Tag Archives: tub trawlers
Dana Eldridge: Where are the characters?
We don’t seem to have as many characters around as I remember as a youngster and that’s too bad. Maybe television has lured them indoors. One example of our long ago character episodes that so enlivened our daily lives follows: During the late 40s and most of the 50s, one of my uncles was a commercial fisherman out of Chatham. His boat, like most of the rest of the fleet, was a Novi, (built in Nova Scotia).,, In those days, fishermen were mostly tub trawlers. A trawl is a long line with hooks every six feet or so. Uncle Bob and his partner Herb would get down to the boat a couple hours before dawn, bait each of the thousands of hooks and set out for one of the fish rich hot spots. After a day of setting the trawl, retrieving the trawl, slatting the fish into the bins, it was time for the hours long slog back to the fish pier. This was the time when the fish got their rudimentary cleaning in preparation for shipment to Boston or New York, where Chatham’s fresh fish always demanded a premium. click here to read the story 09:59
