Ruth Blount
Ruth is a fisherman’s Wife and Mother of seven children. Ruth married into a fishing family. She and her husband own the F/V Ruthie B (named for Ruth), an 80-foot steel dragger. They lived for 50 years on Nantucket Island where they were the only offshore fishing family. Several years ago, they relocated to New Bedford.
“New Bedford understands fishermen, even if I still don’t necessarily.”
“I remember hearing, there was this really cool guy, who was a fisherman, very hard worker, who loved the Lord and wanted a big family. And he heard about me, that I was someone who loved the Lord and wanted a big family. So we ended up meeting each other. And the rest is history.”
“I’m more than just a Fisherman’s Wife, but at the same time it has profoundly affected my life.”
“Here’s something that I had to learn as the captain’s wife. At that time, there were maybe three or four crewmen. And their wives really didn’t have any way of calling them. So, they would call me to hear if I had gotten any news. I always had to be strong for the wives of the crew. I always had to be the one to say, ‘No, I haven’t heard but Bill’s very careful. I think we’ll hear from them soon’. And then you know, ‘Don’t worry’ and then I’d hang up the phone and completely fall apart. Because I could not as the captain’s wife fall apart with them.”
“But I don’t think most of our friends fully understood Bill. And I think that’s what made it hard. People who weren’t immersed in the fishing industry knew he was a family man and loved his family. But how could he be away that much? Or how could he continue fishing even though financially it was so stressful on the family or whatever. And it was hard to explain those things to people who weren’t part of it.”
“One time they got caught and they iced up. Icing is one of the most, maybe the most, besides a fire on board, icing is probably the most dangerous thing because the boat gets top heavy. When the waves or the spray hit the mast or whatever it immediately freezes and builds up so that the top of the boat is top heavy and it will start swaying back and there’s 1-2-3 sways and they go down and around and that would be it. One time they had iced up and they did not think they were going to make it in and that was just when cell phones or some kind of phone, it wasn’t really a cell phone yet, had become common. Bill had each of the crew call home to say goodbye to their wives. Yeah, he called me. He just called and said they were icing up and he didn’t know if they’d make it. And he said, “I love you and we’ll do our best to get in.”
