Book Signing w/Beverly Bowers Jennings’ Shrimp Tales: Small Bites of History

Join us Saturday, April 3rd for a special book signing, perfect for a wonderful personalized Easter gift: Shrimp Tales: Small Bites of History with author Beverly Bowers Jennings!

This book portrays the history of the people, places, and boats of the commercial shrimping industry in the southern United States. 320 pages with more than 800 photos and illustrations – a gorgeous keepsake!

Before the invention of refrigerated boxcars in 1875, the US shrimping industry virtually didn’t exist. People ate what they caught. The book begins with the region’s earliest shrimpers: Italian and Portuguese fishermen who came to Fernandina and St. Augustine , FL at the end of the 19th century. They combined an enterprising ingenuity with old-world fishing techniques to turn shrimping into a profitable industry.

Subsequent chapters show life in major shrimping ports up and down the coast. These include St. Augustine, Fernandina, Thunderbolt and Savannah, Port Royal, Beaufort, Hilton Head Island, Bennetts Point, Edisto, Rockville, Shem Creek, McClellanville and Georgetown. Additionally, a chapter offers a colorful glimpse of the Blessing of the Fleet ceremonies. Finally, there is a chapter that examines the integral role that shrimpers played in keeping the German chemical company, BASF, from building a plant that could have devastated local fishing. This event may have saved the future of many seaside resorts, like Hilton Head, that depended on clean waters.

Based on years of research and relentless pursuit of the photos that tell the story, this book is more than just a photo history. It is a story of a community and culture. Photos, drawings and sidebars provide explanations of shrimping operations and equipment. Recipes in each chapter are often provided by a member of one of the local shrimping families. Quotes by local shrimpers, and even some poems, dot the book, reminding us that shrimping in the Southeast is as much about the people and the place as it is about the shrimp.

All proceeds of sales will go to the South Carolina Seafood Alliance, which advocates for healthy and safe seafood sources. EAT LOCAL SHRIMP!

And you’ll get to meet Beverly: My love of the saltwater and fishing began when I was 6 years old in Connecticut. At that time, my father built me a white wooden rowboat with red trim named Little Fish. Fiber-glassing was in its infancy, and on the suggestion of a friend, he decided to cover the boat with it. I loved rowing that boat and used to take friends out to their anchored boats for sailing and fishing.

Beginning in 1997, my husband and I began spending time each year on Hilton Head Island, and in 2000 we bought a home here. Living on the Island, directly overlooking the marsh, enhanced my fascination with the Lowcountry and the waters surrounding it. This led me in 2010 to enroll in a Master Naturalist Program through the Clemson Extension Service, held at the Lowcountry Institute on Spring Island.