Greenbook: A Local Guide to Chesapeake Living - Issue 8 | Page 11

CAPTAIN ART DANIELS
Art Daniels is 94 years old and has worked more
than 70 seasons on the water. He was widely
known as one of the oldest watermen still actively
working the Bay when he recently retired.
“Art truly inspired me to create Working the
Water”, says Fleming. “The age of the average
waterman is between 55 and 60. It is an aging
industry. To me, Art represents an older way of
life, not just because of his age, but also because
of the massive transformation of the fishing
industry over his lifetime”.
A GREAT CATCH (top right)
Mr. Smith is one of the last real watermen on
Smith Island. In this photo, he holds a mounted
crab measuring 10½ inches from point to point.
Even though Smith has seen thousands of crabs
in his lifetime, he felt good enough about this
one to have it preserved. Crabbers would be
hard–pressed to find crabs of that size anymore.
“I see in Russ an aging way of life”, Jay said.
“He’s seen things people will never see in terms of
the environment, in terms of Smith Island when
it was a booming place with a population, jobs,
oyster houses and crab picking, before erosion
issues really changed life for everyone there”.
CHESAPEAKE OYSTER (bottom right)
The Delvin K., captained by Jerry Pruitt, is the
last traditional “buy boat” on the Chesapeake
Bay. Before trucking made the buy boat
obsolete, savvy businessmen like Mr. Pruitt
would buy freshly harvested oysters direct
from watermen and transport them to shucking
houses to be processed.
This photo of an oyster harvested from Tangier
Sound was taken at a shuckhouse in Reedville,
Virginia. The classic Chesapeake style of
shucking an oyster is to use a sharp fin knife to
open the shell from the front rather than from
the hinge, and is known as “butt shucking”.

To learn more about Mr. Fleming and his book, visit
JayFlemingPhotography.com. Pre-orders are
currently available. The first 1000 pre-orders will be
signed by Mr. Fleming and include a free print.

GREENBOOK | SUMMER 2016

11