Empires of the Crab

by Dale Cathell

Book Overview

Early in the last century a boy, Ivy Flowers, swam across Tar Bay to Hoopers Island to see a girl. In time, Shirley Flowers was born of the union that began with that swim. During the same period,... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1425913210
• ISBN13: 9781425913212
• Release Date: April 2006
• Publisher: Authorhouse
• Length: 408 Pages
• Weight: 1.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

From Hoopers Island to the World

This eloquently written book is more than biography, it is an evocative social-study of one family's travel from a Chesapeake Bay backwater to modernity. Brice and Shirley Phillips were born and raised on a remote island-promontory jutting into the sea on the eastern side of Chesapeake Bay. They grew up in the crab-processing business. While preserving that, they gravitated to the seafood restaurant business, one thing including much hard work led to another, and they prospered. Their son pioneered crab processing in the Phillippines, Malaysia and mainland Asia, and the Phillips enterprise is now respected globally. But the story is more than economic. Author Cathell depicts the Phillips as genuinely decent people, employers who valued their employees, treated them well, were reciprocated by loyalty in return, and this mutual benevolent synergy was very key to furthering the success of their business including abroad in Asia. The book is a sweet sociological portrait, too. Imagine grizzled old Hoopers Island watermen being transported to distant Asia, some of whom on their first plane rides, to exchange crab-harvesting experiences with counterparts there. That's depicted. Brice served in Europe during World War II while his young bride awaited back home and his letters to her are touching. Those are depicted too, especially Brice's descriptions of angst about prospectively being transferred to the Pacific Theater for the expected invasion of Japan in 1945. Great was the relief when the two atomic bombs ended the war, saving lives of many Americans and Japanese alike. In sum, this book is a really good yarn as well as a time trip. Highly recommended.