High Liner: Captain Salvatore Parisi and F/V St. Rosalie
My grandparents, Salvatore Parisi, and his wife Grace came to this country in 1922 from Sicily, and settled in Gloucester, Mass. They had four children at the time of arrival. Oldest son Joseph, and daughters Rosalie, Lena, and Grace., and he bought a fishing boat called the St. Rosalie.
Along the way, a few more children were added and they had six sons, Joe, Ben, Charles, Tony, Mathew, and Nick, who all went fishing.
In the early 1940’s he fished the St. Rosalie in Cape May seining for mackerel, and won the Leader Trophy, awarded annually to the High line vessel from the Wildwood Gables Dock in Wildwood, New Jersey.
When the war broke out they took his two oldest sons to serve the country, leaving Salvatore Parisi to make my father Mathew Parisi the Captain of the St. Rosalie.
He did well the first year fishing for red fish in the Gulf of Maine .
During one trip they worked the deck for 48 hours with no sleep, filling the hold, then heading back to Gloucester.
He set the watch putting a crewman on the wheel, and hit the rack.
Within an hour, the St. Rosalie plowed into Mount Desert Island, and the vessel was a total loss.
Thankfully, the crew survived, but, the vessel was uninsured!
Mathew Parisi was petrified to return home, and was hiding out somewhere in Maine!
Soon enough, his brother flushed him out, and told him to come home because we were building a brand new St. Rosalie in Essex, Ma.
In 1947 when I was five years old, the New St. Rosalie was christened.
It was a happy day for the Parisi family.
Little did I know that someday I would captain that boat but also marry a girl named Rosalie!
