Caught in irons: North Atlantic fishermen in the last days of sail

"On Wednesday morning, October 25, 1922, Captain Clayton Morrissey of the fishing schooner Henry Ford paced the deck of his vessel as it sat tied to the wharf at Gloucester, Massachusetts, his mind filled with conflicting emotions and impulses. "Come ashore, Clayton," his wife pleaded...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Santos, Michael Wayne (Author)
Format: Book
Language:English
Published: Selinsgrove, [Pennsylvania] Susquehanna University Press 2002
London Associated University Presses
Subjects:
Online Access:Inhaltsverzeichnis
Summary:"On Wednesday morning, October 25, 1922, Captain Clayton Morrissey of the fishing schooner Henry Ford paced the deck of his vessel as it sat tied to the wharf at Gloucester, Massachusetts, his mind filled with conflicting emotions and impulses. "Come ashore, Clayton," his wife pleaded. "Let someone [else] sail her ... Let's get rid of this miserable business." The miserable business to which she was referring was the international fishermen's races that captured popular imagination in the United States and Canada during the 1920s and 1930s." "Morrissey was captaining the American challenger in a best two out of three series with the famed Canadian schooner Bluenose. A devoted family man, Morrissey wanted to heed his wife's plea, yet he felt compelled to race because of all that was at stake, specifically, patriotism, community pride, and the interests of those men who had built his schooner to race. After a long time, Morrissey sadly shook his head and escorted his wife to the rail. Tenderly placing his hand on her shoulder, he told her, "I must go, they've got me."" "This incident captured the reality confronting North Atlantic fishermen in the last days of sail. Auxiliary power and beam trawling was making their skills irrelevant. Gloucester's reputation as the premiere fishing port in North America, meanwhile, was in decline." "This book uses the fishermen's races as a window into the changing economic and social realities that redefined the North Atlantic fisheries, and for that matter, the society as a whole, in the first decades of the twentieth century."--BOOK JACKET.
Item Description:Includes bibliographical references (p. 183-193) and index
Physical Description:204 p. ill. : 24 cm
ISBN:1575910535