Nancy Jacobsen
Nancy Jacobsen is the daughter of a fishermen. Her father, Jacob Jacobsen, was owner and captain of the F/V Fairhaven. Like her father, she loves being on the water. She rows whaleboats in the Buzzards Bay Rowing Club. She began rowing 20 years ago on a team of all Norwegian women started by Gail Isaksen.
“One thing that stuck in my mind was that my dad was one of the first to order lifesaving equipment for the men to put on in case the boat was sinking. He was the first boat to buy the crew that, and he was always into safety. Also, they were shucking scallops in terrible weather, with waves hitting them and everything. So, he built basically a roof over there where the orange is in the photo. This is basically open on both ends, though. My father said ‘We got to be careful. We don’t want the water to come in and sink the boat. These guys need protection.’”
“I had two families. Living with my mother, my mother called the shots. But when my dad was home, because he owned the boat he was down at the dock, and he didn’t come in till like 6pm to have dinner. But I want to go out and play with my friends. So, my cousin came over. ‘Can you come play yet?’ Because she already ate dinner early. All my friends are outside playing. My father said, ‘No Nancy, you can’t go out because we’re eating in five minutes. Nope. That’s how it is. We eat dinner together, then you have to help with the dishes, and then you can go out and play.’ So, he was the boss.”
Photo (circa 1950): Nancy (center) and her cousins Loretta (left) and Ingrid (right) wearing their traditional Norwegian bunad outfits to celebrate the 17th of May, Norway’s Independence Day.
“He was the captain. He kept his men safe and he wants to keep his family safe. But it’s really weird, because most kids grow up, ‘Oh, this is how home is.’ My home was like here and here. But yeah, it was crazy growing up in two different families. But when I was a teenager, my father was strict. Now, I’m a senior in high school and there’s a dance. I’d think, ‘Let me count on the calendar. Okay. He’s not going to be home.’”
“When he went out fishing, my mother would say, ‘Hey, you want pizza? Oh, what else? How about some burgers? You want me to make a cheeseburger?’ We were all excited, because if the bread man came by or the milk man came by. The milkman that was automatic, but the bread man would bring some little cakes and stuff. ‘Oh, what would you like Mrs. Jacobson?’ or ‘Would you like this?’ Oh, yeah. ‘Let me guess. Nancy, do you think we should get some of those cakes for dessert today? Oh, okay’. That was good.”
“He came home and said, ‘Guess what, Nancy’, I said, ‘What?’ ‘We have a toilet on the boat!’. Of course I asked, ‘You didn’t have a toilet?’. ‘No, we had to…’, ‘What did you use?’ And he told me, ‘A bucket’. Oh, the things I remember!”
“After the ’54 hurricane, I begged my father, “I want to see it, Daddy. Can you bring me and see the boat? I want to see the boat on the bridge.” Okay, so he brought me down to see the boat. ‘How are they going to get it off?’ and he explained they got to get some big equipment. This is heavy boat to try to get it into the water. I begged him to see if I could come on the day they were going do it. ‘No, you could get hurt and I have to pay attention to what’s going on there. So no, you have to stay home.’”
“They went fishing out of New York. Sometimes, if they know there is going to be a storm, you have to go into another port. And they said, ‘Well, the storm’s coming, let’s go to New Bedford and take out the fish and sell it there’, or just go for shelter. My father said, ‘Oh my goodness.’ All of them said, ‘Look at this clean city. It’s so immaculate.’ He met my mother at a dance Finn Hall in Brooklyn. They got married and he said, ‘We’re going to move to New Bedford.’”
Photo below: February 3, 1946, wedding reception of Nancy’s parents, Mr. & Mrs. Jack Jacobsen at the Bay Ridge Hofbrau in Brooklyn NY.
“We always had wonderful fish. My mother could make it all different ways. My father brought home lobsters, and put one on the floor, let us watch it walk around a little bit. Even now, I won’t buy bay scallops Because my father supported our family and sent me to college. No, I buy sea scallops. I gotta buy sea scallops.”
“My grandmother, my father’s mother, lived in Norway. My father was about 8 and had 3 younger sisters when she left Norway. She said, ‘I’m going to come over. I’ll get job and I’ll leave my children with our relatives in Norway’. When she got here, she met somebody, and they said, ‘Okay, give us so much a week and in two years, you’ll have enough money to send so your children can come over. The four children can come over to the United States’. She didn’t understand one word of English initially, but she got a job as a maid.
After two years, she went, knocked on the door to get her money so she could buy the tickets for her four children to come to the United States. This woman answered the door. It was the wife of the guy who was the broker, and she was crying, so my grandmother said, ‘What’s going on? I’m here to get the money. I want to send for my children.’ Now it’s been two years, and she said this woman kept crying and said, ‘I’m so sorry. My husband took your money. There is no money. He gambled all the money.’ My grandmother had to work two more years, so it took four years for her to get her children over here. That was heartbreaking.”
