(Back Sound)
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| Long Haul Boats working the "Pollywag" of Back Sound |
Throughout the longest days of summer, it was not uncommon to
be awakened on a "slick cam" morning by a din of hollering coming
from well beyond the shore at the Landing. Sometimes we would run down the path to look toward that distinctive yet familiar sound. Frequently, out towards the Island channel, could be seen a host of small dories
heading out from a much
larger fishing vessel.
The voices that had pierced the
morning were the sound of crewmen, mostly African Americans, working on a
"shad boat" that had found a school of menhaden in the deeper water that was just a few hundred
yards from the shoreline. Almost always, after their catch had been surrounded by their net, the “chanteymen” would morph into a musical chorus of brilliant
harmonies even while they tugged on the heavy nets they were charged with hauling aboard. Their ringing voices would echo
across the calm water so clearly that it sounded as if they were as near as the
foaming water line that marked the incoming tide. “Shad boating” was done on an
industrial scale in nearby Beaufort, down the southeast coast
to the Florida Keys, and then back along the Gulf of Mexico all the way to Texas. But it required more organization and capital
investment than the Islanders of my youth had to offer. Watching the large and
coordinated crews of experienced seamen work from a distance was the closest
that most of us growing up on the Island ever got to being part of that
culture.
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| "Shad Boat Dories" working for Menhaden Fisheries (photo property of Saltwater Fisherman) |
