke Reed, known by locals as "The Greek" kept her tied up at the Pier Street Marina in Oxford and did some work on her including the mast and transom. Watermen from Oxford to Deal Island remember this skipjack working, and being worked by "The Greek" during the 1980s.

Mr. Kirk Irwin bought her in June 1991 with a thought of chartering her for day sails. He renamed the skipjack Diamond Girl, and began a major overhaul.In July of 1998 Carl Oulton bought her and kept her in Baltimore. During the summer of 2000, Mr. Oulton replaced the mast with a new one made of Yellow Pine and renamed the Skipjack, Ada Fears, after his grandmother. Mr. Oulton later sold her to Tom Doherty.

Mr Doherty took her out of the Chesapeake and up to Tuckerton, NJ and left her sit at the Tuckerton Maritime Museum with little regard. Languishing in neglect, she was put up for sale; and I knew that there was only two things that I needed to do....return her to her home on the Chesapeake Bay and return her to her once maintained state......

"To see a skipjack under sail is to feel the pull of Maryland history, when generations of watermen made a living off the most beautiful and bountiful inland estuary in the world."