With a love of the ocean in his blood, fourth-generation South Carolina shrimper Rocky Magwood follows a longstanding low-country tradition.
PHOTO BY DAN XELLER ASSISTED BY WALKER AT SHEM CREEK BOAT RENTALS
Story by Cara Clark, Photo by Dan Xeller
When the sun emerges from the darkness of the horizon where sky meets sea, the waters transform from black to indigo, lightening to foam-tipped cyan as the rising orb streaks the lightening sky with vermilion. It’s a transformation the true seafarer never tires of witnessing, and for Rocky Magwood, it’s the way he longs to start each day.
In truth, the fourth-generation shrimper feels more at home on the sea than on land.
“My family has been in seafood for more than 100 years,” he explains. “I try to do everything I can to stay on the water. There’s a lot of love in this — it’s more than you could ever imagine. I don’t know why I love it so much. It’s in my blood so thick that I can’t get away from it.”
Rocky posts pictures of his days at sea on facebook to let others witness what he enjoys every morning — the stunning sunrises and dramatic sunsets. As he talks from his galley, a crane is perched on the boat railing, watching his every move — two kindred spirits who love the wind and the waves and the fishing.
“When I was little, all I ever wanted to do is was follow our family way,” Rocky says. “My family was very self-sustained. We took care of our boats and did everything ourselves. And my grandfather was this amazing guy, teaching us all how to do so much stuff to the boats and keep them going. And that’s why I’m still in the business, because I know how to do it.”
It goes back to Rocky’s grandfather, Junior Magwood, who built a small armada of shrimp boats at the docks of Shem Creek in Mount Pleasant and sold the fresh fare at C. A. Magwood & Sons. It was very much a family enterprise, but in 2014 the company changed hands, unable to recover from the market crash of 2008.
“I remember that my granddad started and built his empire,” Rocky says. “He had nine boats at one time, and he kept everything immaculate and kept everything going on the boats. It was neat to learn under him.”
The white crane on Rocky’s boat inches closer to him as he talks, an affirmation of his place in the scheme of things as a seafarer.
“He’s getting closer because he’s he knows that I’m no harm to him,” Rocky says. “That tells me that I’m doing something right in life. God’s creatures are looking at me, and they’re not scared of you. It lifts your spirit and makes you feel whole again.”
The battle shrimpers face is difficult — too many imported shrimp, high fuel costs, and so much more. The level of commitment it takes is almost as unfathomable as the ocean depths.
“Shrimping is everything to me,” says Rocky, president of the South Carolina Shrimpers Association and a mariner in the truest since of the word. “It’s what I was raised to do,” he says. “Growing up, I would never have thought the industry would be where it is right now. This is where I’ve made my living all my life, and you can still make a living at it, but it’s very hard now. We have some very good friends who help us a lot.”
Rocky remembers the days when he would go out shrimping with his father, Clarence “Skipper” Magwood, a habit that began at infancy (hence the nickname Rocky — he was literally rocked to sleep on the boats at sea). When he lost his father at 12, his uncle Captain Edwin “Wayne” Magwood, kept him on his beloved seas.
“I’ve been on a shrimp boat since I was six weeks old,” Rocky recalls. “There’s something about the love that the ocean gives you. If you respect it, it gives you a sense of peace and being part of a very beautiful place. Even on a nasty day, it’s still beautiful. When you’re in the wheelhouse on a shrimp boat, or you’re on the back deck, you feel like you’re on a boat by yourself. Your mind’s clear; there’s nothing bothering you. You can leave everything that’s on the land alone and just enjoy your day out there. It’s a very peaceful and loving place to be.”
Rocky and wife Eliza have a five-year-old namesake son, Cam (Clark Augustus Magwood) who goes out with him at times or sits in the cabin pretending to talk on the radio, a true chunk off the old block.
“There would be nothing better in my life than if I could let him take this boat when he gets old enough and let him have a good life,” Rocky says. “I’m hoping by the time he gets old enough that we’ll have it back straightened out to where my grandfather had it at one time. When you came when you came to Shem Creek and our dock, we’d have people standing in line a whole two acres away from us, just waiting to get seafood from us.”
Losing C.A. Magwood & Sons and the rich history that went with it was a blow. Undaunted, Rocky made a way to keep from taking a land job. He found a boat someone was giving up on, bought it, and restored it with an equally ocean-obsessed longtime friend Dan Xeller and a group of friends who helped put the vessel back together. When the work was done, Rocky painted it the exact hue of the family home on the island of Little Bulls, which was decimated in 1989 by Hurricane Hugo.
“My dad, all my uncles and aunt, they were raised over there, and my grandparents were raised there too,” Rocky says. “The main house was painted the color of my boat — my uncle gave me the color code. I wanted it to be the same because I named the boat Magwood’s Pride. I wanted to do something to celebrate our family.”
Rocky has also taken on the role as president of the association to try to do something to bring back the fishing industry. Stepping up is also a family tradition. His grandfather was president of the association for 20 years, and the uncle who raised him after he lost his father as a child also served a 20-year-term leading the shrimping industry. It was Winter 2024-25 Magnolia and Moonshine Final Review the last thing Rocky planned to do, but he felt called to make a difference.
“Doing the association work took so much time out of their fishing, and all I ever wanted to do was go shrimping,” he says. “Last year, whenever I kept seeing where we were going in our industry, I knew I had to step up and do something. And I always know my grandad is smiling down. He’s got me where he wanted me.”
Rocky says losing shrimpers to hard times is difficult to witness, but he’s certain the tide will turn.
“We have a lot of hope and prayer in this, and it’s going to come back,” he says. “We just don’t know when. And can we all hold on? There’s not one single thing that really pins us down as much as so many different things get us. In the fishing industry, there’s always something we’re overcoming. Either the price of shrimp is low, or we’re not catching enough. And when you start catching a lot of shrimp, then you can’t find a place to go with them.”
Rocky remembers a time when 80 to 90 shrimp boats worked from Shem Creek, creating a show as they motored back in filled with a catch and with dolphins following behind. Now, only a few remain to carry on the time-honored tradition.
Another family heritage, oystering, keeps him busy in the winter when he’s not on the shrimp boat. He takes out a 24-foot Carolina skiff, beginning around Thanksgiving, and goes out two hours before low tide, then spends about four hours picking oysters. He moves around the ones that aren’t flourishing to reseed another area where they’ll suddenly become bountiful.
And the seafarer in him sees not just the tasty morsel inside, but the beauty of the opalescent glow in the shell.
At certain times when Rocky is shrimping or oystering in a place he’s been before with family, he’ll have a feeling his father is looking over his shoulder with approval for the way the fourth generation is upholding tradition.
“My family’s been doing it over 100 years, and picking oysters is one of the ways we’ve fed ourselves,” he explains. “My great grandmother shucked the oysters and sent them to town to sell. If you go out to our island, there’s mounds of shells from where she shucked so many.”
It’s the history and heritage that Rocky wants to keep alive, though he says shrimping and oystering aren’t going to make you rich, but the rewards are greater.
“You’ll have lived a great life on the sea,” he says. “Sometimes it’s harder to get by than others, and you just hold on. It’s crazy, but every time I go out shrimping, I get so excited like a little kid. It’s unbelievable. I feel like a kid on Christmas morning every day I go shrimping.”
