Review of Mobile Bay Bar Pilots, by David Smithweck

Mobile historian David Smithweck has several titles to his credit, mostly brief reference-style publications focused on specific aspects of regional history. We have reviewed some of his work in this blog previously, such as his books on historic cannons in Mobile and the service record and archaeological investigations of the Confederate ironclads CSS Huntsville and Tuscaloosa. In Mobile Bay Bar Pilots, he offers his research on the history and duties of Mobile Bay bar pilots—a unique organization that has never previously been the subject of a similar publication.

Bar pilots are charged with bringing in and out of Mobile Bay all commercial vessels using the dredged ship channel stretching between the port and the Gulf of Mexico. As Mobile has been for over seven decades one of the dozen busiest ports in the country and before that was a harbor of significance in several eras, the work of the pilots is substantial and vital to the region. Working in shifts around the clock, a group of just sixteen men handles all this traffic and has been doing so for over a century and a half. Pilots, paid to safely navigate the shallow waters of Mobile Bay, were in fact employed in the area during the French, British, and Spanish period in the eighteenth century prior to the formal establishment of the Bar Pilot Association in the 1850s. Their unique job requires them to board vessels—ranging from freighters to cruise ships, at sea using a rope ladder, and bring these behemoths up the circa thirty-mile long ship channel safely into one of the docks at the Port of Mobile.

Smithweck’s book is a treasure trove of information about the organization, containing everything from a list of the men who have served as pilots, the ships they operated, and noteworthy incidents they have encountered over the years. As with Smithweck’s other pieces, the book not a continuous narrative but rather a compilation of reference sources and a listing of people, ships, and events available nowhere else. Naturally, it will appeal to a very small group of those interested in regional history at any one time, but it is one of those books every regional library will need to have on its reference section shelves. It is worth noting for anyone who is ever conducting research into the Mobile Bay area’s maritime heritage.

JMB

Review of The Story of Alabama in Fourteen Foods, by Emily Blejwas

Food is one of those common denominators in history, something that connects everyone to a place and often reveals something important about the heritage and identity of a specific locale. Armed with that knowledge and a firm grasp of Alabama history, author Emily Blejwas has attempted to investigate key aspects of some of the state’s most important stories using traditional foods as a gateway. Part travel narrative, part history book, and part cookbook, The Story of Alabama in Fourteen Foods is a unique and entertaining contribution to Alabama historiography.

Each of the fourteen essays in the book explores the history of a food deeply rooted in Alabama’s culinary history, including everything from barbecue to banana pudding. Examined through the lens of the context in which the foods became popular and what they reveal about the various eras of the state’s past, each is a special chronicle of time, place, and people that is both reaffirming for those with some knowledge of the broad contours of state history and revelatory for those who do not.

Blejwas’s narrative is not a dry recitation of culinary facts. Rather, each chapter includes a story of a visit to a location, ranging from the Barbour County kitchen of the granddaughter of the person who created Alabama’s official state cake (Lane cake) to venturing on a turkey hunt in the Winston County. Several iconic restaurants are visited along the way. Unique aspects of state and regional history are revealed in the process. The tradition of barbecue clubs in the west Alabama black belt, how Moon Pies became so intricately associated with Mobile’s Mardi Gras, the story of how Milo’s sweet tea became a regional favorite beverage, and explanations of the origins and continuing importance of community events such as peanut boils and decoration days are all explored in unique and entertaining ways.

This is not a complete history of Alabama by any means, but it does provide life and color to key aspects of a past that exerts a powerful hold on the everyday life of contemporary residents and is a vital part of several regional identities. Arranged in a loose chronological fashion complete with a timeline of major events in Alabama history, the book is useful in understanding a bit of cultural heritage not often explored in historical narratives. And yes, each chapter does contain an inset with original recipes for the curious. The book is original in concept and forms a unique contribution to literature on Alabama’s past.

JMB