Beautiful Swimmers

The following was excerpted form the obituary of a man who honored the profession of waterman.
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William W. Warner, whose first book, “Beautiful Swimmers: Watermen, Crabs and the Chesapeake Bay,” was a national bestseller and winner of the 1977 Pulitzer Prize for nonfiction, died April 18 of complications of Alzheimer’s disease at his home in Washington, D.C. He was 88.

“I just had this vague feeling that I’d like to do a little writing,” he told the New York Times in 1983. He soon realized, as he told the Times, that the “benign and beautiful waters” of the Chesapeake were his natural setting and the watermen were his natural heroes.

Praise for Warner and his work came from Morris Marsh, a Smith Island waterman profiled in “Beautiful Swimmers.” “I enjoyed him, really, and he mostly asked sensible questions,” Marsh told Tom Horton, who wrote an article for Washingtonian magazine in June 2007. “A lot says they want to go with you, but come 4 a.m., they’re not there. But he was always there, waiting to go.

Read his obituary in it’s entirety HERE.

Bad Summer Forecast for Bay

“A new report sounds more bad news for the Chesapeake Bay and the people who work and play on its waters.” Get the rest of the story HERE, or click on the Virginia Waterman’s Association link in the side bar to the right.