Working the Sea, by Michael Crowley and the Penobscot Marine Museum and recently published by Islandport Press in Yarmouth, features more than one hundred images of fishing vessels from the 19th and 20th centuries drawn from the National Fisherman photo collection at the Penobscot Marine Museum. The images highlight the changes that swept through America’s fisheries during those years.
Gillnets drying on a Portland wharf, 1926. Maine fishermen were said to be the first in New England to set gillnets. The gear quickly became popular throughout the region.
National Fisherman magazine began life as Atlantic Fisherman, first published in 1921. In 1954 it renamed itself National Fisherman and in 1960 consolidated with Maine Coast Fisherman, based in Belfast. In 1967, National Fisherman took over Pacific Fishing, published in Seattle. The magazine proudly stated that it covered commercial fishing along the Atlantic, Pacific and Gulf coasts, the Great Lakes, and Alaska. For decades it was the magazine found in every vessel’s galley, on kitchen tables, and in the shops of fishermen throughout the country.
The 145-page book is divided into chapters: Launch Day, At Sea, Selling the Catch, Drama at Sea. Working the Sea shows the wide range of vessels engaged in fishing over the decades and the pace of change among them. The book features photos of the elegant schooner L.A. Dunton, the old pinky Maine as well as Oregon surf dories, Alaskan halibut longliners, California tuna seiners, and dozens of other types of fishing boats.
The final chapter details some of the disasters at sea written up in National Fisherman, such as the unusual story of the Ben & Josephine. The 92-foot side trawler was launched at Morse Boatbuilding in Thomaston in 1941. She left Gloucester in June 1942, bound for fishing grounds off Nova Scotia. The day after leaving Gloucester the boat encountered a German U-boat. The submarine crew first shot at the Ben & Josephine, then began to shell the vessel. The crew escaped in dories as the boat was sinking. No crew member was killed during the attack. They then rowed the dories toward Mt. Desert Rock, which they reached two days later. Four other U.S. and Canadian fishing vessels were destroyed by submarines that summer.
As we move further into this uncertain century, it’s a pleasure to revisit the past and reflect on our collective fishing heritage, preserved and protected at the Penobscot Marine Museum.
The Muskegon launches at I.L. Snow & Company in 1937 in Rockland. The 72-foot by 18-foot all-wood scalloper and dragger had a 140-hp diesel engine but also main and mizzen sail.
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