APPRECIATION

The Admirable Traditions Are Entrenched

Every day, the distinctive aroma of steaming blue crab wafts on the predominate breeze across the entire settlement of Cambridge, Maryland, USA, established 1694, and onto the scaffold surrounding STEADFAST. The J.M Clayton Company Seafood processing plant, across the river, is one of the last. Its dock is visited by a steady stream of work boats delivering teeming wooden bushel baskets starting around 10am every day. I imagine the Watermen appreciate the stability of the resource to sell their product. They get up around 3am to SPAR WITH MOTHER NATURE, just like fishermen do everywhere. If you haven’t yet, please read my series documenting five intriguing Watermen of the Chesapeake Bay. 

By eleven o’clock the air is permeated by the pungent aroma of the freshest imaginable seafood being steamed for unknown customers far from these peaceful shores. Clayton’s website states they are “the oldest operating crab processing plant in the world,” having begun just south of this location, on Hoopers Island,  in 1890.

I imagine this is what the plant has looked like since it moved here in 1921.

I’m sure the same aromas came from The Tilghman Packing Company, just a few miles across the Choptank River, in its heyday of the’40s, ‘50s and ‘60s. Those locals employed six hundred people; that is just slightly less than the entire population of the Island now. Originally on small docks with sheds for harvesting oysters, one shelling operation with forty shuckers created what is now Avalon Island; it grew and grew to become an immense complex built entirely on decades of discarded oyster shells. That is hard for me to imagine, frankly.

The sheer magnitude of what Mother Nature produces in these waters and what man (over)harvested, preserved and sold is nearly inconceivable. Millions of pounds of oysters, fish, and crab every year came off the boats and out the doors. First fresh, then pasteurized, then canned, then frozen. To span the time between seasons, they preserved seasonal fruits and vegetables. Bought by an outside corporation and closed with just one week’s notice in the 1970s, causing tremendous economic hardship, a Yacht Club is now paradoxically perched on that very property.

The entire island is built of discarded oyster shells! Note the phone number on this classic truck. Courtesy Talbot Historical Society.

Mother Nature is still providing blue crab and oysters for the Watermen who harvest these waters albeit amongst overbearing and hungry invasive species such as Snakehead and Blue Catfish. She’s providing the native species but there are no longer enough oysters in the Bay to filter it and that brackish water needs to be cleaned, now more than ever. Today’s Watermen are regulated, whereas Tilghman Packing Company simply changed its products with the rhythms of Mother Nature; when the crabs stopped, oysters began, in spring it was Striped Bass and Herring, even eels when the market for them was strong enough.

Watermen may be regulated, or overly regulated in the opinion of some, but they are also traditional, determined and resilient. Each April there is the Blessing of the Fleet ceremony and the second Sunday in August Watermen’s Appreciation Day is held at the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum in St. Michaels, fifteen miles north of Tilghman; hundreds of folks attend to eat crab and show their gratitude. This year they added a non-denominational church service and memorial ceremony for the Watermen who have been lost. Both events are now performed by Pastors Linda & Rob King of St. John’s Chapel, built on Tilghman Island in 1891. Rob plays the Shofar beautifully and if you have never heard the sound of a Jewish Kudu horn, listen here! Very soulful and inspiring.

Multi-talented Waterman David Miller and Pastor Linda King sing Amazing Grace.

Linda Haddaway King was an orphan who returned to her roots on Tilghman Island a decade ago, after being gone for four. Throughout school she worked for and helped manage Harrison’s Restaurant (just across the bridge) and then hitch-hiked to California seeking a far different life. She found that and more, married Rob, raised three daughters, educated herself and others in Pennsylvania before Tilghman called her back. The Haddaway name is well-known regionally and the family is now far-flung; Linda just met a second cousin that she didn’t even know walked the earth. Her constituents, relatives and friends are appreciative of her time and seemingly endless energy.

Linda is encyclopedic in her knowledge of local lore so it was perfect that she joined the Tilghman Waterman’s Museum board and remained there for seven years. If you haven’t experienced that fact-packed museum, put it on your list; the characters and history jump off the walls and offer a better understanding of how these people have truly been SPARRING WITH MOTHER NATURE for generations. My favorite? Johnny's story. He’s an exceptional human being. And possesses the wisdom of 87 years.

This bell tolled for the loss of those dedicated to harvesting the waters of the Bay. At right, Johnny Kinnamon is on the museum board and explains the exhibits.

“It’s always been done that way,” they told Linda. The expression makes me cringe, and it fired her up. She consistently stands up for what she thinks is right for the Watermen, and she has prevailed on many different occasions. That’s certainly not always how things work. Linda’s passion for her home and her determination to recognize Watermen are admirable. So is her story. Everybody has a story; that’s the name of my author website because I love learning the tales of everyday heroes. Either she or I will write her book someday. Stay tuned.

As a society, I believe we generally underappreciate and underestimate the average ‘people on the street.’ Everyone struggles and fails and wins. Everyone needs people like Linda and Rob King to stand behind them. With their humble, all-encompassing APPRECIATION of the challenges communities face, love of tradition and the desire to preserve history, they and the Watermen of Tilghman Island have certainly made a difference in my life, and I show my APPRECIATION every chance I get.

There is a current trend to be grateful for what you have. Is there is a fine line between being appreciative and being grateful? Please share your thoughts on what that line may be (if any). Thank you, as always, for reading along !! I am honored by the many new subscribers this week, best ever ! THANK YOU redundantly.

STEADFAST is currently hauled out in Cambridge, Maryland for repairs, and that unique circumstance is probably going to present enough great ideas and commentary to keep me going until we sail again at the end of the year. Since we are not sailing, what would you like to read about? I have a repertoire of previous adventures, or I can keep you updated on the ancient art of wooden boat repair. Any preference? I’ll probably do both, so… again, glad to have you here.

Every day, we all SPAR WITH MOTHER NATURE ….how’s your joust??

This work is supported by readers and I so much APPRECIATE you following along this unexpected path.

I am also a photographer and watch as each new day dawns, wherever I am. Here’s a great shot; I call it FLYING LESSONS. Two Osprey fledglings in the nest.

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