Melinda Tveit Fitzgerald
Melinda Tveit Fitzgerald is the daughter, niece, and cousin of fishermen. Her father came from Norway to the United States in 1952. He owned and captained three fishing boats, including the Ocean Gem. The Ocean Gem and crew were photographed out at sea by then up-and-coming photographer, James Nachtwey (now known for his many iconic photographs, especially his photographs of New York City on 9/11).
“When I was little, there were Ship to Shore Operators, and you never talked unless it was an emergency, like if somebody died or there was a something major. My mother did make me talk. That was little a little bit weird for me because you would talk, and you’d have to say ‘over’ when you were done, and then he would say something and ‘over’. Then when the conversation was over, you’d say ‘Over and out’. That is how you did it.”
“What do I remember? I think, when you’re a kid, your life is just what you know, that’s how it is. Your father goes away for a few days. He comes back. He needs a shave. He probably smells a little funny, jumps in the shower, and then back in those days, he would stand in front of the sink for a long time, and he’d be cleaning, filleting fish and cleaning scallops. He’d be preparing all this stuff, and he put it in plastic bags. Then he would take a plastic bag, and he’d tell me, ‘Go bring this to the Buchas. Go bring this to the Cormiers’. So, he would send me around the neighborhood every time he came home, he kind of fed the neighborhood. Sometimes it was lobsters, sometimes scallops, sometimes it was fish, whatever. But every time he came home, I would go around and deliver the fish.”
“So, he was sword fishing at one time. He loved; he loved swordfishing. Used to harpoon them, and he would bring them the swords and put handles on them for me and my brother.”
“I always thought the word lumper was funny, that somebody was a lumper. I thought it was kind of like a bad, mean thing to call somebody. The lumpers are the people that come down with the boat and help you get the fish off at the fish house. I’m not sure why they’re called lumpers, but I just thought it was funny word. My father’s boat was always kept in Fairhaven. So, I know my father always came into the New Bedford side to unload, and then they came to the dock in Fairhaven.”
“My father fixed everything with duct tape and green twine. Matter of fact, at his funeral, we gave out rolls of duct tape that we put together with green twine, and we stuck a card with this picture on it. We call them tool kits. We gave one to everybody at his funeral and people actually use those tool kits.”
“The men would work at home. They would wind the twine on this, and they would mend the nets like this. Then they also have the scallop dredges with the big chain links like this, and you have these big things you could squeeze. They have these big links, and then they have smaller links in between. They put the small links and squeeze them together. So, that is the stuff they would do in the driveway.”
“One time, we stopped at the cemetery and there was a knife in front of my aunt and uncle’s grave, so I picked it up, and it was a sharpened butter knife with of a rubber handle with friction tape. I picked it up and I felt the finger indentations, and I said to my husband, ‘This is a scallop knife.’ So, I texted my cousin’s son who was 26 at the time, and he had an opportunity to go scalloping and ended up loving it. I sent him a message, and I said, ‘Did you leave anything at the cemetery?’ He wrote back and he said, ‘Yes, I did. I left my knife from my first season for my grandfather to thank him for the genes.’ That touched me so much.”
Photo: Examples of different scallop shucking knives on display at the New Bedford Fishing Heritage Center.
“My father would always listen to Bill Brennan’s Fish News on WBSM. And he would jot down, there were always papers around the house: ‘Sand Dabs and Cod’ and the prices. Some of those prices were like, four cents.”
“I do remember that I would take a lobster salad sandwich for lunch at school, and I would look at all the other kids, and they had Bologna and a bag of chips. Then I’d open mine and I think: Lobster again. Now, it seems so silly.”
“Did I worry about the boat going down? No, because I don’t think it was in the culture. I’ve said this to other people, too. Nobody ever talked about danger. I don’t think mothers were going to bring that up with their children. ‘Oh, I hope your father makes it home alive’, you know? I think they were plenty of times they felt that but they never shared that. They were a tougher breed than me.”
“When he retired, he moved right from fishing to sailing. He probably was out five days a week on his sailboat. He had it till he was 80 and he donated it to Mass Maritime. It found its way to Lake Superior via a guy who bought it off of Ebay and put $220,000 into restoring it. We’ve all been to Lake Superior and sailed on her and we’re going back again. I’m actually going to write a book that goes with the boat, because the boat is going to outlive us all. She’s brand new. She lives in fresh water. I researched all the previous owners. So, I’m going to write a little book to give to the current owners. Anyway, he didn’t stop when he quit fishing. He didn’t sit with an afghan on his lap, that’s for sure.”
