Chasing Davy Jones

All Rights Reserved © 2003 by Charles Sheldon

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To Charles ‘Tiggy’ Peluso

The best fisherman, inshore or offshore, saltwater or fresh, I ever knew. Tiggy has been fishing on and around Cape Cod over sixty years and nobody—nobody—understands this business like he does. He taught my first skipper the ropes in the 1950s and when I made my first offshore trip in 1969 he kept me in line. He’s still at it, the fishing, working along shore, almost a half century later. It’s been a pleasure and an honor to know him.

By the same author:

Fat Chance

The Boomerang Heist

Guardian

Logger’s Landing

Davy Jones, Nautical: the spirit of the sea; the sailor’s devil

Davy Jones’ Locker, the ocean’s bottom, esp. as the grave

of all who perish at sea.

Contents

Foreword

Glossary

THE BIGHT OF CLARK’S

BOSTON AND PORTLAND LIGHT

THE GULF OF MAINE

THE BOSTON FISH PIER

Foreword

In the fall of 2002 I was out on a small boat examining the waterfront stretching from the Ballard Locks to Lake Union in Seattle. Here can be found the true heart of the West Coast fishing industry—boatyards, chandleries, a Fishermen’s Terminal managed by the Port of Seattle, fuel docks, processing operations, and acre upon acre of old fishing vessels waiting for the next dream, or recovering from the last one. The old vessels lie silent and still in out-of-the-way corners, overlooked, apparently forgotten. Every one has a thousand stories to tell and a hundred men who remember the way it was and the way it should have been.

One such old boat lies there now, down by the fuel docks, red hull rusty, seemingly abandoned. Like many boats out here on the West Coast, this boat started its life on another ocean, the Atlantic. She was built in 1938 and when she was built she represented state-of-the-art technology. She was one of several sister ships—Ocean, Wave, Surge, Tide. For all I know some of these others are afloat still, somewhere. But this vessel lies in Ballard. On her stern, in white paint, is printed: Crest–Boston. More years ago than I care to admit I worked for a company called High Seas Corporation in Fall River, Massachusetts, and the owner of that company, Bill Whipple, bought the Crest and refitted her as a mechanized longliner. I worked with Bill on that dream for several months. She was converted especially to work the Northern Edge of Georges Bank for groundfish, but a World Court ruling gave the area to Canada, not the United States, and her future was lost. I went on to other work, other places, and Crest went her way too, as old boats do, that dream abandoned. Someone had another dream for her, and she appeared out west, and whatever that dream was, it, too, ended, because Crest has been lying in Ballard for years. When I saw her there last fall it was like seeing an old friend. She lies there still, and every day when I drive to work I can look across the Ballard Bridge and see her red hull, still form.

The old boats in this story here—Billow, Foam, Ebb—are fictional, but barely, for they are the same in all particulars as were the Ocean, Wave, Surge, Tide and Crest. This story is fictional but it is as true as I could make it. Whenever I wonder about truth I cross that bridge and see the Crest and know in my bones how powerful those dreams can be and what some men will do to bring them home.

Because this business uses words and phrases unique to the trade, I have included a glossary on the next few pages to explain what the words mean and how they are used.

Charlie Sheldon

Glossary

Autopilot—a system which automatically holds a course within one or two degrees of a compass heading, also called an Iron Mike, usually a hydraulically-powered motor that adjusts the rudder such that the boat steers itself.

Bilge—The lowest part of the interior hull of a boat where water collects.

Bilge Pump—A pump in the bilges which, if the water level rises above a certain level, automatically turns on and pumps water through a hose up over the side (in modern boats) or a system of valves and pipes in larger boats that are manually turned to pump the bilge.

Bouyline—The line extending from the anchored end of longline gear to the flag buoy on the surface.

Bowline—a mooring line that leads from the bow of a boat to the shore.

Broker—term used when not enough fish are caught to pay expenses.

Bulkhead—the wall built athwartships in various places in boats; when such bulkheads are without openings they are watertight bulkheads.

Cod End—The bag at the end of a fishing net which, when dragged along the bottom of the ocean behind a boat, gathers fish.

Companionway—An entrance to another part of a boat, often with a short flight of steps, as in the companionway from the wheelhouse to the fo’csle in a lobster boat.

Corten Steel—An alloy mixing iron with other metals which resists rust.

Depth Sounder/Fish Finder—A sonar-based console which shows by readout or screen the water depth and schools of fish.

Direct Drive Cooper Bessemer—A marine engine popular in the 1930s which had no reverse gear. Through use of a cam it would turn the propellor or wheel one way to go forward; or be stopped, the cam shifted, and started again to turn the propellor or wheel the other way to go astern. Used in draggers built in the 1930s and 1940s.

Eastern Rig—A fishing boat style where the pilothouse is mounted on the stern, the main deck is amidships and open, and the bow is high. Eastern-Rig draggers use gallows frames mounted on the port or starboard side and handle their nets and gear over the side.

Fathom—a reference to distance indicating six feet; three fathoms depth would be eighteen feet depth.

Flag Buoy—A floating flag, a pole weighted at one end with iron weights and with a flag and radar reflector at the other end, with a buoy or Styrofoam float mounted in the middle to provide flotation and hold the flag erect in the water.

Fid—A small sharp-pointed hand tool used to pry apart the lay in longline groundline rope. Used to repair the gear and add or replace hooks.

Fish Hold/Hole—Area below decks in a fishing boat where fish are stored.

Fo’csle/Forecastle—The living spaces in the bow of a boat, usually containing bunks, a stove, and sometimes the galley.

Gaff/Gaff Hook/Gaff Station—A large hooked and pointed steel hook attached to a wooden handle, used to spear fish coming aboard a longliner caught on hooks. The gaffing station is the spot in the welldeck of a longliner where a crewman stands to gaff the fish, usually just astern of the man handling the boat as it hauls in the gear.

Galley—Area in the boat where food is prepared and eaten.

Gallows/Gallows Frame—A large roughly u-shaped stand of heavy iron mounted on the side of a fishing boat, one fore and one aft, just inside the railing on the main deck. This frame is used to store and hold the heavy trawl doors which are used to hold the net mouth open when the net is dragged along the bottom.

Gangion—The small braided cotton or nylon twine used to attach a hook to a groundline, usually sixteen inches to thirty-six inches long.

Gillnet—standing or floating nets that float or are anchored to the bottom which trap fish by the gills; in effect, fences which trap fish.

Groundline—Usually three to five-sixteenths diameter hard-lay rope, in sections up to 250 fathoms apiece, onto which are attached hooks at six to twelve foot intervals.

Gurry—a mixture of slime, bits of entrail, and blood caused when fish are eviscerated and cleaned.

Hauler—A powered winch, usually hydraulic, either a drum used to store wire cable, if towing large nets, or two metal plates mounted together on a vertical axle filed such that a groove around the perimeter can be used to grip and hold incoming groundline and buoyline.

Heat Exchanger—A watertight box mounted on or near an engine. Fresh water to cool the engine is carried in coiled pipes through the box, which is filled with raw seawater pumped aboard through a through-hull fitting to provide cooling.

Hookset—A small wooden notched plug into which have been driven small nails shaped in the shape of a properly curved hook. This plug is mounted on a wooden tub which holds baited gear and the person baiting the gear can re-curve hooks as needed while working.

Impellor—The rubber or plastic vanes inside a pump which turn and pump water. If for some reason the water flow is interrupted these impellers will become hot and melt and need to be replaced.

Jog—Moving the boat ahead very slowly under power using minimal force; or (alt.) referring to narrow waterway between standing piers.

Longline—Fishing gear characterized by long lines to which are attached thousands of hooks, usually in bundles or tubs of 250–300 hooks apiece.

Longliner—A fishing boat that fishes with longlines. These are baited by hand, set over the stern before daylight in individual strings marked by flag buoys at each end, and hauled back aboard the boat during the day after the gear fishes for some hours. Longliners can seek bottomfish like cod and haddock or, if fishing gear floated just beneath the surface, seek swordfish and tuna.

Loran—An electronic navigation system used to determine position.

Oilskins—Rubberized outerware for protection from the elements.

Penboards—Wooden boards used in the fish hold to wall off areas of iced and packed fish. When not in use they are usually stacked together in the slaughterhouse in a pile.

Pilothouse—The area in a boat where the boat is steered, the electronics (loran, fish finds, and radar and radios) are mounted, and charts are held.

Rimracked—refers to when dragger gear is trapped on rough patches of the bottom.

Rollergear—Heavy rubber rollers attached to the groundwire of a towed net; used to drag nets over rough and rocky bottom.

Seacock—A through-hull fitting and valve system allowing water to be pumped directly into the boat, usually to provide raw seawater cooling for heat exchangers or a wash-down hose.

Scrod—Very young and small fish, as in scrod haddock.

Scupper—Opening at the side of a boat just above the deck, usually no more than three or four inches high and a foot long, for the purpose of allowing water on deck to drain over the side.

Settlement—The payout of proceeds from the sale of fish after a fishing trip.

Shack—as a verb, refers to the removal of bait from hooks on those occasions when baited longline gear is not used; as in, shack the gear.

Slaughterhouse—The area in the center of the fish hold where fish are dumped from the deck and held before being iced and stored in pens.

Springline—A mooring line attached at the center rail of a boat with one end running forward and the other end running aft. Used to keep a boat from drifting forward or back.

Sternline—A mooring line running from the stern to the dock.

Tailshaft—The steel shaft connecting the propellor or wheel to the engine on a boat.

Tiller Flat—The area in the hull at the extreme stern just above the rudder between the main deck and the hull. Usually reached by a hatch on the deck, the tiller flat holds the steering mechanism and sometimes miscellaneous stores.

Trawl Door/Otter Trawl Door—A roughly three feet by six feet door-like wood and steel piece of gear that is stored in the gallows frame when the boat is not fishing. When the boat is fishing, the net is dragged along the bottom and the two trawl doors, attached to the wings of the net, swim above the bottom and hold the net open; wires from the trawl doors lead aboard the boat to the large hauling drum on the main deck.

Trawler/Dragger—A fishing boat that drags a net along the bottom to catch fish.

Tub Trawl/Trawler—Tub trawl represents longline gear baited and stored in wooden tubs; really another word for longline/longliner.

Western Rig—The fishing boat style where the pilothouse is mounted forward by the bow, with the rear deck open to the stern. This style of vessel appeared in the 1960s and stern trawlers started handling their nets and gear over the stern instead of the side. Western-rig stern trawlers were found to be far more efficient than the earlier Eastern-Rig style.

Whaleback/Turtleback—The rounded protective structure on the bow or stern of older Eastern-Rig draggers; provides protection in heavy boarding or following seas.

Wheel—1. Refers to the propellor used to drive the boat through the water; 2. Also refers to the steering station or helm in the pilothouse.

Wheelhouse—Another term for the pilothouse.

THE BIGHT OF CLARK’S

Len Black and the rest of Jim Morsman’s crew were in Gloucester because when the weather went bad offshore, they had to stop fishing and run for shelter. Jim has secured the boat at the head of the harbor and told Len, Ernie and Stevie to go ahead into town. Rain swept overhead. The northeast wind whistled.

Where is this place? Ernie walked, head lowered, shoulders hunched. His short neck glistened under the streetlights.

How much farther, Len? Stevie held a hand over his eyes. Len Black led on. They sloshed over flooded drains and started up a hill, passing fuel tanks and the coldstore. Stevie swung wide around puddles. How far is this place, anyway? My shirt’s getting ruined. His voice rose in a wail.

Black stopped. Rain battered his slicker. Water dripped from his hair. He looked at his companions. They resembled dishrags. Not too far, Stevie. Just up ahead.

I’m soaked, Len. Dripping, Ernie shook himself.

They trudged on through narrow streets past the National Marine Fisheries Service building, some banks, a hardware store. The street was deserted. Occasional cars passed. Black’s lower legs were soaked.

I’m getting a blister, Len, Ernie said. They had finally made the harbor entrance an hour earlier after being chased by heavy seas all the way in from Cashes Ledge, forty miles offshore. They had been battered, wet, tired. Stevie, eager to get ashore, dressed for town. Ernie didn’t even change his boots. Now Black envied him. It was bitterly cold for the week after Labor Day. Stevie’s teeth chattered.

Should have worn your oilers, Stevie, Black said, looking at his own soaked feet.

You should have worn boots, Len. Ernie was laughing. Stevie shivered. Up ahead a lighted sign swung in the gusts. This the place?

This is it. Len Black pushed open the familiar door. He’d spent a lot of time here the previous winter.

Inside a jukebox throbbed. There was a big crowd. Black saw that the weather had blown the fleet ashore. Rhode Island and New Jersey boats, up in the Gulf of Maine chasing a good run of squid, had taken shelter. So had a few Fairhaven scallopers and New Bedford draggers. The last of the summer tourists, obvious by their lined and tailored rain