Tag Archives: F/V Miss Paula
Two prolific Charleston chefs escape the kitchen and find peace at sea
It’s a little after 2 p.m. on a Monday and the wooden shrimp trawler, built in 1969, sits low in the water at the Wando Dock on Shem Creek. Emily Hahn takes the leap first, nimbly navigating the portside of the Miss Paula in her clunky fishing boots, leaning one deeply tanned arm against a cable as she nods toward the galley.,, The irony that a former Top Chef contestant would not be able to swing it in the boat’s kitchen makes Hahn smile. She’s smiling a lot, actually,,, Hahn says that after a few months of full-time shrimping, she finally has her sea legs, and she’s been able to wean off her daily dose of Dramamine. “We’ve been making some pretty epic crew food: shrimp and grits, ceviche, fried fish tacos, eggs in a hole with fried onions and bacon.” The crew was understandably happy when they discovered their new mate’s skills, “they’re like ‘Oh — you can really cook!” >click to read<10:17
Bucking rumors of a dying industry, young Lowcountry shrimpers take to the sea.
In pre-dawn’s inky stillness, brackish water floods the back roads leading to Haddrell’s Point near the mouth of Shem Creek on Charleston’s harbor, the full moon’s gravitational pull swelling tides to record heights. Where pavement turns to gravel, a lone street lamp illuminates old signage for the shuttered Wando Shrimp Company, a once vibrant seafood-processing warehouse that closed in 2014 after a sixty-five-year run. There, a ramshackle wooden walkway stretches toward the glaring floodlights of a shrimp trawler named the Miss Paula. Her tangle of furled nets, steel winches, chains, and ropes reach into the night sky. Water laps the dock as three young men pass buckets of ice up onto deck. One by one, their feet anchored in a scupper hole for leverage, they hoist themselves aboard. In an industry dominated by old salts, some of whom have been trawling shrimp for more than fifty years, the Miss Paula is remarkable for the youth of her crew. Captain Vasily “Vasa” Tarvin, at the time of this outing in late 2016, is 25. His deck mate, Franklin Rector, 23. Manning the wheel is Michael Brown, who at the age of 37, wryly pronounces himself “babysitter” on today’s run. click here to continue reading the story. 13:22
