Today we were honored to meet Mr. Austin Cox, 90 year old mechanical engineer, 5th generation Waterman (crabber), son of the world's oldest working Waterman (93 at his death), and D-Day Survivor. Sgt. Cox landed on Omaha Beach June 6, 1944 with the 29th Division of the 115th Infantry Regiment. He was 24 at the time, the oldest man in his platoon, and platoon leader. Mr. Cox was among 10 veterans chosen to attend the 65th anniversary commemoration held at La Cambe, France last year.
Mr. Cox also shared with us the story of soft shell crabs. He maintains a traditional soft shell crab shanty at the Crisfield Museum where he shares his knowledge of crabbing to more than 900 school children every year during molting season, April thru June. Soft shell crabbing is far more labor intensive than crabbing for hard shells. We were able to see first-hand, crabs in various states of molting. The crabs have to be manned 24-7, moved from pen to pen as the molting process progresses. Once the crab backs out of his shell, he is defenseless and subject to attack by other crabs. We discovered that the crabs are cleaned during processing and even though the crab is whole, you don't eat any of the gross parts. We were so impressed that we actually each ate a soft shell crab as an appetizer. Verdict: good but not remarkable, to our taste.
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