Shrimp
Chasers
By JAY JEISKIXS
As a rule, they're pessi¬
mistic by nature, lint they
have built up a tremen¬
dous industry a Ion" the
coast.
Southport. Not all of the pro¬
fessional pessimists are coaching
college football teams in North
Carolina. As evidence of this fact
consider the shrimpers in South-
port. the state's shrimping capital.
Just as some of the most success¬
ful football coaches moan the loud¬
est so do the shrimpers with
the thickest bankrolls send up the
most sorrowful laments: for the
shrimpers rank as the most doleful
capitalists in these parts.
A case in point is furnished by
the shrimp bonanza discovered olT
Key West. Florida, not so long ago.
News of this reached here soon
after two Florida shrimpers made
their discovery, and two South-
port shrimpers went to Florida to
investigate. When they returned,
this was their report:
"Tides are fast. Surfaces are
rough. Wreckage and logs tear
nets. There’s no place to pack
shrimp.”
On the strength of that pessimis¬
tic report, the shrimp boats began
stuttering out of here immediately,
for in the language of the shrimp¬
ers the report meant there were
millions of the fan-tailed denizens
willing to fall into a net. And. after
three months, when the shrimp
boats still had not returned to
their berths here. Southport citi¬
zens knew that the harvest was
great.
There is some basis for the pessi¬
mism of the shrimpers, who like to
relate a story about a wreck near
Weldon twelve years ago as one of
the reasons for their attitude. A
refrigerated truck, carrying a load
of shrimp, turned over and spilled
its cargo along the road. Onlook¬
ers could not identify the shrimp,
and this fact didn't sit well with
the shrimpers at all.
More and more Tar Heels now
not only recognize shrimp as the
product of a half-million dollar in¬
Л
portion of the shrimp trawler
Псе!
tied up at the Southport docks.
(Photo by Lawrence Wolford.)
dustry in the State, they also ap¬
preciate shrimp as a delicacy for
the table. One shrimper said that
a few years ago five 100-pound
boxes would "glut Wilmington."
whereas the city now consumes a
hundred such boxes with case.
Shrimpers ascribe the greatly
increased consumption in the State
to the influence of the soldiers from
the East who were stationed in
North Carolina during the war.
"Those Yankees." one shrimp¬
er said, "were shrimp eaters."
Another factor was the wartime
meat shortage, which led many
iwrsons to seek seafood substitutes.
Approximately 150 boats are op¬
erated out of Southport by shrimp¬
ers. whose annual catch places this
quiet seaport behind only Florida
and New Orleans in the matter of
shrimp production on the Atlantic
and Gulf coasts. The jaunt to Key
West was one of many trips the
shrimpers have made to distant
places in search of an elusive
quarry.
For shrimp have odd migratory
habits which cannot be predicted.
Some shrimpers contend that the
wind governs the travels of the
shrimp, others say it’s the rain¬
fall. and others say it's fate. One
year the shrimp may be in the silt
deposits of the Cape Fear River,
and the next they may be in the
Gulf of Mexico. But wherever the
shrimp are. to that place the
shrimpers go.-
Most of the boats here are diesel-
jowered craft from 50 to 55 feet
ong. with a crew of three and a
cargo of 10 tons of chipped ice on
board as a preservative. Usually,
the boats operate from "can't see."
or dawn, until "can’t see." or dusk,
although during the recent expe¬
dition to Key West they fished at
night.
And while the shrimpers are not
talkative, they have a strict code
which provides that a shrimper lo¬
cating a school of shrimp must so
announce. This the shrimpers do
by letting out a flag buoy at the
s|M)t. Then the other shrimp trawl¬
ers close in.
The trawl-nets in which shrimp
are caught arc funnel-shaped, with
an 80- to 90-foot spread. The nets
are held open by a kite-like frame,
with the lower part of the net held
on the bottom by leads and the
top part of the net held up by
corks. At a speed averaging about
five miles per hour, the nets are
dragged along the bottom.
Crewmen pull in the nets with
a mechanical hoist, which dumps
the catch on deck Then the shrimp
are washed down, placed on ice.
and the nets go out again. At the
end of the trip, the shrimp are
taken to one of the seven packing
houses here, and placed atop large
tables.
Women snap oil the shrimp
heads with nimble fingers, collect¬
ing two dimes from a paymaster
for each bucketful of shrimp she
delivers at the end of the table.
After that, the shrimp are rinsed
thoroughly in large vats of water
and are packed in iced boxes for
shipment. Most of the Southport
shrimpers ship their cargo in re¬
frigerated trucks which they own.
ГНЕ
STATE. June lO. 1950
