Rats DO desert a sinking ship…..

We were over on Tilghman Island, at our neighbor Bill’s house for dinner. Also there that night was another of our neighbors, Captain Stanley Larrimore. Captain Stanley (as everyone calls him) is a retired Skipjack captain, and semi-celebrity around here. Captain Stanley has been featured in more than a few books about the Eastern Shore, and particularly books about oystering, and Skipjack sailing boats. For those not aware, Skipjacks are a low slung sailing boat used for oystering, through a method known as dredging. Back in the 1800s, there were literally hundreds of them on the bay. Over the next century, there came to be fewer and fewer of them, until now, there are only 2 working Skipjacks left on Tilghman.

For dinner that night, we were having soft shell crabs, and Captain Stanley was showing us how he prepares soft shells. Anytime a waterman is giving you cooking instructions on seafood, you want to pay attention – in this case, this is a man who has spent over 60 of his 80-something years making a living on the water – he knows what he’s talking about…..A drink or two later, we fried up the crabs and they were delicious.

After dinner, we were sitting around the table, when all of a sudden Captain Stanley says “ya know, rats do desert a sinking ship”. We looked at him, and with a bit of sparkle in his eye, he relayed the following story…

“We were out oysterin’ and the day had gone well. We’d hit our limit, and were heading for Tilghman. As we passed Poplar Island, it seemed to me that the boat was handling funny, so I told one of the crew to check below. He took a quick look and said everything was fine. It turned out not to be fine. The hold was filling with water and The Reliance (his Skipack) kept running lower and lower in the water. I wasn’t sure we were going to make the harbor, so I ran her to a point near the entrance to Knapps Narrows and ran her aground…as we hit the ground, two rats came out of the hold and leapt off the deck and swam to shore……..Well, I got the buy boat to come by and we offloaded the oysters. Without the weight, I was able to nurse her home. It turned out that the rats had eaten a two inch hole near the centerboard and that’s what caused the hold to flood. We got her repaired the next day, and we were back out the day after that. Not only had the rats caused the hole in the boat that caused the leak, they were the first one off when it looked like we were going to sink”.

We all laughed and made a few jokes about the rats. A few more stories were told, and the dinner ended an hour or so later. For me, it ended way to soon.

Captain Stanley is a great neighbor and I count myself lucky to know him. I’d first heard about him 7 or 8 years ago, when reading a book called Skipjack (White). When we bought our home on Tilghman, I couldn’t believe that he was a neighbor across the street. If you want a living history of the Eastern Shore, he’s about as close as you can get. Well, he, and a few others like him. Vocal histories are something to be treasured.  I’ve found this to be true not only with my own father’s stories, but also many other people I’ve met along life’s path.  Captain Stanley is one of those people.

Now when you hear the phrase “They left like rats deserting a sinking ship” in reference to a business, or friends, or politics, you will know there’s a real basis for the phrase…..at least on one ship in the Chesapeake.