BOOK REVIEW
New Bedford: Port and Home
Voices from the Waterfront: Portrait of the New Bedford Fishing Industry
by Orleans, Bendiksen and Starr
Fowler Road Press
78 pages
As recently as the 1980s, a big wood-hulled dragger could be seen on the hard in New Bedford, its bow soaring several stories while work crews made repairs. But New Bedford has long been a port of big boats, steel-hulled boats.
Along the wharves with dozens of boats tied up, are the industrial sights and sounds of America’s largest fishing port: the sound of steel being pounded, grinders spraying orange flares, blue flames of a welders torches, the white flash of an arc welder, the unmistakable smell of welding rods, all kinds of repair trucks with pneumatic, hydraulic, and electric lines running everywhere.
Its roots as a fishing port go back to the colonial era. The port has been known for whaling, for bankers in the days of sail, and more recently the scallop fleet. Whaling was industrial fishing. The product was whale oil, not food - lubricants, illuminating oil, and a range of whale body part used in manufacturing.
New Bedford’s story is not just about a storied fishing port, but also about part of a storied nation where opportunity has always been an attraction.
In “Voices From the Waterfront: Portrait of the New Bedford Fishing Industry”, the human story of this port is told by people in the industry. Their voices describe the lives of the people who have always made the town what it is. They are voices with roots in many nations. Some first, some fourth generation or more. Many of the voices are Portuguese, and since the Portuguese were among the very first to cross the Atlantic to fish the Gulf of Maine, they have many generations to count here.
Whether Portuguese, Yankee, Nova Scotian, Norwegian, Polish or other, they tell a similar story.
It’s a story about what brought them and their families to this port, why they stayed, and why they cannot imagine doing anything else.
There are 39 industry people and families represented in the book. Their ages range from 20s to 90s. They are lumpers, captains and cooks. The stories include family histories, their work, and adventures at sea.
The authors are Laura Orleans, a folklorist and creator of the Working Waterfront Festival in New Bedford; Kristan Bendiksen, co-founder and Associate Director of the Festival and member of a fishing family; and Markham Starr, photographer of the industry. They write that their book is representative, not comprehensive.
“Everyone who has worked on the waterfront has a story to tell; the individuals profiled in this collection are only some of those voices.”
New Bedford has a lot of boats, it has big boats and big stories. These stories include Captain Eva Liput, who came from Poland as a student, got a job as a deckhand and has been fishing ever since. The Canastra brothers Ray and Richie opened Whaling City Seafood Display Auction in 1994, without knowing whether boats would come to them. Dealing straight with the boats and selling quality fish paid off. The Bendiksens of Fairhaven run a family business. The stories are a composite that describes the people that make New Bedford work, and why New Bedford works for them.