Fleet blessing spotlights watermen

For the third year in a row local crabbers and fishermen will team up with Discovery Village in Shady Side to draw attention to a dying breed: themselves.

At Saturday's third annual Blessing of the Fleet Festival on the shores of Parrish Creek, watermen will compete in a boat docking contest and anchor toss while thousands of people enjoy live bluegrass music and seafood.

But it isn't really the third annual event. From 1955 to 1974 Parrish Creek was lined with hundreds of oyster boats the Sunday before each oyster season in September for a blessing from local clergymen.

"As the oyster industry died, the blessing died,"...