Watermen don’t stop - TTG

This is an AP story that appeared at the bottom of the front page of my local newspaper this morning. It caught my eye because, unlike northern Virginia, the Northern Neck has been largely spared from the coronavirus. That's a good thing for Tangier Island since it is only a short float from the Northern Neck. Given the proximity of the Northern Neck to northern Virginia and DC, I take it as a sign that God also loves this part of Virginia, a peninsula bounded by the Potomac and Rappahannock Rivers.

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NORFOLK, Va. (AP) — Inez Pruitt has watched the coronavirus spread throughout the world from the relative safety of Tangier Island, a small fishing community in the middle of the Chesapeake Bay. But the virus is now as close it can get without crossing the water, infecting people on the Eastern Shore of Virginia and Maryland. “I feel like if we got COVID, it would be devastating,” said Pruitt, a physician assistant who operates the island's health clinic. “In my head it has a very high potential of happening. I just hope to God it doesn’t.”

Reachable only by plane or boat, the dwindling community of fewer than 500 people has reported zero cases of the coronavirus. And though its one school and two churches have shuttered, life has continued at a level of normalcy that much of the nation lost weeks ago. Far fewer people on Tangier are wearing masks than in much of the U.S. Its watermen, who anchor the economy and make up much of the workforce, still pull up crab pots and sell their bushels to buyers on the mainland.

Only one restaurant is open this time of year, so only one had to close its dining room. The island still celebrated Palm Sunday and Easter, albeit in a long procession of golf carts and other vehicles that circled the island. “It’s sort of like we’ve been in a safe haven,” Mayor James “Ooker” Eskridge said. “We feel more protected.” Tangier has come to be viewed by some in America's stifled East Coast cities as the perfect escape. “I’ve had folks call me up from all over and say, ‘Would it be OK if I flew in just to walk on the beach?’” the mayor said.

The mayor said he has discouraged such visits, but small planes have landed in recent weeks. The island also told a New York-based production company that was filming a possible television show about Tangier to stay away until the pandemic subsided. But the community’s protective isolation could also be its undoing if the coronavirus comes ashore. Disease can spread fast in the close-knit community, which hasn’t had a full-time doctor in half a century.

These days, a doctor usually flies to the island every other week. People who get really sick must be taken to a hospital on the mainland. About 40% of Tangier's inhabitants are more than 60 years old and therefore more vulnerable to the virus. Over the winter, a flu spread quickly and infected more than 50 people, Pruitt said. One person almost died. Another had a heart attack.  (continued at AP News)

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I hope Tangier’s luck holds out. Between rising tides and subsidence, I doubt the island can hold out for another generation. It's loss will be a shame. It is a regional treasure. The Northern Neck will still be with us. The danger here is development, but I have confidence in the people and even the politicians. Congressman Rob Wittman is a great champion of the Bay and the watermen who make their living from her waters.

I found this video produced for a Northern Neck real estate salesman. The subject, Dr. Emory Lewis, is an obviously very well off retired physician who grew up on the water. He served as a Naval lieutenant during Viet Nam and went to medical school on the GI Bill. I hope you enjoy the video as much as I did. And here’s a story from the Richmond Times Dispatch about his retirement hobby as an oysterman. With all the restaurants shut down, I wonder if he’s selling directly to the public.

What gives me hope for the Northern Neck is the way Stafford is treating her Potomac shoreline. We have the Crows Nest Wildlife Preserve, one of the finest natural areas in the Chesapeake Bay region. We have Aquia Park and the newly created Widewater Park. We also have local watermen still able to make a living. Decatur’s Crabs has been in the Widewater area of Stafford long before I moved here. As long as the crabbin’s good, they sell in Fredericksburg daily and on weekends just down the road from me in northern Stafford. Here’s a video of two of their boats, newly refurbished for the season, leaving True North Boat Works, near Stingray Point where the Rappahannock empties into the Bay. And just because I like the water, here's another video of the "Crabman" setting out crab traps and bringing in the Mothers Day crabs.

The photo at the top of this post is of the Potomac River as seen from VRE commuter train. I took that ride from Quantico to Alexandria almost every day for over six years. It was glorious during those times of year when I could catch that sunrise on the way to work. Sometimes I would catch watermen loading their crab traps on their skiff and deadrise workboats. It was a great way to start a day. That’s the Maryland shoreline in the distance. As I recall, this is the River that Claude Devereux crossed in the middle of the night as he infiltrated Union lines on his espionage mission.

TTG 

Comments

[scott s.]

Used to have to go to Dahlgren quite often for work. At the time I lived in Annapolis and it was an easy drive. It used to be that crossing South River from Annapolis you entered "southern Maryland" (meaning old Maryland) but over time DC has gotten closer and closer. Not hardly any tobacco fields or drying sheds. When they moved NavAir from Pentagon City to Pax River, that helped bring DC to southern Maryland.

There was an interesting period where southern Maryland had gambling and became quite the thing. Maybe around the time of Spiro Agnew? From colonial times, the Md/Va border is not the center of the Potomac rather the southern shore. So you could build a pier on the Northern Neck and be in Maryland. There was a place in Waldorf called the "WigWam" which I knew as a bakery, but supposedly BITD was a "house of ill-repute".

When I lived there they continually were trying to make the 301 a DC outer bypass route. People in southern Maryland wanted no part of it. I used to have to drive the 301 down and then 17 through the Middle Neck into Yorktown and Newport News or Norfolk. The area around Tappahannock is really nice. For ACW buffs, Port Royal was where McClellan initially wanted to use as his base for his 1862 campaign. Fort AP Hill is also a nice area, though I guess not really on a peninsula.

[Leith]

Great videos, thanks!

Watermen have a relationship with nature that the rest of us do not. And they also have a special relationship with faith. Was it someone here who said: It is not a coincidence that all or most of Christ's disciples were fishermen.

I'm not particularly religious myself, but I have to wonder if when Christ was a carpenter whether or not he did a lot of boatbuilding.

[Fred]

TTG,

Thanks for the story. There were once quite a few crabbers/oysterman working out of Boyce's Marina in Coles Point, long gone with Mr. Boyce's passing many decades ago. A former submariner and Seabee who was a good friend of my father told my father about the Norther Neck back in the late 60s. Dad finally procured a run down cottage and spent 4-5 summers putting 4 teenage boys to work on upgrades. Nothing like digging out a septic tank to replace a drain field and installing indoor plumbing, much appreciated by all, especially Mom. Good times fishing and crabbing on the Potomac. If you ever need to keep your kids occupied in the evening just tell them the best crabmeat comes out of the legs and flippers and put them to work while they enjoy an hour or two of B&W tv on the one channel that comes in snow free over the air.

Next time you're down stop in at Washington's Birthplace National Monument, which is also in Westmoreland County.
https://www.nps.gov/gewa/index.htm

[Leith]

Fred -

Decades ago I took the kids to Fossil Beach not far from Washington's Birthplace. Looks like they are now having some cliff erosion there. Just saw this today on the WX channel:

https://weather.com/news/trending/video/watch-tree-tumbles-into-potomac-river?isSubsequent=true