Brice Stump book explores rich history of Deal Island skipjacks
Jeremy CoxIt's not every day you get to interview your former cubicle mate.
Former Delmarva Now reporter and photographer Brice Stump, a Maryland-Delaware-District of Columbia Press Association Hall of Fame member, has self-published a book.
It may be no surprise to longtime readers that his subject concerns an important slice of Eastern Shore history: the skipjack.
"Working Skipjacks of Deal Island" is an exhaustive photographic document of a way of life that is disappearing. For nearly five months during the first half of 2016, Stump immersed himself in the community's waning oyster industry, collecting 650 photographs for publication along the way.
More:Ida May takes first at 58th Annual Skipjack Race at Deal Island
As he did for much of his four decades in journalism, Stump set out to tell a story that hadn't been fully told.
"I knew there was no book out there about skipjacks," he said. "You Google it and you see if you come up with five. There are no definitive books about skipjacks. There are a number of books that have skipjacks in them. But it’s probably from a technical standpoint, how they were made or what their legacy was but not so much what they really do."
Here's what else he had to say about what he learned and how he overcame his own sensitive constitution to get the best shots:
What question does your book seek to answer?
I wanted the public to know what a skipjack is really all about. It’s more than just sails once a year at the skipjack race or on a stamp or a poster or a T-shirt. I started it January 2016. I finished it in August 2016. I was down to Deal Island almost every day for months and months.
When you get up with these boats, you’ve got to get up at 3 or 4 o’clock in the morning and spend the whole day, and there’s no coming back in once you get out.
So bring a sandwich.
I didn’t eat on board because I was afraid I was going to get seasick.
You chose black and white. Why did you choose to do that? It seems like a colorful pursuit.
This was a very significant decision. Because skipjacks probably have been more photographed in black and white during their heyday than in color, I decided to use black and white. Plus, I just like black and white. It’s different than color.
That had to be different for you. You were shooting color for your whole career, I’m sure with rare exception.
Well, yes and no. I started out when I was 15 professional, writing and taking pictures. For years and years, photography was always black and white, and it wasn’t until the late ‘90s we really switched over to color. So, I grew up with black and white.
What was the hardest picture for you to take?
The hardest pictures to take were the pictures routinely taken by photographers over the years. Pictures that are stereotypical of life on a skipjack. They were the hardest ones to reinterpret. There are two or three pictures in this book that I probably spent 2,000 or 3,000 pictures trying to get right.
It’s an icon of Maryland. It is in a lot of ways well-trod territory. What is it about it that still resonates with people?
Because this is probably the last tangible kind of thing that you can come up close and personal that’s representative of old-time Eastern Shore life, even though they haven’t used the sails in 18 years. This is still very much what they would have done a hundred years ago. The idea of pulling up the dredges with these antique winders that are a hundred years old, shoveling them, culling them on your knees.
Many have said this is a way of life that’s disappearing? Now that you’ve spent this much time with them, do you agree?
I don’t know how much longer this can last.
Why not?
It costs half a million to build a skipjack. The Kathryn cost $350,000 to rebuild.
It sounds like an element of this project was racing against time.
It was. I wanted to get it in as soon as possible.
Why did you pick Deal Island?
That’s the only place that has skipjacks in our area. There’s only Tilghman (Island), and there’s a few in Cambridge. Deal Island has the most skipjacks, I believe.
The word “skipjack” is in the title, but having looked through the book, it looks like it’s also about people.
Every person in the book is identified. It was important to me that every crewman be recognized, because without them you don’t have the story.
About the book
Title: "Working Skipjacks of Deal Island"
Author: Brice Stump
Pages: 350
Publisher: Self-published
Cost: $49.95
Where it's sold: Barb's Hallmark Shop, Twilley Shopping Centre, 313 Civic Ave., Salisbury. Also at myshorehistory.com