20

CAPE MAX COUNTY MAGAZINE 8 JUNE '83

w*

We'd Have to Almost Club

the People

"(ED NOTE Following is excerpted from on interview with Albert Johnson of Cape May. one of a series conducted by Dr Thomas Chelius of Atlantic Community College and Stewart Tweed, county marine agent, ps research for a history of the county's commercial fishing industry) Interviewer: Mr Johnson is retired from commercial fishing now ... How long have you been'in\'olved with commercial fishing? Johnson: I started when I was 14, and I quit when I was about 69. I: Do you remember the year that you started? J: Well, that would have been 1924, because I was 14 years old. I was born in 10 and I started fishing for a man’s share when I was 14! My father didn't want me to quit school lie said, ‘If you do quit school, you’ll have tolwork just as hard as any of the men that work with me You'll draw a man's share, and you’re going to put out as a man does, at 14 years old.’ I decided to quit school and go fishing. I'd rather fish I: How tong did yoijr father fish? All his life too? J: No. he wis a sailor in a square rigger. He came to this country from Sweden . . he sailed the square riggers for three years and he didn't like that at all ... he'd much rapier go fishing for a living than he would on sailing vessles, merchant ships. I guess he jumped ship it was easy to do He got , off the sailing business anyhow, and got in to commercial fishing Then he moved down this way in the Wildwood area and bought a home there So, that was the star ting point of our family. He got a boat .1 don't know how he did that, financially. It was quite a job, them days, for anyone individually to get financed for a boat, but he did. * I: What kind of boat was it? J: A cat Hoot rig It had a mast spar; it had a one-cylinder, or two-cylinder life boat in it She didn't go very fast, about five miles an hour Well, that was fast them days Of course that was much better than sailing power was coming in then and sailing vessles were going out as far as work goes I can remember this a$ well as when horse and wagons faded out and the i automobile took its place, and working sailing boats left the horizon Coastal ships, vessels, power took the place of that I could see all this coming myself, even though I was a kid. Growing up you started recognizing stuff pretty good from eight or 10 years old. So. that’s how I came into the fishing business It was a hard way to make a living, but we liked it I like it, and I know my father liked it too, even though it was a hard way to make a living I: What did you like about it? J: I don't know The challenge. I guess, and we always seemed to make a living In them dayr, we probably even made a little better than the average working man. I’m sure I: How many hours would you work on a typical fishing day? , J: Well, we'd get up about three o'clock -in the morning and start our day It's according to where we were fishing That meant a lot too wljen we got up in the morning, what time we left the dock We tried to be on the ground just about a littfe after daylight setting our gear for codfish. Then it would be lighter when we went gill net ting in the spring That was according to strictly tide ... we worked with the tide _ I: Did you notice, when you were growing up. fluctuations in the cod? J: Yeah, we'had cycles. First we were wording in cycles ... like like every seventh year was the biggest and then it would drop off But as the years went by, the cycles, the fish got scarcer and scarcer, and after a while the cycles didn't mean anything because there weren't anv cycles to it. I: You were mentioning a while back iVhen you derided to go into fishing full time ... and your father said you're going to ha veto work a man's share. What did he mean by that? J: .. I'd be competing against other men that worked on the boat. I'd have to keep holding my end up If I couldn't, I couldn’t get off a little easier because I was a boy I: Did they do things pretty much the way they do today as far as dividing up the profits of the catch? J Pretty much the same like a father and son. lots of times, they'd take only a thtrd of a share if the kid was a real greenhorn Then he'd give him a half share as he got better It was a good system If Wa* there a lot of party boat fishing »U aUag. when your father was there?

J: There wasn’t too much of it done years ago, no. because there wasn't much transportation ... when we was party boating we got our parties off the train. There was an excursion from Philadelphia to Cape May. He did it to ease his work up. We was all working so hard, and he seen these party boats and figured it would be an easier way to make a living. I: How did the party boat work? People come down for a one-day trip on the train and then go back to Phllly? J: Yeah It cost, I think, a dollar and a half. I: How much did you charge to take somebody out? J: We was only getting a dollar and a half at first, and then we got to put more power in the boats, and we used more gas and more expensive things ... some of us commercial people went into the party boat business because it was getting to be more of a reliable way of making a living. I: How many people used to come down from Philadeiphia? J: I guess the most I ever seen was 2,500 on the train. This was one of the biggest days the train ever had. I'd say a good half stayed ashore. This was on a weekend, a Sunday We’d have to stand on the Jiow of our boat and almost club the people off because you were only allowed to carry 60 or something. We used to put 70 on. They cut us down to 49 eventually . two square foot per person for the boat ... they didn't have many rods and reels in them days It was good one way. It didn't clutter the boat up with a lot of lines hanging out the back, you know. We still sold them hand lines on the boats cause most people didn’t have a rod and reel. They was a nuisance They'd snarl the lines with that many heads aboard the boat. You can just see a bluefish schooling around with 60 lines over the side... I: You had mentioned surf clamming, in terms of the bay clams. I'm curious about the way they started consuming surf clams. J: I had been wishing that people would use these surf clams. 1 even went to Campbell's Soup trying to get them to use them They said no. we got too big a reputation. I coaxed them to try these surf clams, put them on the market because I could see myself getting pretty well fixed if I could gel this thing going, which I didn't The guy put the red rug out and treated us fine and the guy says ‘We build our reputation on guahogs. or hard clam%' They had a good reputation for that They was put ting a lot of stuff in these cans We might have to some day,' he says, ‘but we won't get into that yet ' It wasn't long after that the Snow Cannery broke into this business and they got them Campbell's Soup took them then Now they're sent all over the world ... I: Any scalloping in those days? J I only made one trip myself, and that was out of desperation in between season or something. I didn't like it A lot of work to it, short handed on the boat, and not enough bunks. There was six or seven bunks and 10 men That didn't go over too big That meant some men had to lx? out of a bunk all the tinte J Not that it bothered me too much because I was used to roughing it anyhow But I didn't like it. They elected me mate aboard there, and I didn't want it because I said you fellows got experience, any one of you can take the mate's job better than I can. The mate takes over when the skipper's off Well, they insisted that I go mate anyhow. I said, 'Well, if you insist, but don't give me a lot of stuff if I do things wrong, because I never did it before So the guys treated me fine on account of I did speak up that way to them, I guess and we caught stuff right good and everybody was satisfied, but I didn't care for the job of scalloping, I didn’t at all I: You were mentioning ... the hazards of being out there in storms and that type of stuff. You didn't have any radios on the boat, right? J: No, we didn’t have radios till the Se cond World War. Then the government pul them on the boats We had to put theq} on and they were coming out with pigeons for keeping our position all times for submarines, you know Everyday we had one to release on the grounds before we'd' start for home. He was a practice bird. And the other guy. he^as an all checkedout bird He was ready^He'd been through it all, this other bird soVe had carrier pigeons first for communiccttj|Dn with the government, telling what position we was in. They give us charts all marhedout in blocks with women's names on itv^hjs

was a code. So, if we seen a submarine, we'd mark the code off, our position off, this chart, put it in this capsule on the pigeon and let him go. And he'd head for the base. They were good, these pigeons I watched them with a compass and they’d make a circle overhead after we'd leave them go, and he would start right for his destination on the right course. Once in a while the seagulls got equipment out of the air, but they could make it. They outmaneuvered them. As good as the seagull was. that pigeon would out-maneuver him

I: I guess there were some times when Mrs. Johnson didn’t think you were going to come home. Mrs. Johnson: How about the time you was coming over from Delaware in the fog?

J That was the first trip I ever took command. My father ... got sick and he was into lobster with this produce business, and he was also getting lobster from Delaware Bought them wholesale over there and retailed them over here as high as a couple thousand pounds a trip once a week this lobster day was the one somebody had to go get. It had to be me. This was the first time I took charge of the boat and I said, ‘I’ll do it pa ’ I was all eager beaver to do it so I could show him I could do it We had just gotten married I was nineteen So he felt I could. I guess He was sick There was nothing he could do about it ... I had no more idea of the course, or nothing, to this Delaware breakwater and where these lobsters were, and the running time either 1 must have did it all right because it cleared up once, and when it cleared up I took the best bearings 1 could with whatever I'd seen that I was familiar with. And it shut in thick. But I had a sort of course on the thing with a compass I was green as far as running a boat in that distance and that kind of heavy weather. So we got over there all right and we got to stow the lobsters I guess it was close to a couple thousand pounds we had to put ice on Got about half way back and it shut in. dense fog again. It^was a mess, and I was worried about these lobsters ... a lot of money tied in these lobsters, highly perishable and me not knowing how to get

in. I felt my way in on the beach and the breakers . . . I couls see the breakers on the beach and I knew the course of the beach Then it got so dense I shut down altogether when we got near the jetty ... I had two or three people I took with me, end they was worried . it cleared up a little again and I just got enough bearing on the end of the jetty somehow to make pretty sure of myself when I got into that jetty. After I got in, there were some yachts tied up and I was running as slow as the boat would move, zig-zagging around these yachts and stuff, in fog, dark Well, I don’t know how I did it, but I got into the dock ... and then it was time to go party boating, next morning ... I: As far as the weather out there is concerned, were there different names for different types of storms that might come up? J: Some of these hurricanes, we just called "northeasters.'' After 72 miles it is a hurricane. In the old days we used to have one for four or five days. Every fall we’d get them. It was as regular as a clock in the fall, right around Labor Day I: Were you actually out in that type of weather? J. Oh. I’d been in big boats in them kind of breezes, yeah. We were in hurricanes. I was in one off of New York, if was 36 hours and blowed 72 miles an hour. I think it was 24 hours or something we rode it out We'd go out in the hurricane seas after the hurricane was over and there would be big swells. You’d see another boat your size, mast and all, she’d drop down in the valley of the seas and she’d disappear She didn't submerge in the water She dropped down in the valley and you'd go down in the valley of another sea. You couldn't even sec the mast That's how big those swells were.

I: Somebody told me that it's safer to be far out. because you have those big swells, than it is closer to the shore in real rough weather because waves break closer to the shore, is that right? J: Much safer, yeah. That's where a lot of boats get into trouble, trying to head for the beach. Of course you never know because a lot of men are never here to give you any answers on it. A lot of boats were lost over the years in my time.