Raconteur and former shrimp boat captain, Woody Collins, has added local author to his list of accomplishments. Though local residents have been catching and eating shrimp off the coast of the Carolinas for centuries, the area’s commercial shrimp industry began about a century ago. From a peak of about 1500 working boats in the 1980s, Beaufort’s fleet is no more.
There’s no one who can explain the factors in the rise and all of the shrimp industry better than Woody Collins who spent 40 years trawling area waters. His self-published book, Where Have All the Shrimp Boats Gone? has sold out and the author has no intentions of authorizing a third printing. Collins drew extensively from a series of oral histories collected by Laura Von Harten during the 1990s and his long work and personal relationships with other shrimpers to flesh out the challenges and triumphs of a life-style based on the ebbs and flows of tidal creeks and local waters.
The BDC is privileged to have been gifted copies #1 and #5 of the limited printing directly from Captain Woody who very graciously inscribed them for posterity. Lavishly illustrated with more than 300 images (some from the BDC’s collections), this book is a substantive history but nevertheless fun to read.
Please join us at the Bluffton Branch Library on Wednesday, January 24, 2024 for Capt. Woody's Author Book Talk about Where Have All the Shrimp Boats Gone?. Doors open at 12:30 pm for first come seating.
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