Women's Clothing Boutique in Thunderbolt, GA

This summer I was invited along on a birthday road trip out of Tybee Island.

Before dawn, Capt. J.B. Riffle steered his shrimp boat, the Agnes Marie, under the graceful arch of the Lazaretto Creek bridge. Beside him sat Louis Ambos, in a wheelhouse for the first time in probably 30 years.

Ambos' eyes shined as he looked at the sun rising over the vast Atlantic.

"There's the big red ball," he said to his wife Suzanne. "It peeks out at first, then seems to sit on the horizon, before it breaks free of a red cord connecting it to the water."

The Ambos family has been connected to these waters, to shrimping and to Thunderbolt for more than 100 years. This excursion was all pleasure, set up by Ambos' sons Drew and Hal.

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Last spring, Drew had essentially been the location scout for a show in development for the Inspiration Network. Hosted by Maureen McCormick of "Brady Bunch" fame, "State Plate" features foods from every state. The premiere episode, to air in early 2016, features Georgia shrimp, fresh and wild-caught by the Agnes Marie.

After spending the day filming with J.B., Drew and Hal had a great idea. For his 76th birthday in July, they would take their father out on a working shrimp boat, like he had done when they were boys. With their mother, wives and children on board, too, they made it a family affair and a special present.

J.B. said he was honored to have Louis on board. J.B.'s mentor, W.G. Smith, had sold his shrimp to Ambos Seafoods years ago. W.G. had shrimped out of Thunderbolt, and he and his wife Agnes had lived on their boat, tied up to the Ambos docks.

That July day, shrimping in Calibogue Sound, was an inspired birthday gift. I could see that, for Louis, sitting in the captain's chair felt like going home - looking out of the wheelhouse windows, breathing the salt air, rocking on the open water, unlocked contentment and a lifetime of memories.

J.B. and Louis talked about outriggers and winches, nets and doors, but also about old-timers and old boats. It was a conversation between men with deep ties to these local creeks, rivers and beaches.

On the wall of his office at Ambos Seafoods, Louis has a photo of his great-grandfather Henry and a treasured family document. It is the certificate from 1868 declaring that Henry, formerly "a subject of the King of Prussia," is granted U.S. citizenship.

On another wall is an old lithograph of the Henry Ambos Restaurant in Thunderbolt. Circa 1870, there are no phone or power lines in the picture, just rowboats and skiffs at the restaurant dock, and advertisement of oysters, terrapin, etc.

Louis' grandfather (after whom he is named) was the first native of Thunderbolt to begin commercial shrimping. He did that in 1927, the year Lindbergh crossed the Atlantic, and his first two boats were the Sweet Pickle and the Lindbergh.

He also operated a marine service railway, and during the off season, he built homes along River Drive. Louis was born and raised in one of them - the restaurant section of what is now Tubby's Tank House. Now that is some provenance.

Louis' grandfather Louis and father Henry built a very successful fleet of shrimp boats during the 1930s and '40s. But in 1948, his father and Savannah grocer William Mullis made an advance that revolutionized the shrimping business.

After many recipe trials in their own kitchens, they developed battered, frozen shrimp that were pan-ready and could be shipped far and wide. Their company, Trade Winds, mushroomed in growth and by 1950 was distributing frozen oysters, scallops and fish to all 48 states. The company created many factory jobs and put Thunderbolt on the national seafood map.

It's an Ambos way of life. You could say Louis was there at the creation. His father took him and his twin brother Henry Jr. out in his boat while still in their cradles and crib.

Louis worked in the heading dock of Trade Winds at the age of 10, punching cards of workers to keep count of their buckets of headed shrimp. He remembers too going out with his grandfather on weekends to check his oyster beds.

He remembers the Greek boatwrights from Tarpon Springs trimming the ribs as they built the Miss Tradewinds. He showed me the scar on his ankle where he ran into one of their sharp axes.

Louis, his brother and boyhood friends loved to ride the cradles of the marine railway, getting repeatedly baptized in the River Wilmington. And they dropped to the water from tire swings hanging from the davit cranes.

Those kind of memories came back aboard the Agnes Marie. And talk of Thunderbolt friends like Anna Modestino and her restaurant, Anna's Little Napoli. Anna had earlier worked on Louis' father's shrimp breading line, and he loved Anna's hospitality, the intimate atmosphere and her shrimp au gratin.

Louis talked about his father's deep friendship with Tassey Salas, who owned Tassey's Pier. He recalled many wonderful meals at Tassey's, especially the she-crab soup that made the pages of Esquire. Just yards away from Trade Winds, and overlooking the intracoastal, those crabs were not far from home.

Right now, for the Ambos family and seafood, it's five generations and counting. And the day aboard the Agnes Marie was one for the family album.

Each time the nets were drawn in, dolphins raced alongside, seagulls and pelicans balanced on the outriggers and cables. As the catch was dumped onto the deck, the kids were quick to go through it.

Drew's daughter Ashley and son Wynn were ready to pick up all the curiosities for his wife Liz to photograph: quarter-size horseshoe crabs, tiny triggerfish, silvery ribbonfish, glistening small pompano and Spanish mackerel. Hal's daughter Caroline chased his wife Nichole around with blue crabs, stingrays and slender sharpnose sharks.

These kids, on a shrimp boat deck for the first time, were right at home. Ashley asked, "When do the squid start to run?" Wynn took a turn at the wheel and watched the depth finder closely. It may be early to tell, but it could be another generation with shrimp in their veins.

Ben Goggins, a retired marine biologist, lives on Tybee Island. He can be reached at 786-6181 or bengoggins9@gmail.com.

BY BEN GOGGINS