Tangier Island

Following breakfast, we needed to get back to the Onancock City Wharf by 10a in order to catch the ferry to Tangier Island. We had been forewarned NOT to take our boat to Tangier due to the low waters/sandbars but to take the ferry so this is what we did. The ferry is in actuality a commercial fishing vessel that has seats installed. The cost for a round trip fare was $25 each. I think it gave Captain Mark an odd feeling to be a passenger rather than the captain even though he would never admit it.



This tiny island which sits in the middle of the Chesapeake about half way between the western and eastern Virginia shores is only accessible by boat or by plane. The odd thing about its location is that while the island is much closer to Maryland, it has always been part of Virginia. The island is only about 1 mile wide and 3 miles long and has about 700 residents. In the past, the men of the island made their living as crab and oyster fisherman. However, due to the environmental and governmental controls, the Tangier Waterman is rapidly becoming the endangered species. With the number of fishing licenses being seriously curtailed and restricted, the younger residents of Tangier must look elsewhere for a means of making a living. For the first time ever in the 300+ years of fishing history of Tangier Island, no one from the current high school graduating class will be signing on as a Tangier Waterman this July.

First discovered by John Smith in 1608, the island was settled by immigrants from Cornwall, England starting in the late 1600s. Due to the isolated location and harsh living conditions the island did not attract new settlers in the same way as the Virginia and Maryland mainland. Therefore the descendents of the original Cornish inhabitants became rather cloistered and to this day maintain their own dialect. Not Olde English, the dialect is American English with a thick Cornish accent sprinkled with unique terms for otherwise common items. Both Captain Mark and I were most anxious to hear this “talk” and were very disappointed when we discovered that the residents “sounded and talked” just like everyone else when they spoke to us. However, when they spoke with each other, they quickly slipped into their own way of rapidly speaking with the heavy accent. We just sat there and listened in awe and delight.

Upon arriving on the island, we took a twenty minute narrated tour of the island via a golf cart as there are less than a ten motorized vehicles on the entire island. The residents get around via golf carts and bicycles. Following the tour, we then found ourselves wondering what we were going to do for the next 4+ hours until the ferry returned for Onancock at 3:30p. So we spent literally several hours in the island historical museum which was very interesting and really rather comprehensive and honest about life on the island. Then we ate at the Fisherman’s which is owned by several wives of “Tangier Watermen” and the food was very good and reasonable. Of course, I had Cream of Crab soup and I was certainly not disappointed in the least.

We arrived back in Onancock to find that our delightful neighbors from the evening before were docked at the wharf. This will allow us to get a peaceful and undisturbed sleep this evening - hopefully!