Posted on June 7, 2010.
Good Men Down [03.05 question]
Jane Meneely
There was no doubt in the mind of Wallace Thompson to this day. He was in debt and finally broke the ice. He owns the skipjack Claude W. Somers less than a year, and he was bound and determined to succeed her, she was the incarnation of his long-standing dream to own his own dredgeboat. When the wind picked up and the rest of the oyster fleet returned home, he stayed put in the open water at the mouth of the river Honga, determined to get a little more shopping. Then, he left to chance, the small port on the island narrows Deal he had left before dawn this morning in March. He was not concerned about the weather, but knew as well as anyone how treacherous gales of spring could be, how they could sneak on you and hammer parts. What he did not know was that the wind today to build near hurricane strength, and that neither he nor his crew would never set foot on land again.
People who live on the island Deal still shake my head about what happened on March 4, 1977. The details differ in that they offer a degree because many witnesses to the occurrence of so many different points of view, but one thing is certain: They can recall the tragedy as if it were yesterday instead of almost 30. Some witnesses have since disappeared, but the boatmen community continues to work the waters of the Strait of Hooper, Tangier Sound and the bay beyond, has preserved their stories and woven into the fabric of island life.
I saw this for me when I started asking questions about the Claude W. Somers. I pushed in Wenona, Maryland, the port at the end of Deal Island and home to some of the Bay last Skipjacks active. I went to Holland Arby small store next to the dock and chatted with Father Paul Arby's. The former Holland had parked at a little table where he had to deal himself another hand of solitaire. He said he knew of the Somerstragedy, but he could not remember the name of the man who had offered a cable Wallace. "Wait a second. These people know," he said nodding towards crab ST Webster and one of his buddies in the parking lot. Both were wearing white rubber boots and baseball caps everywhere boatmen working. When they are to recover from packing boxes for their crabs, Holland piped up: "You boys remember who is the man towed the boys? Fellow Wingate in place, perhaps? "
Webster frowned, and I thought he said: "What boys? When? "But he knew exactly who was meant to Holland." Do not rightly recall, he said, "but I bet that Grant Corbin's knowledge." Webster grabbed a pack of crackers and joined the conversation. "Thompson was a good boatman, a lot of experience. I have seen sailing in the pool once. It's a shame all that, "he said recalling that all but one of Wallace's crew that day were related.
In my quest for the living memory of the incident, I ended up talking to Grant Corbin, I also spoke to Elsworth Hoffman, retired head of the local DNR who oversaw the research, where the vessel ' no return, I spoke to Captain Art Daniels skipjack long I talked to Esther Wallace, widow of Thompson and Kevin Wallace, son of Thompson, I talked to Donald Mills, who took to the 'misty darkness after the storm to try to find the men I spoke to Don Simmons, whose father, a DNR officer Jennings Simmons has been with the group that found and retrieved the body, I spoke Snooks at Windsor, who helped raise the Somers bottom once it has been found, buried in 20 feet of water at the mouth of the river Honga, and who watched as the bodies of drowned men landed at Wingate. I told anyone I could find who had no recollection of the event, and gradually the west. Claud so.
