William E. Cameron took office as governor of Virginia in 1882.

When Gov. William E. Cameron took office in 1882, he was determined to cure the fiscal instability that had plagued Virginia since the Civil War.

One segment of the state's economy that received Cameron's immediate attention was the shellfish industry, which had gained importance after the war. Illegal oyster dredging in the lower Chesapeake Bay was threatening the state's oyster supply and hurting the livelihoods of Virginia oystermen.

Spurred on by a keen sense of showmanship, Cameron enlisted a volunteer militia, procured two steamers and personally led all-out assaults on illegal dredging in and near the mouth of the Rappahannock River during the winters of 1882 and 1883. The governor's bay campaigns resulted in stays at the Mathews County jail for many dredging violators, but the arrests had no long-term effect. Instead of inspiring fear in the lawbreakers, Cameron's expeditions sometimes made him the brunt of jokes.

One incident that caused Cameron embarrassment was reported in the March 4, 1883, Richmond Dispatch. The account tells of the governor's humiliation by three "plucky women" with a Maryland oyster fleet illegally dredging in the Piankatank River, between Mathews and Middlesex counties. The oyster sloop Dancing Molly, manned by the captain and two crewmen, had paused in an inlet of the bay for the men to go ashore to seek supplies, while the captain's wife and two daughters stayed on the vessel.

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According to the report in The Dispatch, shortly after the men left, another oyster pirate with the Maryland fleet signaled that the Victoria Peed, one of the governor's two steamers, was approaching the inlet. The captain's wife and daughters shouted frantically for the men to return, but the captain and crew were beyond earshot. The women knew they would be jailed if they dallied, so they seized the moment and the sails.

"As the steady splash of the wheels of the Virginia steamer was distinctly heard, the plucky women determined to attempt to run the blockade and reach neutral waters," the report said. With the captain's wife in charge, the Dancing Molly took flight.

"The remainder of the vessels of the pirate fleet were safely out," the account said. "The breeze was not exactly in favor of the fleeing craft, and the Peed succeeded in gaining rapidly on her." The Virginia gunboat and the pirate sloop raced neck-and-neck -- the Peed trying to reach the inlet's mouth to blockade it; the Dancing Molly straining its sails to outrun the Peed.

The women proved a worthy match for the governor's crew. "All were skilled in handling the sails and were determined not to be taken," the report said. "The Victoria Peed began to send solid shot over the water as a warning to surrender, but the Dancing Molly and her crew did not take in their sails."

The women fled the inlet just ahead of the Peed and sailed toward the rest of the Maryland fleet, by then safe in neutral waters. Adding to the governor's woe, Virginians lining the shore witnessed the chase.

"Although the people on the Virginia side are sworn enemies of the oyster pirates," the account concludes, "they really wished for the escape of the tiny craft when they saw it was simply manned by three women, and when the Dancing Molly got safely out, the group of Virginians chivalrously gave three cheers for the pirate's plucky wife and daughters."

This episode and others like it reported by newspapers during the 1883 expedition helped make the governor's campaigns unpopular. During the last two years of his term, Cameron waged no more oyster wars.