Tangier, dubbed the “soft crab capital” of the nation, is a unique island located in the middle of the Chesapeake Bay that is only accessible by boat or plane. Technically part of the state of Virgina, the island is only about 1 mile wide and 3 miles long and has about 700 residents, most of whom make their living off the water.
Captain John Smith first visited Tangier Island in 1608 and in 1620 settlers arrived from Cornwall, England. Today, the island is home to a close knit community, many of whom are related. Visitors will find that many of the residents they meet have the last name of either Crockett, Parks, Pruitt, or Thomas. Most of these residents make their living crabbing in the Chesapeake Bay, much like their ancestors did.
However, due to a number of factors (rising sea levels, erosion of shorelines, and destruction of the crab and oyster populations) both the island of Tangier and the life style of it’s residence is disappearing.
The Oyster Wars were a series of sometimes violent disputes between oyster pirates (a name given to persons who engage in the poaching of oysters), authorities, and legal harvesters from Maryland and Virginia in the Chesapeake Bay and the Potomac River from 1865
Pirates Dredging at Night
A wood engraving in Harper’s Weekly , published on March 1, 1884, depicts men dredging oysters at night in the Chesapeake Bay. This method of oyster harvesting, in which a metal frame and net are raked across the waterbed, can cause permanent damage to oyster beds, and by 1880 had been outlawed in both Virginia and Maryland. A sudden increase in the demand for oysters, however, led to an increase in illegal dredging. During the so-called Chesapeake Oyster Wars of the 1880s, violence flared up between oyster farmers who claimed rights to the same oyster beds; between local watermen and poachers from New England; and between oyster pirates and lawmen who patrolled the bay to prevent illegal harvesting.
Cheaspeake Workboat Modeling 