Tangier Island: The Watermen Next Door to the Crab Capital of the World

Crisfield is the Crab Capital of the World, and we are proud to ship from here. But the title was never earned by one town alone. It belongs to the whole working water around the Tangier Sound, and to the families who have fished it for generations.

Stand on our city dock and look west, and on a clear day you can make out a low line of houses and a water tower on the horizon. That is Tangier Island, Virginia. Tangier and Smith Island are our two island neighbors, each a short boat ride from Crisfield, and together with the watermen on this shore they make this the Crab Capital.

A small island of watermen, a boat ride from our front door.

A Dozen Miles Across the Sound

Tangier sits out in the Chesapeake Bay, about twelve miles from Crisfield. There is no bridge. Everything and everyone arrives by boat, or by small plane on the island's airstrip. The 2020 census counted 436 people, which means most folks you pass on the lanes are somebody's cousin.

The streets are narrow, built for golf carts, bicycles and mopeds rather than cars. The island has what any small town has, electricity, TV and the internet, and life still moves at the pace of the tide.

A Watermen's Island

Tangier is a watermen's community. The men here have worked the water their whole lives, most of them the way their fathers and grandfathers did. They are up well before the sun, out on the Bay tending crab pots, and home in the afternoon. Bedtime comes early, because the alarm does too.

At home, their spouses keep the island running, and many of them run small businesses of their own on the side. Some pick crabmeat. Some make crab cakes from it. It is hard, skilled work done by hand, and it turns a day's catch into something worth more.

It is a simple, close life, and a faithful one. Swain Memorial United Methodist Church, built in 1899, still stands at the center of the island, and Tangier is a dry town, so you will not find alcohol for sale anywhere on it. Sundays belong to church and family.

Tied to Crisfield by Boat

For an island twelve miles out, Tangier is closely connected to us. The mail boat, the Courtney Thomas, makes the run from Crisfield six days a week, carrying the island's mail, groceries and supplies, and plenty of islanders along with them. Other day boats make the trip too.

The traffic runs the other way as well. Tangier watermen bring their catch across the Sound, tying up at Crisfield's city dock or pulling alongside one of the seafood processors here to unload. On a summer morning, some of the crabs coming ashore in Crisfield were caught by Tangier hands.

And for visitors, there is the Steven Thomas, the 90-foot passenger boat run by Tangier Island Cruises out of Crisfield. Captain Steven Thomas takes guests across in the early afternoon, gives them a couple of hours to walk the island, eat and look around, and has them back in Crisfield by late afternoon. The boat used to go every day. These days it runs several days a week in season, so check their schedule before you plan the trip.

America's Biggest Sports Town, per Capita

Here is a fun one. In 2010, ESPN sent a crew to Tangier for a week to film a series of commercials for ESPN3, its online sports service. The spots named the island "the biggest sports town in America," with an asterisk: per capita.

They were not wrong. Islanders are serious fans, and every person in those commercials was a real Tangier resident, not an actor. Watermen hauling pots, cheering on their college teams, and in one spot holding up a crab to root for Texas. The ads aired nationally, including during Monday Night Football.

The Parson of the Islands and the War of 1812

Tangier's faith runs deep, and much of it traces back to one man. Joshua Thomas, born in 1776, was a waterman who became a Methodist preacher. Starting in the early 1800s he traveled the Bay in a canoe he called The Methodist, preaching from island to island and leading camp meetings on Tangier. People called him the Parson of the Islands.

During the War of 1812, the British used Tangier as a base for their Chesapeake campaign. According to island tradition, before the fleet sailed for Baltimore in 1814, Joshua Thomas preached to the assembled British troops and told them plainly that they would not take the city. Baltimore held, and the defense of Fort McHenry gave us "The Star-Spangled Banner."

We made a short film to tell the story. It runs about a minute.

The Thomas Name Still Makes the Crossing

More than two centuries after Joshua Thomas paddled these waters, a boat named the Steven Thomas carries visitors across the same Sound. If you want to see the island for yourself, it is one of the best days you can spend on the Bay. Ride over, walk the lanes, have lunch, and watch the watermen at work in the harbor.

Can't make the trip this year? The next best thing is the taste of the water these families work. Our steamed Maryland blue crabs, fresh crab meat and crab cakes ship straight from Crisfield, a dozen miles from Tangier.