Page 18. MAINE COASTAL NEWS May 2011
PASSED OVER THE BAR: JOHN FAULKINGHAM & BASIL DAY Continued from Page 5.
Mariner Beal and Isaac, his son. She had an Oldsmobile engine. At the time everybody said that this was one of the best boats in the two towns, which made me feel awful good. I used her for 10 or 11 years and then I got this Young Brothers 40 footer. When I was a kid the boats were going out of here with just a spray hood on them. One guy, I’m pretty sure it was Harold Ally, told me he was the first one to put a house on his boat. He brought her into Barney’s Cove and somebody built a house on behind the spray hood. They thought that was the ugliest thing in the world. It wasn’t any time before they all started putting houses on behind the spray hoods.
“Of course I like the feel of the wooden boat, but I wouldn’t trade my fiberglass boat for a wooden boat. It wasn’t that my wooden boats were built frail, but I pounded the sharprisers out of her and brought the drift bolts right up one day. She was only five or six years old. Of course we got into a storm and we kept hauling like fools. We were getting a few lobsters and being greedy and it got worse. We stayed out and stayed out, kept going until it got worse and worse and finally when we came to our senses we were in quite a storm. The boat fell off over a sea and pounded the sharprisers right out of her. I got her home and got her fixed up. I used to think, ‘Will the boat stand it?’ But now I think whether I can stand it.”
When I look at my fishing career,” said Faulkingham, “I am on my 35th
year now. It
seems that I am just a beginner compared to some of these fellows who have fish 60 years. There have been a lot of changes over the years. A lot of good things and a lot of not so
good things just in my short experience. What I see as the biggest change here is going from wooden traps to wire. That has been the biggest help to us out here where we fish with a lot of tide and the wooden traps would be drifting over the bottom and the ship worms would eat them up. Now, you see, the most we lose is wooden runners. When you were out over the mud the wooden traps were always moving. These wire traps settle down and are more stable. You can fish bot- toms today where you couldn’t think of fish- ing with a wooden trap.”
How was lobstering years ago? Faulkingham explained, “My grandfather said they used to pick lobsters up on the shore when he was a boy. He was 83 when he died and he died in 1956. That puts him back a long time. He said they used to pick them up and take them up to the field and use them for fertilizer. It wasn’t too much later, probably when he was 30 or so, his records that I saw indicated that he was catching 40 to 50 pounds in traps. I don’t know how the traps were. They used to use scoop traps. They had bow traps with a head in each end, what we call a bedroom head. Some would have one fishway in the end. The traps did not hold lobsters like they do today.”
“I have tried everything,” said Faulkingham, “as far as scalloping, quahogging, and hake trawling. I have al- ways enjoyed doing them but I have always come back to lobstering. It is a job to do it all year around. The winter passes fast and if you get your winner trap gear and stuff ready it’s no time before spring is here. It’s a vicious cycle. If you are going to tend to business and you are going to be competitive you are going to be busy.
Another disturbing changes the lack of
respect between fishermen today. “Any time that I have dragged scallops, if I ever caught a trap it was a mistake,” explained Faulkingham. “The best you could do when you caught a trap was make amends to the owner. But now if you haven’t moved your traps on the first day of the season, just too bad. The weather was bad last November, and my son asked me what he should do and I said, ‘Well, catch a good day and haul and get them out because I know what is going to happen – they’ll clean you out.’ He got there the first of December, he had five or six sets left and he went down and found two buoys. On the way in from offshore he met the rest of them. They cut them off and set them adrift no respect. You can’t tell me they had to drag that spot that day.”
Faulkingham finished by saying, “I see a better stock of spawn lobsters as good as it has ever been. These pound and a quarter, pound and an eighth are not breeders. You have to get up in size to have a good breeder. That is why I would never like to see the top measure taken off. I think they are the future to the industry. The bottom line is if I had to do it all over again I would go back into the fishing business.”
Basil F. Day
THOMASTON - Basil F. Day, 89, a former and longtime resident of Thomaston, and master boat builder, passed away Tuesday, March 29, 2011, at a Bangor hospital. Basil was born Nov. 27, 1921, in Thomaston, the son of Ann and Ferdinand Day. He attended schools in the Thomaston area, and at an early age he spent much of his time in and around the ocean learning many carpentry skills from his father, Ferdinand and others, including boat building. After school he worked in various
trades honing his skills. He met and married Barbara Bryant Aug. 31, 1942, just prior to his joining the Navy and serving in World War II. After the end of the war they made their home in Thomaston. Basil started building boats and owned and operated Georges River Boat Shop until the late 1990s, never really retiring from the craft he loved. Basil enjoyed his many visits to Mohegan Island, was an avid deer hunter, spent as much time - but not enough time according to his wife, Barbara - at their cottage on Washington Pond and attending the fairs. He was prede- ceased by his wife, Barbara; brothers, Ferdinand “Dint” L. Day, Alamon L. Day and Donald H. Day; nephew, James Day; and a very special sister-in-law, Beryle Bryant. Survivors include his brother, Cecil A. Day and his wife, Martha, of Ellsworth; five nieces and nephews, Rebecca Foster and husband, Rick, Martha Edwards, Kathy Ashton and husband, Ted, Susan Abbot and husband, Gary, Julian Kilton, Debbie Springer and hus- band, Bob, J. Verrill and wife, Sally, James Verrill, Timothy Verrill and wife, Wendy, Larry Bryant and wife, Brenda, Joyce Goodine and husband, Tom, and Carolyn Swadley and husband, Steve; as well as great-nephew, Rick Frye of Bangor, who stayed close by Basil during his stay in Bangor. Basil will be fondly remembered by many more nieces, nephews, great-nieces and great-nephews. Special thanks are ex- pressed on behalf of the family to the wonder- ful staff at Westgate Manor, Bangor, for the excellent care that was provided while he was a resident.
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