Pocomoke Sound is a

bay A bay is a recessed, coastal body of water that directly connects to a larger main body of water, such as an ocean, a lake, or another bay. A large bay is usually called a gulf, sea, sound, or bight. A cove is a small, circular bay with a nar ...

of the

Chesapeake Bay The Chesapeake Bay ( ) is the largest estuary in the United States. The Bay is located in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region and is primarily separated from the Atlantic Ocean by the Delmarva Peninsula (including the parts: the ...

that forms part of the boundary between the Eastern Shores of

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; ...

and

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the East Coast of the United States, Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography an ...

. The

Pocomoke River The Pocomoke River stretches approximately U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed April 1, 2011 from southern Delaware through southeastern Maryland in the United States. At it ...

is the largest stream feeding into the Sound, which is bounded by

Somerset County, Maryland Somerset County is the southernmost county in the U.S. state of Maryland. As of the 2020 census, the population was 24,620, making it the second-least populous county in Maryland. The county seat is Princess Anne. The county was named for Mary ...

on the north,

Worcester County, Maryland Worcester County is the easternmost county of the U.S. state of Maryland. As of the 2020 census, the population was 52,460. Its county seat is Snow Hill. It is the only county of Maryland that borders the Atlantic Ocean, and the only c ...

Accomack County, Virginia Accomack County is a United States county located in the eastern edge of the Commonwealth of Virginia. Together, Accomack and Northampton counties make up the Eastern Shore of Virginia, which in turn is part of the Delmarva Peninsula, bordered ...

, and Beasley Bay on the east, the Chesapeake Bay on the south, and

Tangier Sound Tangier Sound is a sound of the Chesapeake Bay bounded on the west by Tangier Island in Virginia, and Smith Island and South Marsh Island in Maryland, by Deal Island in Maryland on the north, and the mainland of the Eastern Shore of Maryland and ...

on the west. Its southwesternmost point may be considered to be Watts Island, Virginia. In addition to the Pocomoke River, several creeks also flow into Pocomoke Sound: Ape Hole Creek, East Creek, and Marumsco Creek in Maryland, and Bullbegger Creek, Messongo Creek, and Guilford Creek in Virginia. The Pocomoke Sound and Maryland Marine Properties Wildlife Management Areas lie on the north side of the Sound; the

Saxis Wildlife Management Area Saxis Wildlife Management Area is a Wildlife Management Area (WMA) in Accomack County, Virginia. Predominantly tidal marshland, it is divided into three tracts, all located on peninsulas bordering on brackish waters such as Beasley Bay, Pocom ...

on the east.

History

In 1635 the Sound was the scene of the first recorded naval battle in North America between

Englishmen The English people are an ethnic group and nation native to England, who speak the English language, a West Germanic language, and share a common history and culture. The English identity is of Anglo-Saxon origin, when they were known in ...

. The dispute was between the

Virginia Company The Virginia Company was an English trading company chartered by King James I on 10 April 1606 with the object of colonizing the eastern coast of America. The coast was named Virginia, after Elizabeth I, and it stretched from present-day Mai ...

and Lord Baltimore, the proprietor of the

Maryland Colony The Province of Maryland was an English and later British colony in North America that existed from 1632 until 1776, when it joined the other twelve of the Thirteen Colonies in rebellion against Great Britain and became the U.S. state of Maryland ...

, over the rights to Kent Island. The dispute was eventually resolved with a victory for the Maryland colonists. In 1785, after years of disputes over fishing in the Sound and on the Pocomoke River, Maryland and Virginia entered into an interstate compact that regulated fishing in the area, established a common and free waterway, and covered how criminal trials concerning each other's citizens should be handled.Wennersten, John R. ''The Oyster Wars of Chesapeake Bay.'' Washington, D.C.: Eastern Branch Press, 2007, p. 47. In ''

Wharton v. Wise ''Wharton v. Wise'', 153 U.S. 155 (1894), is a 9-to-0 ruling by the Supreme Court of the United States, which denied a citizen of the state of Maryland a writ of habeas corpus. The appellant, tried and convicted of illegally harvesting oysters ...

'', 153 U.S. 155 (1894), the

Supreme Court of the United States The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point ...

determined that Pocomoke Sound was not covered by this famous interstate compact.Sansonetti, Thomas and Quast, Sylvia. "Not Just a Western Issue Anymore: Water Disputes in the Eastern United States." ''Cumberland Law Review.'' 2003, p. 188-190; Wennersten, ''The Oyster Wars of Chesapeake Bay,'' 2007, p. 47, 95.

References

{{Authority control Chesapeake Bay watershed Bodies of water of Somerset County, Maryland Bodies of water of Worcester County, Maryland Bodies of water of Accomack County, Virginia Bays of Maryland Bays of Virginia