CAP( MAY COUNTY MAGAZINE 25 MAY '03

27

I: Would your father use the same vessel then? L: Yes, in fact they even had dories at that time ... My father would take two dories and they would fish codfish gear off the dories. The big boat would pick them up or drop them off, then come back and pack them up after a few hours. They would spend the whole day in the dory, one man in the dory with the codfish gear setting it and taking it back and picking it up and putting the gear back in the dory and then the big boat, which was 46-foot, if you call that big, would go back and pick him up after a certain amount of 'time. Of course, you can realize it was a little dangerous ... On many days it got foggy, and with no electronics, it got a little hairy because many times they had trouble finding the dory. Many days I heard him say he was late getting in at night because he couldn't find somebody ... I: When he was in the bay fishing, gill netting, what kind of fish did he get then? L: Shad or weakfish. I: This was in the early 20's then. L: Yes, middle 20’s. They would get weakfish during the summer and early in the spring they swould get shad. It was in 1926 or 1927 they began to realize that they could do better by dragging, so that's when my family moved to Cape May, 1926. I think, and they started dragging from that time on. I: Were they restricted at that time? L: Oh, yes with dragging. They couldn't drag in the bay. They had to just use gill nets ... i: Was clamming a big industry down here? L: Clamming stafted passably well ... it runs in may mind that it started in 1925 to

catch more than the market could consume. I: Was any of the mackerel canned? L: No, ail fresh. Almost all of it went to Boston, about 90 percent... most of it went on trains in barrels. I: Can you tell us anything about party boats, Warren? When they began? L: I don't know when they began. In 1937 and 1938 it was a thriving business, Trains would come in to the Cape May area every morning'from Philadelphia. They had what was called the "Fisherman's Special.” The trains would come atfi every morning and they would have as many as 12, 13, 14 cars. In fact, I saw some days they brought two sections of the train down because there was so many and literally thousands of people would be on the train and each party boat. Each sizable party boat had one man or so on the train, got on in Philadclpha, who sold tickets on the train and when the trnia. pulled in, before the train ever stopped, people were jumping off at every platform and door, and all running because everybody wanted the stem position like they still do. They had their tickets purchased because they bought the ticket on the train and they had their bags and what have you, and their lunch.'and they would jump off and everybody would run like mad down to boats to get stern positions. I would dare say some days there were a thousand people, especially on the weekends, that would come down and go fishing, and the boats would have to be back in time to catch the train. The train would leave at 5 ... Of course you can imagine what that was like on a train on a hot summer day ... they toted the bags full of fish and the ice on the train on a hot sum-

We Had to Work to Survive

1930, surf clamming started. Now that was strictly for bait, strictly for codfish bait and other bait That was a good business for several years especially during the winter months because there were a lot of codfishermen here at that time and they all needed bait. Then there were several boats run strictly for clams for bait. They would sell to local codfishermen and also they would ship them to Massachusettes areas. I: You were packing out at Schellenger's there. Did you ever have any dealings with the Charter boat fleet there or the macherel fleet? Would they conflict? L: Yes, there was a problem there when the mackerel fishermen would come down. Now the mackerel fishermen could come down at Easter or just before ... They were from the Gloucester area. There would be 20 to 25 seiners ... They would come down here and the mackerel would show up here sometime before Easter each year. I remember 35 cents was not unusual for mackerel, the first catches. Even today very rarely would you get 35 cents a pound for mackerel, but they would get 35 cents a pound usually for the first catch. One man would come with them and try to govern their catches so they wouldn’t catch too many, and maintain a price. He was on the docks and as prices fluctuated or whatever, he would keep them informed because when they were seining they could catch a lot and even at that time they could

mer day and some of them had been seasick half of the day. It was a mess, but there were thousands of people who did that ... Fishing does go in cycles. I remdmbef 15 years ago our corporation had GOO pounds of weakfish for the year and everyone figured the weakfish were completely gone. Then they slowly came back and these last few years we've had more weakfish than we’ve even had. Croakers disappeared 10 years ago. I would say croakers completely disappeared in this area. I remember my grandfather fishing with a little skiff and hook and line and he was right outside the jetties catching croakers and catching all he could sell. Of course croakers were not a desirable fish. But after that they completely disappeared ... they are slowly coming back and we have croakers this year, and a lot of weakfish this year. But they definitely run in cylces ... I: Would your grandfather sell those fish himself then, like we have the truck dealers today just taking them off the back of the truck? L: he would. We had more peddlers coming down during those periods of time, but a lot of peddlers would come down and everybody would take 50 pound. 100 pound Cape May had three or four peddlers who went from house to house every little town had a peddler

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