Reedville, as we now know, was a major shipping community for sea products for all North America. Elijah Reed improved the mass processing of the fish menhaden (aka – alewife, pogy, mossbunder) into various forms used for all kinds of things from chicken feed to oils for nutrition & leather tanning to pastry-making to sealing wood. Its magical oil made this little village one of the wealthiest in America many years ago….they called the one street "The Millionaire's Mile". If you look at our location on the Xplot Map and zoom way into the GoogleEarth location you will see the one street and we were docked right at the tip of it.
Everyone says it is a dying place but we found it to be welcoming (the museum volunteers asked us to their weekly BYOB hors d'oeuvres being held tonight) and with a strong pulse. The fish plant seems to be coming back to life.
We fell upon Reedville when looking for a place to spend the night as we southed down the Chesapeake. We tied up to the main wharf which also houses the Crazy Crab House……if I put one hand on the boat and reach out with the other, I touch Crazy Crabs outermost wall (see more about Cr.Cr. above). The owner of it used to fly the spotter planes they used to sight the menhaden (they travel in tight schools that show up as dark spots on the water). The boats would then rush to the spot and push the fish into "purse" nets.
Read the complete story from Sail Blogs.