The Chesapeake Bay is the largest estuary in the United States and at one time provided a major portion of the nation's seafood. Oysters, crabs, and clams were in abundance and the men of Maryland's Eastern Shore relied on the Chesapeake to make their livelihood. Now eleven of these Shoremen share their memories. The stories they tell will both enlighten and entertain. Some earned a great sum of money in a short amount of time, while others experienced one misfortune after another. Learn about devastating storms, like Hurricane Agnes, from which they made harrowing escapes. Read about high-ranking politicians, from governors to presidents, who have made the Chesapeake Bay a center of political activity. Coming from diverse backgrounds, these men represent a broad spectrum of folks who lived along the Eastern Shore, worked the waters of the Bay, and experienced the harshness of Chesapeake winters as well as her glorious sunrises.

Chesapeake Men: Their Stories – Their Memories

History

Parks, Don

Americas

Schiffer

Meet eleven women from the Chesapeake Bay: waterwomen, boat captains, businesswomen, scientists, and historians. Individually, these women’s lives have been influenced and enriched by living on or near the Bay. As a collection, they are some of the great Chesapeake storytellers. Their stories are both informative and entertaining. Some tell of a Bay that was more pristine and wholesome than it is presently and a time when most of the people made their livelihood from the Bay. They tell of the unique culture and heritage that bond their lives and share the hope that their beloved Chesapeake will once again be healthy and the folks who live along her shores will truly be stewards not only of her but also of each other. Through their stories, their memories, we can only hope that their dreams will someday come true.

Chesapeake Women: Their Stories - Their Memories

Biographies & Memoirs

Community & Culture

Chesapeake People looks into the lives of a variety of intriguing citizens who call the Eastern Shore home. Among them are scientists, watermen, an educator, a world class sailor and a minister. Their fascinating stories are not only entertaining but offer insight into a special lifestyle. Except for four years in the military, Don Parks has lived on the Eastern Shore of Maryland his entire life. The son of a waterman, Parks began to seriously explore the Chesapeake Bay and its people following his retirement. The Chesapeake has always been one of his passions.

Chesapeake People

Secant Publishing LLC

Chesapeake Winds and Tides investigates the culture and heritage of an area that was heavily influenced by the Chesapeake Bay. By cruising the rivers and waterways of the Eastern Shore, the author looks into a vanishing culture that is rapidly changing. Numerous interactions with area citizens who freely discussed life from a bygone era described a heritage that will, in years to come, fade into a distant memory.

Chesapeake Winds and Tides: Journeys Among Eastern Shore Islands, Rovers and Communities

Sports & Outdoors

Water Sports

In Islander's War, his first work of fiction, popular Eastern Shore writer Don Parks uses a novelist's imagination and insider's knowledge to dramatize the struggles of traditional Chesapeake Bay island communities early in the twentieth century.Arthur Crockett, an unsophisticated but courageous young man from the fictional Caplan's Island, is swept up in a host of changes, beginning with service of a draft notice for duty in World War I. He joins his good friend Horace Stevens in a long day and night's journey by steamboat to Camp Meade near Baltimore.During leave time from training in Alabama, Arthur meets and is smitten by the daughter of a Presbyterian minister. Marjorie Symington bowls over everyone but Arthur's mother. The battle between these two women becomes almost as fateful for the course of Arthur's life as the trench warfare in France waiting for him and Horace.All the old verities of life on the water seem under assault, but Arthur's common sense and sturdy faith provide him with a compass that shows him what he has to do--even when it is not easy.

Islander's War

Literature & Fiction

United States