Watermen of the Tangier Sound

The term waterman was first documented in the 1400s. In the early Chesapeake Bay seafood industry, people usually focused on harvesting either oysters or blue crabs and were known as oystermen or crabbers. As harvests declined and the industry changed, many worked as oystermen in winter and crabbers in summer, giving rise to the term waterman. Over the centuries, watermen of the Tangier Sound, the Chesapeake waters around Crisfield and Smith and Tangier Islands, used equipment ranging from simple dip nets to complex hydraulic systems. Although methods changed, the defining hallmark of the waterman remained expert knowledge of the Bay and its creatures passed down through generations.

Crisfield, Maryland · United States