Chesapeake Requiem

by Earl Swift

  In 1995, another paper: Rachel Donham Wrayf, Stephen P. Leather-man, and Robert J. Nicholls, “Historic and Future Land Loss for Upland and Marsh Islands in the Chesapeake Bay, Maryland, U.S.A.,” Journal of Coastal Research 11, no. 4 (Autumn 1995): 1195–203.

  The following year: Michael S. Kearney, “Sea-Level Change During the Last Thousand Years in Chesapeake Bay,” Journal of Coastal Research 12, no. 4 (Autumn 1996): 977–83.

  Clearly, the middle: Gibbons and Nicholls, “Island Abandonment and Sea-Level Rise.”

  And the literature: Raymond G. Najjar, Christopher R. Pyke, Mary Beth Adams, et al., “Potential Climate-Change Impacts on the Chesapeake Bay,” Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science 86 (2010): 1–20.

  What would that look: William B. Mills, et al., “Predictions of Relative Sea-Level Change and Shoreline Erosion over the 21st Century on Tangier Island, Virginia.”

  How Tangiermen: W. Neil Adger, Jon Barnett, Katrina Brown, et al., “Cultural Dimensions of Climate Change Impacts and Adaptation,” Nature Climate Change 3 (2013): 112–7.

  Schulte undertook his own: To refresh your memory, the paper is David M. Schulte, Karin M. Dridge, and Mark H. Hudgins, “Climate Change and the Evolution and Fate of the Tangier Islands of Chesapeake Bay, USA,” Scientific Reports 5 (2015).

  If there are two words: My passage on Poplar Island’s past was informed by Stephen P. Leatherman, Vanishing Lands: Sea Level, Society, and Chesapeake Bay (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of the Interior, 1995); and Jon Gertner, “Should the United States Save Tangier Island from Oblivion?” New York Times Magazine, July 6, 2016.

  But unlike so many: The Poplar Island project is described in Gertner, “Should the United States Save Tangier Island from Oblivion?”; in Nevin Martell, “In Chesapeake Bay, Poplar Island Is Man-Made Miracle,” Washington Post, September 24, 2015; and on the website of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Baltimore District, at http://www.nab.usace.army.mil/Missions/Environmental/Poplar-Island/(retrieved November 14, 2017).

  Here’s the part: Jerry Frank’s quote is from the Situation Room session of February 15, 2017.

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  Late on the morning: I have reconstructed the firehouse meeting through interviews with Gregory Steele (September 15, 2016), John Bull (October 2017), Renee Tyler (August 18, 2016), and Anna Pruitt-Parks (October 31, 2016).

  The business at hand: Both Steele and Bull described their lunch meeting to me—Steele in our interview of September 15, 2016, and Bull in an October 2017 telephone conversation.

  Representing Tangier: Ooker related his feeling about email when we were aboard his boat on August 20, 2016.

  “I was excited”: Author interview with Anna Pruitt-Parks, October 31, 2016.

  Whatever the case: I reconstructed the August 17, 2016, town meeting with the help of a digital recording made by islander Barb Baechtel.

  The following day: This Situation Room session occurred on August 18, 2016.

  A month after the meeting: My meeting with Gregory Steele and Susan Conner took place on September 15, 2016.

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  Across the years: Church, “Tangier Island.”

  The studio called the film: My account of the Message in a Bottle saga relies on Marylou Tousignant, “Tangier Island Gives Film Script a Thumbs Down,” Washington Post, March 12, 1998. I also relied on an October 31, 2016, interview with Anna Pruitt-Parks, and a September 2017 telephone conversation with Beth Thomas.

  The vote attracted: The quote is from “Immorality vs. Immortality,” Baltimore Jewish Times, March 20, 1998. See also Tousignant, “Tangier Island Gives Film Script a Thumbs Down.”

  A good many: Author interview with Anna Pruitt-Parks, October 31, 2016.

  The following week: Beth Thomas telephone conversation, September 2017.

  In their homes: Author interview with Jack Thorne, July 3, 2016.

  “That’s when people”: Author interview with Iris Pruitt, December 12, 2016.

  Dozens of people: Author interview with Jean Crockett, October 29, 2016.

  In all, more than: Duane Crockett delivered this sermon on September 25, 2016.

  Another clue: Ernest Ed Parks and I explored the Sunset Inn on or about August 30, 2016. My fiancée spotted the light on September 9 or 10, 2016.

  “That was the big shocker”: Author interview with John Flood, early June 2016.

  But not all: The meeting took place after the Sunday evening service of September 11, 2016.

  Twenty-four hours later: The Tangier Town Council meeting took place on September 12, 2016.

  The meeting reveals a host: In our October 31, 2016, interview, Anna Pruitt-Parks told me that the sewage treatment plant “dollars the town to death.” The failing wells and the poor quality of Tangier water were discussed at a Tangier Town Council “special water meeting” on February 1, 2005.

  But no difficulty: The first quote is from the meeting cited in the text. The second is from the meeting of December 4, 2006.

  When I raised the subject: Author interview with Inez Pruitt, September 24, 2016.

  I also broached: Author interview with Nina Pruitt, July 13, 2016.

  The man with the most: I rode patrol with John Wesley Charnock on January 12, 2017. The quotes in subsequent paragraphs, as well as details of his biography, are from our conversation in the car.

  Wearied by the job’s: Ooker’s quote is from July 30, 2016. The cop’s complaint to the town council took place at the meeting of April 4, 2006.

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  In mid-September: This scene occurred on September 13, 2016.

  Henry Jander was a: Anne Hughes Jander, Crab’s Hole: A Family Story of Tangier Island (Chestertown, Md.: Literary House Press, 1994).

  But Henry Jander turned: Ibid.; “Approval Seen for Islands’ Power Plans,” Washington Post, October 8, 1947; and “Virginia Isle Again Has Electric Light,” Washington Post, December 25, 1947.

  That it took: Author interview with Anna Pruitt-Parks, October 31, 2016.

  I heard much the same: Author interview with Nina Pruitt, July 13, 2016.

  Denny Crockett, the former: Author interview with Denny Crockett, July 15, 2016.

  I saw it again: This scene unfolded on July 4, 2016.

  One has to wonder: Oscar Rishel’s contributions are described in Peggy Reynolds, “New Tide Washes Old Tangier Isle,” Washington Post, April 28, 1957. Also see Mariner, God’s Island.

  Rishel also played: Ibid.; Peggy Reynolds, “Doctor’s Welcome to Tangier Isle Marred by the Death of a Villager,” Washington Post, April 17, 1957; “Dr. Kato’s Island Domain,” Washington Post, April 18, 1957; and Jeff O’Neill, “Trouble Again on Tangier: ’Copter Plucks Heart Attack Victim Off Island That Has No Doctor,” Washington Post, March 30, 1959.

  Jander and Rishel: My section on Dr. Nichols was informed by a September 24, 2016, interview with Inez Pruitt and by “Dr. David Nichols, Tangier Island’s Angel, Dies,” Richmond Times-Dispatch, December 30, 2010; Angela Blue, “Treating Tangier Island,” Coastal Virginia, August–September 2015; and Bill Lohmann, “Five Years Later, Tangier Island Still Feels Presence of Doctor,” Richmond Times-Dispatch, December 20, 2015.

  Finally, in 1988: “Donor of Island Education Left a Legacy,” Chesapeake Bay Foundation, January 23, 2008, http://cbf.typepad.com/chesapeake_bay_foundation/2008/01/donor-of-island.html (retrieved December 14, 2017).

  Perhaps no come-here: Susan Emmerich, “Faith-Based Stewardship and Resolution of Environmental Conflict: An Ethnography of an Action Research Case of Tangier Island Watermen in the Chesapeake Bay” (Ph.D. diss., University of Wisconsin–Madison, 2003).

  Mention the Kayes: Danny McCready’s quote is from our conversation on Mark Crockett’s Joyce Marie II on August 17, 2016.

  Likewise, ask islanders: Hanson Thomas made this comment on October 10, 2016.

  “You’ve got to adapt”: Author interview with Eugenia Pruitt, October 11, 2016.

  “We loved the Kayes”
: Author interview with Lisa Crockett, October 28, 2016.

  “They were extremely friendly”: The Kayes described their years on Tangier over two days of interviews at their home in Wilmington, Delaware, on September 20–21, 2016.

  That fall, the Kayes: Tangier Town Council minutes of November 18, 2003. The Kayes told me they recalled starting this project further along in their stay—it wasn’t unveiled in the rec center until more than six years later. But these minutes, and those of December 2, 2003, indicate that this is when it began.

  Islanders had long assumed: Nina Pruitt’s quote is from our July 13, 2016, interview.

  So it was no small matter: The Kayes shared their open letter with me, which was dated April 18, 2009.

  As the Kayes saw it: The council voted against the ferry at its meeting of July 22, 2009. From the minutes: “Neil Kaye sent an email to the Town asking if the Town had a place for a 65 foot boat could dock [sic] if the state gave the grant money for a year round ferry. The mayor and council voted that they didn’t want a year round ferry.”

  Neil banged out: Anna Pruitt-Parks shared the August 21, 2010, email with me.

  In hindsight: The council minutes I cite are from the meeting of August 23, 2010.

  A week after their Facebook: The Kayes shared their August 28, 2010, email with me.

  When I asked Ooker: Ooker made these comments while we crabbed on July 30, 2016.

  The Kayes, who counted: The Kayes shared their email, which was dated September 17, 2010.

  Nichols replied a few days: The Kayes shared Nichols’s email, which was dated September 26, 2010.

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  The election even: Pastor Flood delivered this sermon on September 4, 2016.

  In the Situation Room: This scene is from September 13, 2016.

  One Saturday I sit: My visit with Beth Thomas occurred on October 8, 2016.

  In the nineteenth century: The collapse of oystering is described in Schulte, “History of the Virginia Oyster Fishery,” and Mariner, God’s Island.

  Then, in 1949: Schulte, “History of the Virginia Oyster Fishery,” and Najjar et al., “Potential Climate-Change Impacts on the Chesapeake Bay.”

  Ten years later: Ibid.

  When summer came: Report of the Task Force on the Virginia Blue Crab Winter Dredge Fishery to the Governor and the General Assembly of Virginia (Richmond: Commonwealth of Virginia, 2000), 1, and Swift, “The Tangierman’s Lament.”

  For the catch to flatline: Ibid.

  So in the 1990s: See Justin Blum, “Starting Next Year, Va. Crabbers Must Turn the Little Ones Loose,” Washington Post, June 23, 1993; and Swift, “The Tangierman’s Lament.”

  All of these fixes: Francis X. Clines, “Virginia’s Desperate Step To Protect the Blue Crab,” New York Times, July 30, 2000; and Swift, “The Tangierman’s Lament.”

  Of all the bay’s crabbers: Report of the Task Force on the Virginia Blue Crab Winter Dredge Fishery.

  So even with the new: Tom Pelton and Bill Goldsborough, Bad Water and the Decline of Blue Crabs in the Chesapeake Bay (Annapolis, Md.: Chesapeake Bay Foundation, 2008), available online at http://www.cbf.org/document-library/cbf-reports/CBF_BadWaters Report6d49.pdf (retrieved November 15, 2017).

  By 2007, the fishery: Ibid. See also David A. Fahrenthold, “Despite Rescue Effort, Bay Crabs at an Ebb,” Washington Post, November 17, 2007.

  Virginia officials recognized: Scott Harper, “New State Ban on Dredging of Crabs Upheld by Judge,” Virginian-Pilot, November 25, 2008; and Michael W. Fincham, “The Blue Crab Conundrum,” Chesapeake Quarterly, July 2012, http://www.chesapeakequarterly.net/v11n2/main1/.

  This did not have the drastic: Report of the Task Force on the Virginia Blue Crab Winter Dredge Fishery; and Scott Harper, “New state ban on dredging of crabs upheld by judge,” Virginian-Pilot, November 25, 2008.

  But the fall’s cooling: The quotes, as noted, are from the New Testament service of September 25, 2016.

  But by the time: Flood’s comments are from the Swain service of October 5, 2016.

  Still, this is: The airplane was abandoned beside the runway on July 15, 2016.

  But except for damage: New Testament Church evening service, October 9, 2016.

  The first Sunday: Swain Memorial morning service, November 6, 2016.

  I pedal onward: The election results I cite are from the Accomack County registrar.

  That Friday: The Courtney Thomas conversation took place on November 11, 2016.

  I have borne: Situation Room session of October 11, 2016.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  Duane Crockett has spent: Sermon of February 5, 2017.

  In the face of this: Ryan B. Carnegie and Eugene M. Burreson, Status of the Major Oyster Diseases in Virginia 2006-2008 (Gloucester Point, Va.: VIMS, December 2009).

  Which is what prompts me: My oystering trip on the Alona Rahab took place on November 17, 2016.

  One dark, frigid morning: I was aboard the Claudine Sue on December 14, 2016.

  I think about that: I made the crossing on December 15, 2016.

  And so winter: The snowstorm hit the weekend of January 7–8, 2017.

  Still, the watermen: Carlene spoke at the New Testament service on January 15, 2017.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  Many an islander: I interviewed numerous islanders about the weather conditions of April 24, among them Jason Charnock, Lonnie Moore, Allen Ray Crockett, John Wesley Charnock, Tracy Moore, Dean Dise, Freddie Wheatley, Allen Parks, and Mitchell Shores. The wind speeds cited here and elsewhere in this chapter are from Lonnie and Jason.

  So it was: Jason Charnock described pot placement in our interview of October 6, 2017.

  Mindful that the wind: Ibid.

  Better luck waited: Ibid.

  And so it was: Ibid. Jason told me that they headed for home with thirty-two bushels of sooks and four of jimmies. The weight I cite is based on a forty-pound bushel, a figure supplied to me by Lonnie Moore. Jason Charnock estimated the time at which he noticed the boat felt soft in our October 6, 2017, interview.

  And the waves were high: The odd nature of the seas came up in multiple interviews—with Lonnie Moore on October 5, 2017; Tracy Moore on October 7; and John Wesley Charnock and Andy Parks on October 9.

  Leon McMann has told me: Leon made this observation in the Situation Room on December 12, 2016. The boat’s equipment is from my Jason Charnock interview of October 6, 2017.

  The second was an automatic: Lonnie Moore explained bailers in our October 5, 2017, interview.

  In the cabin, Jason: This and the following paragraphs were informed by my Jason Charnock interview of October 6, 2017.

  Yes, everything’s fine: Ibid., and Lonnie Moore interview of October 5, 2017.

  Except that it didn’t: Jason Charnock interview of October 6, 2017.

  Jason shouted for help: Ibid., and interview with Billy Brown on October 8, 2017.

  He scanned the cabin: This paragraph and all those to the end of the section are based on my October 6, 2017, interview with Jason Charnock.

  Billy Brown’s call: October 8, 2017, interview with Billy Brown. Sandra Parks told me she believed the call came from Dean Dise, but both Billy and Dean refute that account.

  That one crabber: Andy Parks telephone interview of October 31, 2017.

  Andy grabbed the phone: Ibid., and Kelly Wheatley telephone interview of October 31, 2017.

  Down in the boat stalls: Telephone interviews with Dean Dise on October 31, 2017, and Freddie Wheatley on November 1, 2017.

  It missed Lonnie Moore: Lonnie Moore interview of October 5, 2017; Loni Renee Charnock interview of October 6, 2017.

  Then she heard: Ibid.

  Lonnie had just reached: Lonnie Moore interview of October 5, 2017.

  The Coast Guard: Liz Holland, “Coast Guard suspends search for missing Tangier waterman,” at http://www.delmarvanow.com/story/news/local/virginia/2017/04/25/search-continues-missing-tangier-waterman/100878370/ (retrieved November 22,
2017).

  Freddie Wheatley and Dean: Dise interview of October 31, 2017; Wheatley interview of November 1, 2017.

  Lonnie Moore, meanwhile: Lonnie Moore interview of October 5, 2017.

  The Henrietta C.’s bow: This entire section is based on my October 6, 2017, interview with Jason Charnock, and on the statement he provided the Coast Guard on April 27, 2017.

  An hour after Jason’s call: October 5, 2017, interview with Lonnie Moore.

  The Coast Guard chopper: Ibid., and interview with Carol Moore on October 5, 2017.

  From Jason Charnock’s statement: I was in Annette Charnock’s home on April 27, 2017, when Jason provided this statement to a visiting Coast Guard investigator. Annette lent me a transcript of his statement that afternoon.

  Two nights later: I was present for the Swain Memorial service of April 26, 2017.

  The next day I stop in: I visited Annette Charnock’s home on April 27, 2017.

  A thousand feet up: I made the search flight with Ooker and Kenny Carpenter on April 27, 2017. I sat in the back seat, left side; Ooker rode shotgun.

  The following Sunday morning: I attended the class meeting at Swain Memorial on April 30, 2017.

  An hour later: I hitched a ride on Mark Haynie’s boat for the dragging expedition of April 30, 2017.

  Ten days after the sinking: Interview with Tommy Eskridge of October 7, 2017. Tommy recovered the body with the help of Mark Crockett on May 4, 2017. Ed came home on the mailboat on May 17, 2017.

  Later that afternoon: Situation Room session of May 17, 2017.

  “A dry wood worm”: Interview with Jerry Frank and Inez Pruitt of October 7, 2017.

  He’d loved that boat: Annette Charnock interview of October 7, 2017; telephone interview with Sharon Marshall of Smith Island Drydock, November 2, 2017. The company’s records, Sharon told me, showed that the Henrietta C. left the boatyard on November 28, 2016.

  But he had not gotten around: Interview with Jerry Frank and Inez Pruitt of October 7, 2017; interview with Annette Charnock of October 7, 2017.

  That Monday: Jason Charnock interview of October 6, 2017.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  We finish the pots: My visit to Watts Island occurred on or about July 7, 1994.