Skipjack: The Story of America's Last Sailing Oystermen [Hardcover]

Christopher White (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 10, 2009

In Skipjack, Christopher White spends a pivotal year with three memorable captains as they battle man and nature to control the fate of their island villages and oyster fleet. Through these lively characters, White paints a vivid picture of life on a skip - jack, a wooden oystering sailboat as they dredge for oysters—a favorite staple of iconic American seafood cuisine for over a hundred years. But this last vestige of American sailing culture is rapidly dying. State officials have mismanaged the waters, putting sport above business, and modernization above tradition. These captains must set aside their rivalry to fight for their very livelihood. With so many obstacles, it is not certain the fleet will survive the season. Hinging on its success, the viability of the nation’s premiere estuary and the survival of a classic American town hang dangerously in the balance.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In late March 1978, biologist and science writer White (Chesapeake Bay) joined the crew of the sailing ship Rebecca T. Ruark, a "skipjack" that was "among the last sailboats still employed in commercial fishing in North America." Renting a cottage in Tilghman, a village then untouched by development and tourism, White spent the next year chronicling the lives and community of the oystermen. In order to preserve the oyster population, an 1865 Maryland law limited the dredging of oysters to sail-powered ships; for over 140 years, this "enforced obsolescence" approach worked; now, however, the oyster population of the Bay (once "king of the American oyster") is plummeting for reasons not entirely clear, though pollution, disease and more efficient fishing methods have all contributed. Naturally, what's at stake is not just an important sea creature but a way of human life; White mines information and testimony on every aspect of community life, from family recipes to skipjack races to oyster wars, in a moving account. Examining the circumstances and difficult decisions of men like the skipper of the Rebecca, a third-generation oysterman, White provides on-the-ground insight into the possibilities and problems of simultaneously sustaining a community and an ecosystem.
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Review

"[An] evocative portrait of the nation's most beautiful and poignant vocational anachronism. It's an action-packed tale, complete with waterborne grudge matches, on-deck shootouts, fierce winter storms and suspenseful escapes. To his great credit, White resists any temptation to romanticize his skipjackers as quaint rustics simply overtaken by a modern world. He knows better. He has lived with them, worked aboard with them and listened as they admitted that they were often their own worst enemies. But he's just as clear-eyed when observing their virtues: loyalty and love of family, a relentless work ethic, stubborn independence and a cultural taproot to traditions of surpassing humanity. And he serves them all up for us on the half-shell."--The Washington Post

 

“Christopher White's Skipjack is not only a powerful elegy for a great American fishery, it's an act of defiance against all that has conspired to empty the dredges of these beautiful boats. White's prose is like the oystermen he portrays: tough, lyrical, and soaked to the bone in the waters of Chesapeake Bay. I've still got a lump in my throat from its last page."-- Richard Adams Carey, Against the Tide: The Fate of New England Fishermen and the Philosopher Fish

“Christopher White’s Skipjack, which chronicles the Chesapeake life history and impending death of our nation’s last fishery under sail, is a colorful, comprehensive, and valuable piece of Americana” – Peter Matthiessen

"The world has almost run out of fish, as modern technology strips our oceans bare. Christopher White's Skipjack is a compelling story about how the wisdom of the past can help us protect the future of our fisheries. If you savor seafood, White's chronicle of the gritty life aboard America's last sailboat fishing fleet is a tale you need to hear." —Trevor Corson, The Secret Life of Lobsters and The Zen of Fish: The Story of Sushi

“Men who take their livings from the sea have their own language to reinforce kinship and keep strangers at bay.  Only rarely is an outsider accepted into their inner circle, and then only when he knows how to listen and is willing to work.  Even more rarely does such an adopted son capture the cadenced ebb and flow of watermen’s speech.  Herman Melville did it for New England whalers: Christopher White has now done it for the oystermen of Maryland’s Eastern Shore.  Just as Melville documented something greater than a whale hunt, White’s account helps us understand how much all our lives will be diminished when the last oyster drudger sailed in from the Chesapeake… Skipjack is a masterpiece.” – George Reiger, author of Wanderer on My Native Shore

“Well written, and carefully researched … . Chris White’s brilliant use of the waterman’s vernacular and his intimate knowledge of multiple generations of watermen combine to make this an excellent treatise on a culture that is clearly disappearing.” —Gilbert M. Grosvenor, former editor and Chairman of National Geographic Society

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 384 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Press; 1st edition (November 10, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312545320
• ISBN-13: 978-0312545321
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.6 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #428,977 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #76 in Books > Science & Math > Nature & Ecology > Natural Resources > Fisheries & Aquaculture

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent!, December 13, 2009

By 

BillyMac (Baltimore, MD USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Skipjack: The Story of America's Last Sailing Oystermen (Hardcover)

This lovely book immerses the reader in Chesapeake Bay, illustrating the sad decline of it's fisheries and the colorful characters whose lives depend on it. The writer creates a rich sensory experience: I saw the sunrises, felt the cold spray, smelled the mud, tasted the oysters and Miss Pauline's pies, and heard the sounds of the wind in the rigging and geese overhead. I felt sad to leave the people and pace of Tilghman Island when I turned the last page.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Down to the Bay in Skipjacks, December 21, 2009

By 

wogan "the book reader" - See all my reviews
(TOP 50 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Skipjack: The Story of America's Last Sailing Oystermen (Hardcover)

It is heartbreaking in many ways to read this book - if you love the water and nature, but especially the endangered treasure that is the Chesapeake Bay. Skipjacks are handsome working boats, but to work on them is to know bloody blistered hands and the dangers of running on a body of water than can be just as hazardous as the open ocean.
Christopher White writes of these boats and the last sailing oystermen. He lived in their communities and sailed on their boats. He is able to write as both an insider and someone who knows he has to explain to the rest of the world what watermen or chicken neckers are. The hard but proud life of these watermen and their dialect is well conveyed; also the tragedies that can happen to the boats and their crews. Detailed and well done explanations are given of dredging and the falling numbers of healthy oysters. Also covered are the struggles to save an industry and a natural treasure that to some is a special food, but to others; oysters can help the quality of the Bay- each oyster acts as a filter for a huge amount of water.
The book follows the waterman's year; but also gives the history of oyster harvesting, the Oyster Wars, the rivalry between the boats, the captains and their crews, the skipjack races and even some traditional recipes.
The waterman's year ends on a pessimistic note both for the Bay, the oysters and their industry; but more than that - if you read this book you will know and feel the love of sail, the labor of the watermen and their place in the world. This is a marvelous effort that captures a way of life and an appreciation for an amazing part of the world we live in.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful, funny, and moving - wonderfully written, December 10, 2009

By 

R. T. Potts - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Skipjack: The Story of America's Last Sailing Oystermen (Hardcover)

I bought this book during the Thanksgiving Holiday weekend and read it while a storm raged outside. The book was a very pleasant surprise! I had never heard of Christopher White, but he has written an exceptional book, one that I have placed on my bookshelf beside William W. Warner's Beautiful Swimmers and Varley Lang's Follow the Water; my favorite books about the Eastern Shore and the Chesapeake Bay. Christopher White's gift for capturing the dialog of the Watermen is exceptional, and he uses that gift to propel his captivating, funny, and finally, very moving story to its sad ending. I've seen many of the Skipjacks mentioned in his book, at dockside in Tilghman Island, Cambridge, and other ports, at the Skipjack races, and out on the bay. It breaks my heart to read of their abandonment and destruction, and the disappearance of the way of life that sustained them for over a century. I will remember this sad and beautiful book for a very long time. I recommend it to anyone with an interest in the Bay, its unique watercraft, and above all, the Watermen who sail on it.