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The Foundation for The Gator Nation An Equal Opportunity Institution
Samuel Proctor Oral History Program
College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
Program Director: Dr. Paul Ortiz
Office Manager: Tamarra Jenkins 241 Pugh Hall
Technology Coordinator: Deborah Hendrix PO Box 115215
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352-392-7168
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The Samuel Proctor Oral History Program (SPOHP) was founded by Dr. Samuel
Proctor at the University of Florida in 1967. Its original projects were collections centered
around Florida history with the purpose of preserving eyewitness accounts of economic,
social, political, religious and intellectual life in Florida and the South. In the 50+ years since
its inception, SPOHP has collected over 7,500 interviews in its archives.
Transcribed interviews are available through SPOHP for use by research scholars,
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Proctor Oral History Program office at 352-392-7168.
-February 2018
TMP-139 Interviewee: Donald George Interviewer: Jasmyn Sullivan Date of Interview: October 2, 2016 S: Good afternoon, my name is Jasmyn Sullivan and I am here with Mr.
Donald George. We are at the Reedville Fishermen's Museum on October
second. Hi, how are you?
G: Fine, thank you.
S: Okay. So, can you give me a little background information about yourself?
The date you were born and where you were born?
G: I was born November 25, 1926. Born in the house we lived in in Fairport.
Now, Fairport is a little town about five miles from here.
S: Okay. So, can you tell me a little bit about your childhood?
G: Yes, I was the last of six children. I had three brothers and two sisters. All
went to Reedville School here by bus. Previous to that, they used to go to
school here by boat. Let's see, I graduated from Reedville High School in
1944, enlisted in the U.S. Navy, and then, when I got out of the navy in
[19]46, I went to college and went to work for the navy in the naval
weapon systems. And continued that tour of duty for thirty-nine years
working on ships and guns.
S: So, how did you like doing that job?
G: Well, I enjoyed doing it.
S: Can you tell me a little bit about the industry in the Reedville area?
G: I think I'll start with what we do with the fish.
S: Okay.
TMP-139; George; Page 2
G: The fish, menhaden, is called many different things, mossback,
mossbunkers, alewives, it depends who you're talking to. But here in
Reedville they usually use the alewives or bunkers or menhaden. And the
menhaden is a small fish that takes up about twenty-three cubic inches
and weighs about four to six pounds, and they travel in large schools
which makes ‘em real easy to catch. In the fall, these fish are grown to the
size of a peanut. They begin to bunch together in great big bunches and
move down the coast. First, the big fish were the first fish to go up are the
first fish to come back down the coast. And they come in the bay and
some of ‘em go on down and go offshore in Hatteras. In the springtime, it's
just the reverse, that the schools come up here scattered and the big fish
go further north and the smaller fish probably don't get any food in the bay.
They catch ‘em by the millions, actually by the millions. They are paid by
the number of fish they caught. So, the twenty-three cubic inches is an
important thing because that’s what they're paid for. Okay.
S: So, did you used to work at the tomato factory?
G: Yes, and some of these factories that did menhaden fishing also, during
the summer, did tomato canner-ing. Used to go down the street, Blundon
and Hinton were a big deal. Now that's all closed up and there's a
restaurant in there called Tommy’s. And on down where the Crazy Crab at
the end of the street, they had a menhaden plant but they also had a
canning facility. So, in the county, someone told me there were at least
TMP-139; George; Page 3
twenty canneries in the Northern Neck. You know we're in the Northern
Neck?
S: Yes, sir.
G: Okay.
S: So, can you tell me about working at the tomato factory? Like, what did
you have to do during the day or what the industry was like?
G: Well, first off, they picked the tomatoes by hand. So, that meant that most
of the time there would be a group out in the field picking tomatoes by
hand, and they'd deliver them – maybe they would start cleaning in the
afternoon. It was hard work. It was hot, and everybody was uptight
because they had schedules to meet, and the pay wasn't very good. I
think I got fifteen cents an hour working. The peelers, they got a little
more, they got – I don't know what they did. One thing they used to do is
preparing the herring. In the spring, when the herring came by, they had a
lot of roe in ‘em, and they would cut the herring and get the roe and then
can the roe. Now, a can of roe is almost twelve dollars, a small little can.
That industry no longer exists.
S: Okay. So, going back to you being in the military, what was your
experience like there?
G: What's that?
S: What was your experience like being in the military?
G: Oh, I think it was the best two years I ever spent because, one thing, it
gave me the G.I. Bill, which I was able to go to college full-time. I was just
TMP-139; George; Page 4
a little country boy, I never been anywhere but Reedville, and it gave me a
chance to see a lot of the world and grow up a little bit before I went to
college. Now, I can see the difference, too.
S: What college did you go to?
G: What high school?
S: College.
G: Randolph-Macon.
S: And what did you study?
G: Physics.
S: Physics? Wow.
G: Yeah.
S: So, how did you like that?
G: I wanted to study something that I wouldn't be stuck to a desk all the time.
But actually, I worked more as an engineer than a physicist. Being a
physicist got me the job.
[Laughter]
S: So, how did you get involved with the Fishermen's Museum here at
Reedville?
G: Well, I decided I was going to do something about the Chesapeake Bay,
and I was gonna go to work with or help the Chesapeake Bay Foundation.
Well, I kinda fell out with them. I started working down here, and I had
already started collecting data, and I collected a tremendous amount of
data. I have pictures of the fish boats, the dimensions and all that, which I
TMP-139; George; Page 5
have given to the museum. So, that took the place of me working with the
Chesapeake Bay Foundation, because this job keeps me pretty busy.
S: Yes, sir. So, what or who caused you to be involved with the Reedville
Fishermen's Museum?
G: Well, I had a lot of time because I'm retired, and I wanted to do something
that was kinda useful. I didn't want to sit around.
S: So, when you were young, did you used to fish a lot?
G: Yeah. During the summertime, fished and crabbed.
S: So, tell me about those experiences.
G: Well, first off, I went in for [inaudible 8:45] blue crab, that's what we were
trying to catch. And they had these what we call [inaudible 8:56] to creeks
and things had a lot of grass, and these crabs would double up and mate
and you'd catch ‘em in the grass and catch ‘em easy. So, that's where we
used to get our spending money from that.
S: And usually, in those times, what did you use your spending money for?
G: Clothes. It wasn't a whole lot of money, you know. For a dozen soft crabs
wouldn't even get twenty cents or something like that. But it was fun. I
mean, I can't imagine anything better than growing up in an atmosphere
like that.
S: So, can you describe to me more about the fishing industry in that time?
G: The fishing industry, at that time, was really labor intensive because they
had mostly steam-driven boats and they used coal to create the steam to
drive the engines. It was a twenty-four-hour job. They went aboard the
TMP-139; George; Page 6
boats in the late afternoon on Sundays and got off on a Saturday
afternoon, and the whole time they was on there they were subject to
work.
S: Wow. So, can you tell me about the foods eaten during the 1920s through
the 1930s? What kind of foods did you guys eat?
G: Well, mainly vegetables and seafood because beef wasn't available. I
mean, we didn't have the refrigeration to handle large-scale beef. We had
plenty to eat, that wasn't a problem. There wasn't many jobs but we had
plenty to eat.
S: So, when you came back to Reedville after the navy, could you tell a
difference in the city or was the city the same close-knit city that you left?
G: It was about the same.
S: What was your favorite part about living in Reedville?
G: Well, let's get something straight: I didn't live in Reedville.
S: Oh, I'm sorry.
G: I’m sorry. I lived in Fairport which was across this creek over here. But
Reedville had a lot more to offer. They had a drugstore and they had a
movie theater. We're probably sitting on the ground that the movie theater
. . . it was right in here. So, that gave us something to do. We'd come to
the movies by boat, come across from Fairport, dock down at the end of
the street, walk up the street to the movie house.
S: So, how cool was that to transport yourself from place to place through
boat instead of car?
TMP-139; George; Page 7
G: Pardon? I didn't understand.
S: Did you prefer to drive around in boat or car?
G: I didn't have the option, I didn't have a car. My family didn't have a car.
S: So, when you went to school you would walk to school or you would ride
the bus?
G: We had busing to our school. But if you wanted to stay afterschool and
practice baseball or something, we had to find our own way home.
S: So, at school, what other sports did you play other than baseball?
G: That's the only thing we did.
S: Play baseball?
G: Yeah. I mean, we didn't have no basketball and we didn't have a court
large enough.
S: What things did you find important about the industries that you were a
part of, like fishing and the tomato factory? What did you enjoy most about
being a part of those?
G: Well, most of it was the small amount of money we brought in. It was an
income that right at the beginning of the school year where you could
spend some of your money for books and clothes. But it wasn't a whole lot
to spend.
S: Tell me more about how you grew up, your parents and the environment
that you grew up in.
G: Well, we lived in Fairport, lived near the water. We would go down there
and sometimes all day play around, fool around. This was before I was old
TMP-139; George; Page 8
enough to work at the tomato factory or canning factory. My mother, as I
remember – when I raised my kids, I had certain things I wouldn't let them
do, like go swimming by yourself. My mother had enough faith in us. She
never, never controlled that. But it was just an easy lifestyle for a young
person. And it was all centered around the menhaden fish. ‘Cause some
of ‘em, they stayed here in the Reedville area, had the factories in
Fairport. Some of them would go up to Lewes, Delaware where they had
factories up there, and most of the crews came from the boats and things
in Reedville. They even had fish factories in New Jersey and then some
on Long Island. So, lots of the people moved off during the summer, we
wouldn't see them until fall.
S: And they moved because of the factories?
G: Because they paid more money and better working conditions and the
jobs were available.
S: So, what made you stay here and work at the factory even though you
know that you could make more money in another state?
G: I reckon it's something that you grow up with and love to do.
S: Do you have any good memories with your siblings or your parents?
G: Not really.
S: Do you have any good memories with your children or your wife?
G: Oh, yeah.
S: Tell me about that.
TMP-139; George; Page 9
G: Well, we were married in 1955 and had three children, two boys and a girl.
We lived in King George County, close to Washington. When I went to
work for the Naval Proving Ground. Then, they changed that to the Naval
Weapons Laboratory, now it's the Naval Surface Warfare Center. So,
unfortunately, I lost my daughter to a terrible accident. You never get over
that.
S: I'm sorry to hear that. So, can you tell me a little bit more about the
Reedville Fishermen's Museum?
G: Well, what we do in the Reedville Fishermen's Museum is try to save the
past of the Chesapeake Bay by standard museum practices. It was
formed when people got together and formed the Greater Reedville
Association, which later changed their name to the Reedville Fishermen's
Museum. We collect artifacts from – we don't buy anything, most
everything we have has been given to us. You see all these tools and
things? All of this has been gifts to us. Sometimes some pretty big gifts,
too.
S: So, can you tell me a little bit more about the boat exhibit next door? The
small museum full of the . . . I don't know how to say it. The mini little
artifacts?
G: Yeah.
S: Can you tell me more about who designs those and what they intend to do
with it?
TMP-139; George; Page 10
G: Well, we have an artist by the name of George Frayne who's responsible
for a lot of that artwork over there. Most everything – we have a policy that
we don't accept things on loan. I think most museums have that. What we
do is come up with a name for an exhibit and then we do the research to
fill in the voids we have. In fact, we're using too much of our assets,
because we usually have two exhibits a year, and that soon takes up a lot
of your . . . have you been through the museum?
S: Yes, sir.
G: I was gonna recommend that I’d go with you, I could tell you a whole lot
that you don't see.
[Break in recording]
S: Okay. So, can you tell me more about this model city?
G: I can't see it.
S: You can't see it?
G: Unh-uh.
S: Okay.
G: I just see a blur. What was it?
S: The model city that's next door with all the houses and homes and the
railroad tracks.
G: Oh, you mean in the permanent exhibit we have.
S: Yes.
G: Well, those houses are on the main street of Reedville, which starts up the
street here a little bit and goes all the way to the end. And most of them
TMP-139; George; Page 11
were built between the turn of the century and 1912. The biggest of the
industry was, I would say, around 1912, and most of these houses were
from the owners of the fishing industry.
S: There's a painting in the museum . . . oh, can you tell me more about the
nets in the museum? They have the big huge nets on the inside. Can you
tell me more about those, the fishing nets?
G: Yeah. The standard fishing net we use is called a purse seine, and what it
is, is about eighteen hundred feet long and forty feet deep, and in the
bottom they have rings put on the bottom, there's a rope running through
the rings. And what they do, they see this school of fish and the net they
have is divided into two boats, they call the purse boats. They see this
bunch of fish and you're looking at ‘em and you'll see a purple color in the
water, and they go around ‘em and the two purse boats meet, and when
they meet they throw overboard what they call a tom. It was a big lead
weight, and that would draw the bottom of the net together so the fish are
trapped in. And then, they'll take this power block, which is a hydraulic-
driven block, and get the net back to the purse boats, about that like that.
Then, they call the steamboat to come alongside and they throw a hose
overboard and pump the fish from the net to the boat, and that's called
purse seining.
S: Very strong. So, can you tell me more about the bells? There's actually
like different types of bells in there, like, the regular bell and then the huge
one that you hit on the side. What were those used for on the boats?
TMP-139; George; Page 12
G: What's that?
S: The bells?
G: Bells.
S: Uh-huh.
G: You mean the one that was on the wall?
S: Yes, sir.
G: Oh, they didn't have voice communication between the pilothouse and the
engine room. So, they had a group of signals that they would pull up the
signal behind the pilothouse, they would ring a bell in the engine room,
telling the engineer what to do.
S: Okay. Can you tell me more about the lighthouse?
G: Well, there were two lighthouses around here. One was Great Wicomico
Light, and if you go down to the little town of Fleeton and you look out the
bay and you see it, and that was what they call a screw-pile light. It was
put on a piling that that was screwed into the bottom. And they usually
were manned by about four people, and the coastguard manned that. On
up the bay a little bit further in the Chesapeake Bay is Smith Point Light,
and that's right on the corner of the bay and the Potomac River. That's
what they call a caisson construction. Otherwise, they built the structure
and went out and sunk it and built the floor of concrete. Now, here at last
[inaudible 23:44], the coast guard now has taken away all the light
keepers, it's all automated. And so, they sold the lighthouse and people in
TMP-139; George; Page 13
Wisconsin, who have never been on the bay, bought the lighthouse. But
they finally – I think they sold it now.
S: So, what was so intriguing about having the house by the lighthouse?
G: They lived aboard the lighthouse.
S: I'm sorry?
G: I said there was a crew that lived aboard the lighthouse.
S: So, have you ever heard any stories about how that was, living in the
lighthouse?
G: Yeah.
S: Can you tell me some of those?
G: I don’t know any particular one. But I know they used to have a lot of boats
on the bay and there were accidents and things like that. It was one of the
turning points, if you were going up the bay, you'd be sure to be on the
right side of the lighthouse.
S: Okay. Can you tell me more about the different types of boats in the
museum?
G: The boats?
S: Yes.
G: Well, essentially, we have . . . our signature boat is the Claud Somers, and
that's a skipjack. Are you familiar with – anybody tell you about a skipjack?
S: No, sir.
G: A skipjack, it's designed primarily for dredging oysters. They tow these big
scrapes on the bottom and scrape the oysters right off the bottom. In the
TMP-139; George; Page 14
1880s, Maryland, which owns the bay from Smith Point Lighthouse north,
wrote a law that prohibits you from catching oysters with boats that had an
engine in it. So, therefore, they built these skipjacks for sail power. There,
at one time, may be eleven hundred skipjacks on the bay, now there's
twelve of ‘em left because they weren't maintained and the oysters went
away so there wasn't any business for ‘em . . . Hold on, we never
answered the boat question. The skipjack, then we have what we call a
deck boat, the Elva C. She's about fifty-six feet long and was used in the
pound net fishery. She's powered with a diesel engine. The pound nets . .
. also, she was called a buy boat. She'd go around to these little small
boats catching oysters and buy their oysters, and then they would sort of
buy fish from the pound net fishermen. So, it was a general boat used in
the bay for most everything. They don't build those anymore because
there's no use for them . . . Then, we've got this canoe out here we made
by shaping the logs. They measured the size of the canoe by the number
of logs that they had to build. I think we have a five-log in there. And then,
you go on the dock, we have the latest [inaudible 27:50] boats they call . .
. it's planked cross-wise where most boats are planked length-wise. It has
a deadrise which you see it over here on this one, this goes from the bow
being straight up to the bow being flat. And the stern can be a round stern
or a stave [inaudible 28:15] stern. And that's called a Chesapeake Bay
work boat, deadrise work boat.
S: So, can you tell me about Chesapeake Bay?
TMP-139; George; Page 15
G: That’s not my deal, but the bay is the largest estuary in North America, I
think. It’s saline in part, and it goes all the way to – starts in Pennsylvania,
goes through Pennsylvania, parts of Maryland, Delaware, and Virginia.
Most of the bay is under the jurisdiction of the state of Maryland. The bay
prominently catches rockfish. Menhaden is the largest amount of fish
caught. Maryland won't allow menhaden fishing, nobody else does but
Virginia.
S: Okay. Well, is there anything else that you would like to share with me that
I didn't cover?
G: Well, I'm more familiar with menhaden boats.
S: Well, you can tell me about that.
G: Yeah. I've been compiled a lot of data on boats. When they started fishing
with purse nets it was around 1848. At that time, they used three boats –
sail boats – two of ‘em were was for setting the net and the other boat is
used for carrying fish back to the factory, they called that a carry-away
boat. The industry caught on with such speed after the Civil War that a
third of all the boats being built in New England were built for the
menhaden business. So, in [18]66, [18]67, they introduced the steamboat,
which gave ‘em a lot of mobility that they didn't have because they didn't
have to depend on the wind. And by 1880, all the sailboats had been laid
up and all they had was steam-driven wooden hull boats. How're you
doing?
[Interruption in recording]
TMP-139; George; Page 16
G: Well, anyway, Elijah Reed, who's supposed to be the father of the
menhaden fishery, came down the bay in 1867 or sometime soon after the
Civil War, and he saw two things: he saw menhaden in abundance and he
saw a large labor force because here we were after the Civil War and
these people didn't have anything to do. The place was ravished. So, he
saw a bunch of labor. So, he moved his fishing operation from Brooklin,
Maine to Reedville. And, at first, he was down near Virginia Beach, then
he moved up to Reedville here. Well, you see that big stack over there?
S: Yes, sir.
G: That was part of his steam-driven factory. And then, in 1888 his son
named the town Reedville after his father, Elijah Reed. There were two
guys coming down here, one of ‘em . . . most all the people came down
from Baltimore or cities up north because they didn't have the expertise to
run steam-driven engines. They never had the experience. So, what they
did, they transported a lot of these technicians in to do that. Well, anyway,
there was two big guys, one from New Jersey and one from Maine, named
Captain James Fisher and . . . can't think of the other one. Albert Morris.
And they built this big plant over here and began building their boats
themselves rather than buying boats from the north. So, they continued
moving until about 1925, when at the same time there was a menhaden
industry up north and that was kind of being phased out. But Reedville has
been in operation, the same plant, which today is called Omega, was
called Ampro, was called Reedville Oil and Guano Company. Reedville Oil
TMP-139; George; Page 17
and Guano Company had been in business for 103 years. And every other
one of those factories, maybe twenty other factories, have gone bankrupt.
So, now, we're down to seven boats fishing, that's all we're fishing, on the
Atlantic Coast, and they're probably catching almost as many as they did
when they had a large fleet. Because they have so many better ways of
catching the fish.
S: That's awesome. Is there anything else you would like to share?
G: Well, one thing is the FDA allowed, some time ago, for ‘em to use fish oil
for human use, and so we have a plant down here that makes fish oil for
omega-3 fish oil pills. The other product that we forgot – like I said, there's
two products that they manufacture these fish things. One of ‘em is fish oil,
and that's the big product they get out of that. The other is fishmeal. Now,
that's coming on strong. They can make a cookie out of fishmeal and that
will give you all your protein you need for the day. The federal government
had denied them permit to do this. But this year they have lifted that
restriction, so that's gonna be another bridge that they're gonna . . .
S: Revisit.
G: They've put an awful lot of money in that plant over here.
S: In Reedville now, are there a lot of markets where people can go to get
fresh fish?
G: No. The fresh fish is very bad.
S: In ver-bay, you said?
G: Yes, they're hardly catching any.
TMP-139; George; Page 18
S: Do you think a lot of people here still spend their time fishing or no?
G: Well, there's two different classes of people here. There are people who –
I hate to get in this come-here stuff, but most of the townspeople have
moved out of the town, and most of the town now that's here, from
beginning all the way down to the end, are people who have come here. I
think there's one or two houses maybe left over . . . And then, there's
people who work here. They live all over the county everywhere. Reedville
is just a little town by itself. I think they employ about 250 people. So,
that's a pretty good income for a town.
S: Do you like working here at the museum?
G: Oh, yeah. This is a unique bunch of people. We have doctors, lawyers,
engineers, all of ‘em have retired and built nice homes along the rivers
back here. They come in and fool around, they're building this boat here.
That's supposed to be a Chesapeake Bay deadrise boat.
S: It's really nice.
G: Yeah. They work on the boats and I do . . .
S: The research?
G: Yeah. A couple of us work on it.
S: Is there any more stories that you'd like to share with me?
G: Are you familiar with the banks failing in the Depression?
S: No, sir.
G: Well, the banks, in general, through the United States failed because they
didn't have the assets to pay off the bills. And so, there was a Bank of
TMP-139; George; Page 19
Reedville down at the end of the street here. Captain Fisher told the
people who owned the banks that they wasn't weren't gonna lose any
money. So, he got a chauffeur and got a brown or black traveler’s bag and
put the money in it and went to Washington. I think it was something about
$240,000 [inaudible 39:29]. So, they never went under. And he took his
money in there and someone higher up in the government said, "Who
would be dumb enough to do what you're doing?" Captain Fisher said, "I
am."
[Laughter]
G: So, he built this big brick home right on down on the left-hand side called
the Gables.
S: Is that where his family stayed?
G: Yeah. Due to World War I, they took twelve of these fish boats out here
and sent ‘em to France, and only two of ‘em got back. They lost most of
‘em in a storm. In World War II, the navy bought, I don't know, twenty of
‘em or so, and lost two of ‘em.
S: A better outcome for the second time.
G: Yeah . . . But one of the big things about living in Reedville or Fairport was
twice a week a steamboat would come from Baltimore, and Reedville was
connected with Baltimore, not Richmond, which was the capital. So, if you
wanted to a suit of clothes at Raymond Mercy [inaudible 41:18], two
boatloads back, they'd bring it to you. If you had oysters to sell, they would
take the oysters to market. It was constant transportation. These other
TMP-139; George; Page 20
places had a steamboat dock, they had a pen for livestock. They made
these trips twice a week. So, people would come down for the steamboat
coming was a big deal. You'd see your friends coming back. You'd find out
all the news of what was going on in the world. And this existed until 1933.
When they built a bridge across the Rappahannock River, all of the
commerce changed from Reedville and Baltimore to Reedville and
Richmond. The truck took over from the steamboats.
S: Do you have anything else you would like to share?
G: No, I'll answer your questions.
S: So, what made you so interested in doing research on these fishermen
and these times?
G: Well, I don’t know. Actually, you see your father's name in the paper or
someone . . . once you get interested in it, and it kind of hooks you a little
bit. And not a whole lot . . . you'd be surprised what hasn't been written.
So, we try and get some of that done. But there's menhaden boats built,
used twenty or thirty years, discarded, and not a picture left of ‘em. The
best we had was a Brownie, or a box camera. They just . . . taking a
picture wasn't a big thing with these people.
S: How important is it for you to preserve these boats and these memories
for future generations?
G: I think preserving anything that's fading away is useful. I mean, if we didn't
do it, who would do it? I had something else I . . . anyway . . .
TMP-139; George; Page 21
S: Well, I'd like to thank you for letting me interview you. Like I said, if you
have anything else you'd like to share, you can at this time. But if not, then
we're done.
G: I'm thinking.
S: Okay.
G: I’m thinking . . . We didn't talk about the modern fishing.
S: Okay.
G: Like what's going on today. There's been great changes in the menhaden
industry, most of it occurred in 1950 on. One of the main things was a
power block, which is actually a big wheel reel that's run by hydraulic
power. And they can grab that net and pull in. But to do it they had to have
a net that was strong enough. So, prior to World War II, they used cotton
nets, and they would rot overnight if you didn't take care of ‘em. So, they
started using nylon net, which gave ‘em a lot of strength. And then, the
power block, and then they began to use airplanes. Prior to using
airplanes, the captain, the mate, and a guy named the driver [inaudible
45:59] which would go and look for the fish. Now, they use airplanes.
[Inaudible 46:06] and they use airplanes to set the net and they can fly
above them and say, "Move to your right, move to your left to set your
net." They had that. One of the biggest inventions, I think, is the power
block. Without that, they couldn't catch these big monster fish. And, when I
was fishing, which was only three years, twenty-five thousand fish was a
big set at one time. Now, they get a hundred thousand easily. They don't
TMP-139; George; Page 22
even fool with the smaller bunches. Because the airplane can see them
when we couldn’t see them. So, these things have come along that have
helped the industry.
S: Do you think the advances in technology have significantly helped? Like
being able to know the weather before you go out on a fishing trip, does
that save a lot of time and effort?
G: Well, technology sure has helped ‘em. Now, the boats can lay at the dock.
With the crewman ready, the airplane can be above New Jersey and tell
them, “We've got a big bunch of fish up here.” They can leave and go up
there now. They have no assurance that they'll be there, but most of the
times they are. So, technology has helped in that way. Technology has
helped in reducing the number of crewmen by almost fifty percent. One
thing they have aboard their boats, they have a cook on each boat, and
they cooked, I mean, tremendous meals. We wouldn't catch enough food
fish sometimes even to eat. But now my wife won't even let me eat ‘em,
the way they cook them. They cook them in deep fat and man, I tell you,
you could eat the fish and bones and everything.
[Laughter]
S: So, how often did you eat that?
G: Well, the thing of it is, they fed four time a day. Fed about five o'clock in
the morning, had dinner at ten, had supper at three, and then they set the
table and left the food on the table for ‘em to eat whenever they wanted to.
S: Oh, wow. So, a lot, right?
TMP-139; George; Page 23
G: Yeah.
S: Do you think that fishing was something that was extremely important to
the people of Reedville?
G: Extremely important to the people in Reedville?
S: Yes.
G: Well, I don't know so much right now about Reedville. But in
Northumberland County, it's important because of the tax base, one thing.
It gives a lot of people a lot of money. Most of these people – I shouldn't
say this – but they go on welfare, not welfare but unemployment. They pay
into it.
S: Is there anything else you would like to share?
G: I don’t know, I’m thinking about something . . . I can't think of anything right
now. I can just reiterate the same things. I think I was really given a good
early life. We lived in Fairport, we did what we wanted to do. We used our
bicycles to ride around the fish factories. Now, you have a chain-link
fence, you can't even get to them. Occasionally, we'd go out on the fish
boat with our fathers. It was just an idealistic life here.
S: I'm really glad that I got to learn all this information today from you about
fishing.
G: Oh, I'm sorry about not being able to speak.
S: It's fine.
G: I’ll think of something useful.
[End of interview]
TMP-139; George; Page 24
Transcribed by: Patrick Daglaris, March 8, 2018
Audit edited by: Jessica Taylor, May 12, 2018
Final edited by: Patrick Daglaris, May 14, 2018
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