Beautiful Swimmers: Watermen, Crabs and the Chesapeake Bay by John Flood, Library Manager, Grand Central LibraryJanuary 21, 2010

Before Salt or Cod there was Beautiful Swimmers, a book about everything blue crab. Actually, this book is as much a study of Chesapeake watermen, but can you really separate the watermen from the crabs? Not on your life.

I grew up on the Eastern Shore and William Warner gets the watermen right, for the most part. Watermen always call each other "honey", for instance. The watermen are extremely hard working and independent and by the end of this book, I had a lot of respect for what they do.

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Watermen

Submitted by (not verified) on January 29, 2010 - 6:04pm

More recent (and more first-hand) than Warner's excellent book are "Having My Say: Conversations with Chesapeake Waterman Wylie 'Gator' Abbott" and "Wet and Huntry: An Atlantic Fisherman's Life."

Watermen

Submitted by John Flood on February 2, 2010 - 6:44pm

Great suggestions for future reading! Thanks.

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