Life With A Fisherman

Over the next few days, Maggie and I trapped over 2,000 pounds of crawls on Salty. We didn’t run the motorboats at all. We were saving the fuel to make the run to New Bedford. It was Thursday night, and as we pulled up to dock, Dad was standing there with a big smile. “Cappy, he said, “We have well over 2,000 pounds of lobster. It’s time to make the run and sell them. We’ll go in the morning. We’ve got to beat this storm that’s coming in on us. We need to be on the dock very early to load Crawl Two. I don’t think we can wait. I don’t like these clouds. This is going to be a mean storm. I can feel it coming.” The sea was calm, and the clouds were heavy. It had been in the high 90s and very humid for over two weeks. It was like the calm before the storm.

The morning came quick, and it took over three hours to move the lobsters from the pen into the lives well of the motorboat. We all worked very hard. Captain Ben was supposed to go with Dad on the trip, but he wasn’t at the dock yet. I kept looking up the hill for him. I expected to see him at any time. We were just about loaded when Maggie said, “I’ll go see what’s holding up Ben.” She was gone for about 20 minutes. It felt like a week to me, waiting for her to come back to the dock. I was very worried. The captain was normally the first one to show up at anything we did. This was not like him at all. Maggie finally came back with the news that he was very sick and couldn’t get out of bed. Mom spoke up immediately, saying she would stay with him. Maggie decided to stay and help Mom. Dad yelled from the boat as he started her up, “Let’s go! There are fish to get sold.” Off we went, and as we left the harbor, we met five-foot waves. It was getting rough out there. Ben’s Crawl Two was a 32- foot wooden lobster boat, and it was built for cutting waves. It was our second time out in her. Not only was it brand new, it was new to us. But it was a boat. The sails may have been replaced by a motor, but it was still a boat and we knew how to ride those waves. The winds were picking up, and the waves were breaking all around us. Five- to 10- foot waves were white capping everywhere. But we cut right through them. I didn’t know it at the time, but this was the front of one big storm.

We made the Bedford harbor within four hours due to those rough waters. We were one hour behind schedule, but we made it. We pulled up to Reilly’s scale house and off loaded our lobsters. Market price for us was 28 cents per pound. The guys in the scale house helped us off load. They normally don’t do that, but we had a lot of lobsters, and they wanted to get out of that storm. Our live well was jam-pack full, and I don’t think we had any room in it for another lobster. We ended up scaling in at 3,200 pounds of crawls. Mr. Reilly gave Dad $896, and he was thrilled to pay it. He said it was the most lobsters that he has seen come in at one time. He and Dad talked as I filled up our barrels and boat tank with diesel fuel. I was very excited. We had just made a half-year salary for a normal working man in a two-week timeframe. And it was the start of our boats running with full tanks. Mr. Reilly yelled as he left, “Be safe out there.” Dad jumped aboard saying, “He wants another load as fast as we can deliverer them over, and he also wants tuna, all the tuna we can get.” That was great news for Dad.” I’m going out with the crew for a few weeks after this storm. I’ll fish the tuna, and you get the lobster pens full. Now let’s get home.”

As we left the harbor, it started to rain – and I mean rain. We did all we could do to see. This was going to be a long ride to Martha’s Vineyard. About two hours later, it started raining even harder. I didn’t know it could rain that hard. The winds were gusting 60 miles per hour, and the waves were now 30- to 40-footers. They were bigger than the boat. The bow was taking a beating. It would be under water one minute, then out. “We have to ride them,” Dad yelled, as the bow took a wave that was about 50-foot high. The wave threw us sideways, then another hit us from the starboard side. As it did, the boat almost went over. Dad was thrown from the wheel into the wall next to me. His arm went crashing through the window, breaking the window and his right arm. All I could see was bone sticking out from his torn skin. I could feel the boat starting to roll as Dad was laying on the floor. “Grab the wheel!” he yelled. This all happened so fast. I jumped to the wheel and throttle. I pushed the throttle to its max speed and turned Ben’s Crawl Two with the wave. We started getting in front of that wave just as it broke at our back end. It was like seeing a monster’s hand come crashing down, just missing us. Right behind that wave was another, just as big if not larger.

I looked at Dad laying on the floor with his broken arm. I knew our lives were in my hands. The winds were now gusting at over 90 miles per hour. This is no storm; it is a hurricane. “Ride them waves, Cappy!” Dad yelled.” We were right smack in the middle of it. I rode the waves from side to side, keeping in front of the big ones all the way to the bluff. It took seven hours to get home that day. We entered the bluff harbor in the dark of night. The winds ere hitting the island like I’d never seen before. I could just see the dock. It was still standing, but it was in pieces. The building that was at the end of it was gone. I had no choice in the matter. I had to beach this boat to safety. I picked a spot on the beach very quickly, where I knew there were no rocks. I picked a 30-foot wave and rode it right up on land. I was right next to the beach house that we had built. It was still standing and the only cover from the storm I could see. I helped Dad from the boat to the shelter. The rain was blowing sideways. We had to just about crawl to the beach house from the boat that laid in the surf. Dad was shivering from the cold, and he was in shock. I wrapped him with the beach towels and covered his broken arm. I had to get Dad to Dr. Beechums somehow – or get the doctor to us. And I had to get the news to Mom and Maggie that we were back on the island. They must have been worried sick not knowing where we were in that hurricane.

I started out the door to go get help. The winds were over 100 miles per hour. I watched a wave totally break over the dock, covering it with water. I was about 20 feet from the beach house. I heard a loud cracking sound in front of me. It was a bolt of lightning that hit the big oak on the top of the hill. It tore the old tree apart, leaving it on fire, and a huge branch flew through the air out of my sight. I turned back to the beach house. The wind blew me off my feet. I did all that I could do to crawl back to the little hut. There was no way I was going anywhere. We were in the safety of that hut for another five hours when the winds started to stop . It was about 4 in the morning. I looked outside to see if it was safe enough for me to leave. It was, so I told Dad that I would be back with the doctor. I don’t think Dad even heard me. All I knew is that I needed to get to Dr. Beechums’ house in the black of night. I ran as fast as my legs would take me to east chop, to the doctor’s house. I didn’t realize it at the time, but the island was a mess from the hurricane. It was too dark to see around me . I reached Dr. Beechums’ house and told him what had happened to Dad. We hitched up the wagon to his horse and off we went to retrieve Dad from the hut. The dirt roads were impassable. We did all we could do to get to the lagoon . It was still raining out but not as hard, and the winds had stopped. As we finally reached the hut, I could hear Dad moaning with his pain. The doctor quickly gave him a shot and reset his arm right on the spot. As the doctor put a splint on Dad’s arm, he told Dad that we need to get a cast on it after we are sure that the tears are healed from infection, that he would not be able to do anything for at least eight weeks. Dad was very weak from the loss of blood. We loaded him on the wagon to bring him to our house.

As we reached the house, I thanked God it was still standing. The yard was a mess with downed trees and debris from the storm. We brought Dad into his bedroom, and I started a fire in the stove to rid him of the damp cold . Mom was nowhere in sight. I was thinking that she was at Captain Ben’s house. I asked the Dr. if he would stay with Dad while I went to find my mother. He said, “Yes, but please be quick about it. There are probably more people in need of help.” I took the wagon to Captain Ben’s house. As I reached his house, I saw parts of the roof in the woods at the other end of the field. What a mess it was. I started to go into the house and looked up and at the back wall that wasn’t there. The house was all ripped apart by the storm. I heard mom yell, “Cappy, over here!” They were in the barn. The barn was really the only thing that wasn’t damaged. Captain Ben was still very sick, and they were all soaked from the rain. I quickly told Mom what had happened with Dad. “I need to get to your dad,” she said. “Come help me with the captain.” We helped him into the back of the wagon and headed to our house. “Mom, have you heard anything from Maggie? Was she at home through the storm?” Mom replied, “Yes, she is at home, and I’m sure they are all right.” We arrived at our house, and I helped Ben into a bedroom. I put him in some dry cloths. He was very weak. Mom went right to Dad, and the the doctor put some beach plum tea on the stove. I quickly started fires in the two wood stoves to dry the house out of its dampness. Dr. Beechums came right in with some tea for Captain Ben and checked him out. The captain kept yelling at the doctor, “I’m all right. Stop fussing over me.” The doctor shouted back, “You’re not all right, and you need rest. Now drink your tea, old man.” He took a sip before spitting it out and asked for rum. I went in the room saying, “I’ll go get your barrel of rum if you drink your tea.” Captain Ben looked at me with a big smile. “How was your ride, young Captain?” he shouted. I said it was a good one, and he laughed. “I’ll fill ya in later after you get some rest,” and I left the room with the doctor. “I’ll tend to your dad now, and then I have to go. Something tells me it’s going to be a busy one for me,” the doctor said.

I heard Captain Ben yelling in the background, “Cappy, you had better start making new traps.” I went in to see what he was talking about because he wasn’t going to rest until I talked with him. “I’m telling you right now that you’re going to need new traps,” he said. “That storm has taken your traps that you have out. Mark my words, I’ve seen it before. Now I was starting to worry. I’m supposed to get crawls ready for market, and dad is supposed to get tuna. How in the world is Dad going out fishing like this? And if I don’t have traps, it’s going to be a mess. Mom spoke up. “There’s enough to worry about besides the small stuff, Cappy. We have lived through worse times than this.” Well, she was right: We had plenty to do. The island was a mess, and the islanders needed help. I headed up to see how Maggie and her family survived the storm. All was OK there. Maggie came running to the door as I knocked and gave me a huge hug. She said she had been thinking the worst about us out to sea in that storm. I told her everything. I told her what the captain said about the traps being lost. We decided to go down to the dock and see how bad the damage was. As we reached the top of the hill, we looked down at the lagoon. It was a mess with storm debris, but the dock was intact. Salty was flipped upside down on shore, and Ben’s Crawl One was still tied off to the dock. The little house on the dock was in shambles. It needed to be rebuilt. My traps that were in a pile at the end of the dock were scattered all over the place. Maggie started gathering the traps as I checked out the live pens at the dock.

We worked the rest of the day putting things back into their order. Ben’s Crawl Two was beached but was not damaged. It took the next day to jack it up and roll it on logs back to the high tide with a team of horses. We transferred fuel from the drums that we brought back from New Bedford into Crawl One. I wanted to go check the trap lines, but I had to get Captain Ben’s house fixed up for him. He was still bedridden, and I wanted to get it ready before he knew the roof was gone. I counted my share of the lobster money with Dad. It was over $400. I only took $100 and told him to keep the rest for family needs. Then I met with some island carpenters at Captain Ben’s house. They estimated the total damage at $50. I shook their hands and gave them the money. They said it would be completed within the week. I felt great about helping my old friend, the captain. Mom took care of Dad and Ben for the next few days while Maggie and I repaired all the damaged traps. It was said that it was the biggest hurricane to hit our island in over 200 years . We were very lucky to not lose anyone’s life. Very lucky.

On the fifth day after the storm, we were ready to go out and check traps . The weather was fantastic, and the sea was flat. Maggie and I worked together as a team on the new boat. We reached the first area where the traps were supposed to be, and there wasn’t a rum barrel with a flag on it in sight. I circled the area and could find nothing. Those 10 traps were lost with the storm. We went to the next spot and again could not see a rum barrel. I again circled the area. Maggie yelled, “Rope in the water ahead.” I went to it and saw a piece of wood from the old rum barrel floating with the rope tied to it. It was a trap line. Maggie pulled the line up by hand very carefully. The first trap came in with nothing in it, then the second trap and third trap. Nothing, no crawls but at least the traps were all right. We reset the line with new rum barrels and flags. This went on all day until I ran out of flags. We headed back in to restock our boat. I told Maggie that we were going to load 50 of the new traps from the dock and get them into the water, then we’d check the old lines. This went on for three days and nights. We were getting worn out from a lack of sleep. By the fourth day, we had checked and reset over 700 traps. The new metal traps were in great shape, and I knew we needed more of them.

I went up to see how Captain Ben was doing; he was still at our house. The doctor was coming to visit him and Dad today to check their progress. Dad’s cuts were healing great, so Dr. Beechums put his arm in a cast. He told Dad that he could go out fishing in two weeks but not before. He also told us that Captain Ben should not be alone anymore and that there is a home for the elderly on the mainland where he can stay. He said the elderly get the care that they need at this home. I looked at the doctor and said, “There is no way I’ll allow him to go to a home for the old. No way!” Dad spoke up, saying that we have plenty of room here, and if Mom doesn’t mind, the captain can spend his days living with us. I went out of the house shouting, “Maaaaaa!” “What’s the matter, Cappy?” she replied. I explained what the doctor had said, and without a thought about it, Mom said that our house is the Captains house. And that was that for that. I went into Captain Ben’s room to tell him the news. It took a little bit, but he agreed to stay with us. Then he asked, “Cappy did you reset the traps? Did you get them ready for the next crawl run? You need to stay right on top of those traps because they will fill up fast after the waters settle from the storm. Take my word on it: I’ve lived it before.” I said, “Maggie and I are going out today to get bait for the drums, then we start checking traps in the morning.” The captain said, “Just keep up with it, Captain Cappy. I can’t go with you for a while.”