Backman's Working Waterfront

Thomas Ambrose Bierce is organizing this fundraiser on behalf of Sammy Backman.

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As if HURRICANE Mathew didn't do enough damage, Backman's just got hit by a TORNADO!! Pictured is a view looking back towards land and Backman's facility. To the right is a 40' long oyster cooler (shipping container) that was tossed 100' across the causeway from its original location which was the concrete pad to the left of the dock. thoughts and prayers to all those being affected.

The image of the Folly Boat is one that locals, transplants and tourists alike all take notice of when heading to Folly Beach. The story of how it got there and why it stayed is much less well known. This old work boat broke loose from the Backman's dock during hurricane Hugo in 1989. At that time the boat could have been re floated, towed back to the dock and put back into service. Instead, a strange thing happened. Before the Backman's had re mobilized after the storm to reclaim their vessel it had already been painted several times to spread community messages, memorials and announcements. This was essentially the first social media! The Backman's recognized its importance and the decision was made for the boat to stay in place where it has been painted thousands of times since.

After decades of providing great seafood and jobs to the community the Backman's and many other shrimpers began to feel the pressures of keeping up their fleet along with the rising cost of fuel and the imported shrimp that was steadily flooding the market which drove down the price of wild shrimp.

Today their fleet of six shrimp boats is down to one. This is mainly due to the high maintenance required by the old wooden boats which require being hauled out at least every two years if not more to be replanked. For aforementioned reasons it became increasingly less viable to perform the required maintenance on so many boats. Shipworms eventually laid to rest four of the family's fleet right at their dock. The one remaining, "Backman
Enterprise", was built in 1986 and is made completely of fiberglass. It can be seen tied up to the dock in the background of the cover page for this account.

When driving down Folly road you can still see "Backman Enterprise" in the background but she is no longer tied to the dock. Unfortunately the strong winds of hurricane Matthew against this large shrimp boat was too much for the dock to handle which eventually led to the enterprise ripping the dock to pieces and settling in the marsh.

I became friends with the Backmans just before the storm when one of them (Capt. Dave) brought his sailboat over into the Folly River to help out a mutual friend lower wooden masts off his sailboat to the deck using his aluminum mast. After Captain Dave's good deed, his transmission blew on his way back to their dock. I gave him a tow where he tied up next to the Enterprise. Dave was on his way to haul his steel hauled sailboat onto the hard but this transmission problem made it impossible to do so before the storm.

I always admired the uniqueness of the Backman's commercial waterfront and I was glad to be helping out a fellow waterman in need. That was the first time I had actually been on the dock and was able to check it out up close and I could see how full of history it was.

After the storm Capt. Dave called me to help pull the boats that broke free out of the marsh and that's when I saw the damage the storm caused. The dock looked nothing like it did a few days earlier. There was nothing there to tie the boats back up to. Capt. Dave's sailboat is fine but the shrimp boat is so big that even at anchor it continues to sit on the bottom at low tide which could eventually cause serious damage to the structure of the vessel.

Seeing the tattered dock after the storm made me sad to think that we would lose this staple of the community and all the rich history that goes along with it. When I asked Dave's brother, Sammy, what the plan for the Enterprise was he said that he wanted to sell it. Then he said "or turn it into a museum." I knew right then that he had a desire to preserve this history but not necessarily the means to do so. There is all ready the Seashore Farmers Lodge and Museum right across the street and with the layout of the Backman compound and all the cool buildings and history that surrounds it I just thought it was a great idea but I knew that they would need a lot of help to achieve this.

I haven't known Sammy and Dave very long but I didn't think they were the type to ask the community directly for help. Instead several other close friends of the family and their churches have helped create this go fund me page for people that want to help preserve this important part of Lowcountry history and culture for this humble and deserving family.

As I mentioned earlier, The Folly boat has served as a message board for the community for nearly 30 years well before Facebook and gofundme. Today we're bringing it full circle and asking that if you don't have any materials to donate time to volunteer or money to fund this project that you please SHARE this post!

We have no idea how much money is going to be needed but the first goal is to build two dolphins ( several pilings right next to each other bound together with steel cable) to tie the shrimp boat back up and keep it in one place.

Next is to clear debris and preserve the shrimp house at the end of the dock while rebuilding the large section of face stock that was ripped off during the storm . If this structure gives away it's gone for good because it cannot be re-permitted.

As I mentioned earlier there are four wrecks around the dock and we would like to raise enough money to hire a company to bring in a barge for their removal and disposal.