Dancing on the sea bobs

Most of the Louisiana shrimp we buy today are fresh from the Gulf or were quick-frozen on the boat immediately after they were pulled from the water, but years ago shrimpers danced to a different tune.
Men and women from China and the Philippines who came here in the late 1800s were among the first shrimpers in Louisiana, working in small boats that sailed from lower Lafourche, Jefferson and Plaquemines parishes. They brought thousands of tons of shrimp ashore each year, or, actually, not quite ashore but to coastal villages built above the marshes on stilts where the catch was dried by the sun and processed by dancing feet.
A 1944 National Geographic article described one such operation, noting that “dried foods have always been considered a great delicacy in China, dried shrimp being especially enjoyed.”
The writer described a tradition begun by Lee Yim who came from Canton, China, to Louisiana about 1875 and started a shrimp-drying industry of his own. “Soon others engaged in the business and now [1944] dried shrimp create an annual income of $300,000 in Louisiana alone,” according to the article.
In those days most shrimping was still done by crews rowing small skiffs to spread nets in shallow coastal waters from small sailing boats called luggers. When the nets were pulled onto the lugger, the shrimp were put in the boat’s holds and kept cool with dampened palmetto leaves.
When the shrimpers returned to their villages, the shrimp were immediately boiled in salt water for about 15 minutes in cast-iron kettles that were, literally, big enough for a horse to swim in. This separated the shrimp’s meat from its shell. The boiled shrimp were then placed on large wooden platforms and exposed for three or four days to hot sun to dry them.
Then the dancing began. Typically, a pair of musicians began to play a lively jig, and men, women and children wearing wooden shoes or, sometimes, burlap bags on their feet, began to dance amid the shrimp, cracking the shells as they danced. According to the 1944 article, “Shod with heavy-soled wooden shoes, they danced on the shrimp in a sort of shuffle, with a rotation of the heel at each step. The shrimp were piled in a ring and continually turned by men with shovels.”
When the shrimp had been thoroughly “danced,” they were raked across a screen so that the shell fragments fell through. The meat was then shoveled into barrels to be shipped to markets as far away as Europe, South America, Canada, and China.
The shrimp were sometimes shipped as “sea bobs,” an English corruption of the Cajun six barbes (six beards), referring to the shrimp’s distinctive whiskers.
When the season ended, the drying platform’s owners sent to New Orleans for barrels of wine and cauldrons of gumbo steamed alongside French bread as the harvest was celebrated by real dancing.

You can contact Jim Bradshaw at jimbradshaw4321@gmail.com or P.O. Box 1121, Washington LA 70589.