My View of Life on the Dock
Every Christmastime Tony Gross, the skipper of the lobsterboat F/V Sandollar makes a ridiculous number of Swedish Coffee Bread loaves and gives them out to friends. I made the mistake and called it Nisu but because the recipe comes from an elder in Tony’s family he insists it be called Swedish Coffee Bread.
It’s delicious and best eaten within a day of cooking. I sure am glad I’m on the list of those who get one every year!
Tony Gross’ Swedish Coffee Bread, originally uploaded by captjoe06.
It was so cold that the plug which drains his lobster tank was frozen solid. He had to take a layer of lobsters out of the tank and then dip a five gallon bucket in to take out some water and then take more lobsters out followed by bailing out more water til the tank was empty. The extreme cold makes
Sean Burn’s Lobsterboat The Four Sisters Prepares To Offload, originally uploaded by captjoe06.
Sean Burn’s Lobsterboat The Four Sisters Prepares To Offload, originally uploaded by captjoe06.
Click Picture For The Six Part Series
Thanks to Universal Hub for the link-
Here is The USCG website report-
BOSTON — The Coast Guard Cutter Escanaba is continuing to tow the Gloucester-based lobster boat that was disabled Wednesday with five people aboard more than 200 miles southeast of Nantucket, Mass.
Ten to 15-foot seas and 38 mph winds are keeping the Escanaba’s towing speed at about 4 mph.
The crew of the Escanaba is working with the First District command center staff in Boston to determine the safest location to tow the Michael and Kristen to.
The master of the 77-foot lobster boat called for help at about 3:30 p.m., Wednesday when the boat’s engines wouldn’t start. The Rachel Leah, another fishing vessel in the area, answered the calls for help and began towing the Michael and Kristen. The Escanaba met both vessels around 9:30 p.m., Wednesday and stayed with them through the night.
Thursday morning the Rachel Leah’s towline parted, so the Escanaba took over and the Rachel Leah departed.
The original press release can be found here: https://www.piersystem.com/go/doc/778/430007/
Here’s just one of the number of incredible exhibits to see at the Cape Ann Museum. This is what the flake yards looked like. The cod would be split open , de-boned and laid out in triangle shapes flat on drying racks.
When I was about 12 years old at our dock we were splitting and salting cod for a Norwegian company. Frank and my job was to pull off any globules of blood or liver after the cod got split and de-boned. We had a big stainless steel tank and the triangular shaped cod would come down the conveyor to us and plop into the stainless tank. Usually up around the nape of the cod rack there would be a liver still attached that we would need to rip off and give the rack a good washing to get nice and white before salting.
After that we would lay the whale cod split flat onto pallets, pour the salt over them and stack them up. I can remember the whole cooler being stacked up with pallet upon pallet of salted cod waiting to dry and then for the trailer truck to pick them up.
Exhibit at Cape Ann Museum, originally uploaded by captjoe06.
You find love in the unlikeliest of places.
The Boys On The Degelyse Take Tiger’s Sloppy Seconds, originally uploaded by captjoe06.
TJ Peckham and Tom Ryan to Host Weekly Home Brew TV Show –“The Dealiest Batch” – on www.gloucestertimes.com Wednesdays at 7:00 PM “The Dealiest Batch” will start this Wednesday at 7:00 PM and cover all things home brewing. It is live so that viewers can email in their questions. It will be on every Wednesday at the same time. TJ and Tom began their home brewing careers in college. Even when they were fishing out of Dutch Harbor, Alaska they both brought books on beer, brewing and breweries to read while we were isolated on the ship for months at a time. Now they both work at Cape Ann Brewing Co. of Gloucester, home of The Fisherman’s IPA, but still carry on their home brewing activities, including a home brewing club, videos and a new weekly TV show, “The Deadliest Batch – Home Brewing with T&T” to be seen every Wednesday at 7:00 PM at http://food.gloucestertimes.com. Viewers can also see their other videos and replays of the program in the Wine & Beverage Videos category.
check out the promo-
IMG_3109, originally uploaded by ThomFalzarano.
Three Skatewing Bone Ghosties Go To The Winner Of This Week’s Where Zat? contest. Sharon posts it at noon on Mondays. The Ghosties will need to be picked up by next Monday.
Where Zat? Prize, originally uploaded by captjoe06.
I remember this time of year (pollock season) when we used to handle fish. Frankie and I would steak (chop the heads off) so many pollock that we could barely lift our arms and the cleavers we used would feel like they weighed 100 lbs at the end of the night.
We would unload the pollock and dump them into vats because there would never be enough fish totes to hold them. Then we would steak them and pack them in 100 lb boxes for shipping to New York.
We would beg Jerry Olsen to hold the New York truck for us til the very last moment to try to get as much pollock steaked as possible.
Going home trembling, arms numb around 9:30PM. Its a wonder we never lopped off a thumb accidentally. You would grab each fish in it’s eye socket and try to get as close to that eye socket with the cleaver to get the highest percentage of fish to ship. The further from that eye socket the more gets left on the head and is loss. Coming down and splitting through the fishes head with the cleaver sending blood all over. At the end of the night you would be covered in pollock blood and scales.
When you finally get home shaking you get under the shower head and let the hot water beat down on you cleaning away the blood and scales and massaging the throbbing muscles in your arms, shoulders and back. Get out of the shower, stuff something down your throat and get to bed as soon as possible knowing that in a few short hours you were going to have to be back down the dock loading the truck at 3:30AM with the pollock you couldn’t get through and load it on the truck for the Boston Auction.
You know that sleep is critical because you’ll be on the road at 4:30 to get the fish to Boston to make that day’s auction. Grabbing multiple cups of coffee to try to stay awake on the road into town.
Once you get into town the Auction would take place at 6:00AM and when it ended you would go to unload all the fish from the truck at different fish houses in South Boston.
Generally with pollock you didn’t have to battle with the fish houses as the fish was all super fresh. So by the time you get done delivering the fish you get back to Gloucester around 11:00AM and prepare to unload boats for the rest of the afternoon and get to steaking that pollock and cod and packing them up for the next day’s market. Rinse, lather, repeat every day.
I remember wishing so badly for bad weather to try to get some rest and recovery for my aching body.
This video comes from http://www.coastalfishingcharters.net
From the site-
Fighting a 140 pound 60 inch bluefin tuna. Took 8 and 1/2 hours to reel in on light tackle out on stellwagen bank.
Those fuckers up in Maine are touting their lobster trap tree as the largest one ever.
Well we’ll see about that!
Won’t you help out building the Tenth Annual Lobster Trap Christmas Tree?
To Help-
Friday, November 27, 2009 at 9:00am
Gloucester Police Station Plaza
Let’s show these no good Mainer rat bastards who’s boss when it comes to building lobster trap trees!
Maybe we could get a bet going between public officials from each community. Hmmmm, what local politician believes in our tree enough to step up?
Stay tuned.
I rarely get political in these pages but I don’t think enough people understand just how big an impact the proposed privatizing our fisheries through sectors will have on our community. Richard Gaines at The Times has been doing an excellent job covering it at the Gloucester Times but my guess is that most people outside of fishermen are skimming over the articles because the rules and regulations are very difficult to understand.
If the privatization of the fisheries occurs it will really change the entire character of the fishing industry in Gloucester. It’s not even up for debate. Within a couple of generations there will no longer exist the independent local fisherman.
I’m not sure the common public understands how far reaching and disastrous to our community the impact of what being proposed is.
Non-fishermen probably don’t get it because the rules and how it all works is a little too complex for them to understand but make no mistake- If what they propose happens, a huge part of our heritage goes in the history books as a memory.
The whole reason why many people choose to become fishermen- the independence and ability to get out what you’re willing to put in as far as work- vanishes.
Eventually fishing permits will be gobbled up by big corporations and all the kids coming up become hired hands and that’s all they’ll ever be. Never being able to afford their own permits or boats, they will simply be employees of some large conglomerate fishing operation which in all likelihood won’t even be owned by an entity in our state let alone city.
Stevie Aboard The Lady Jane Mends The Net, originally uploaded by captjoe06.
Good Morning Gloucester 