In a 2006 interview with Mathews County waterman Robert Roland Hudgins, he shared his first trip aboard a menhaden vessel in 1950, of working alongside Black fishermen hauling nets to the surface in a purse boat and listening to the songs of the chanteymen.
IChanties were used to coordinate hauling up together the heavy purse nets full of menhaden fish.
Robert Roland was a young White boy aboard a purse boat with mostly all Black fishermen. During that time, segregation of the races was a way of life in Virginia and Mathews County. The songs of the fishermen not only helped bring up the nets it helped bring understanding.
“The prettiest singing I ever heard in my life was the first year I went fishing,” said Robert Roland. “We were going into Crab Island one night after a day of fishing and everybody was worn out. Everybody had their heads down on the table in the galley because we were so tired.
“Then Bud Thomas (a Black man), started singing and then the rest of them started in. I tell you the truth it would make tears come into your eyes. It was the sweetest sound I’ve ever heard in my life.
“I was young and hadn’t been around Blacks. I was just a boy and I’ll tell you the truth, I was scared of them but the songs made me feel more comfortable.
“Out on the water, the songs made us pull together,” said Robert Roland. “The more we sung, the more we pulled. Lord, it was some sweet music.
“I’ve heard chanteymen sing on land but there’s no sweeter sound in the world than the songs of two crews working side-by-side singing along.”
It Happened Here in Rivah Country!
