Cox's Shanty is the Crisfield Heritage Foundation's hands on exhibit, used to educate the Students of local schools, visitors and the general public on the shedding of the Chesapeake Bay Blue Crab. The demonstration is typical of operations used by local watermen today and in the past to shed the crabs and keep them alive in a soft state until they are ready to be shipped to local and distant markets. Mr. Austin is a Master Plumber by trade, but descends from a line of ancestors that made their living on the waters of Tangier Sound and the Chesapeake Bay. The children love Mr. Austin for his patience, as he explains the life cycle of the  Callinectes sapidus (Maryland Blue Crab).