<Begin Segment 9>

TI: Going back, though, the Japanese fishermen, did they cooperate in any way in terms of, like, if they knew that there was a school of fish or something and somehow they'd signal and let the other fishermen know? Or was it pretty much just everyone on their own?

HS: Well, everybody, this was a private enterprise, no question. But they knew each other, and they knew, everybody, when they, when that original day, when all the fishermen -- you couldn't go out, the season opened on a certain day in the spring, and then all these boats would line up, and then they'd shoot a cannon, and then they would all take off. And they would go to what they considered their, their special ground, that they knew that they thought the fish would be in a certain place, and they'd set their nets. That's the people with what you call the seiners, that would net a salmon. Other people would troll, they would troll, and they knew where they thought, where the salmon were biting. And as a result, they would talk to each other, obviously, and say, "So-and-so, I got, there's fish over here." In those days, it wasn't a common thing to have a radio on these fishing boats. I mean, they were, but the fishing boats, if you look at the old Japanese fishing boat, it was ideal for trolling. It had a two-cylinder putt-putt engine, it would run, you know, as fast as you can go, going full speed, probably no more than, oh, (three to four) knots, you know, putt-putt-putting along. So in terms of -- and then, of course, for trolling, you didn't want to go speeding along. It had to be a slow, steady thing. And so they had the ideal kind of boat. On top of that, one of those, those old, these putt-putt engines that they had for them, (...) they were two-cylinder engines, (...) -- or four sometimes. But still, nevertheless, very small engines. And they used to start those up with a flywheel, just push the flywheel and get the thing going, they would prime it with a little bit of gasoline and keep trying until the spark would come and then it would start. And, but they were foolproof because they were so simple that the fishermen, they were their own mechanics, they could, they would know how to fix the engine, it was so simple, just a very simple engine. And of course, when the marine engine came, with big cylinder, I don't know how many cylinder, I forgot, eight or ten cylinders, and they would vroom, go along. You're going fast, but you know, that would be okay for netting, but you couldn't, it was very difficult to troll when you're, when you're going, going too fast.

Anyhow, that was the, the whole idea of the old Japanese fishing boat. Like I say, they were hand-built, and I remember one summer, my cousin and I, Harry, who's the son of my, of the cook, and myself, our parents didn't want us under their feet in the summertime, in the holidays, and so they got us to go down and help one of the boatbuilders clean his boat shop, because he was by himself, and Mr. Yabu built this boat by himself. The only time that he had to have a hand -- and right across from him in this Cow Bay, the bay would be, would be where they built the boats. When this tide was out, we used to have about a, we have about eleven- or twelve-foot tide. So you're looking at eleven- or twelve-foot amount of water. So when the tide was out, the actual bay was empty, but it was, it was just mud. But when the tide came in, then you could go across on a boat, or go across to the other side in a rowboat. There was a little cove, it really was a little cove, it was only about 50 yards wide, and across it we had one, two, about three or four, four shipbuilding little places there. Mr. Yabu worked by himself, built one ship, one Japanese fishing boat, and it would be, take him about, take him most of a year to get that one ship all fixed up, and then he would sell it, and that would provide him all the money he needed for the next year. And he'd do it all by himself, though. But you know this, like, even the keel, the bow, the bow had to be a special kind of a curve. He'd go up in the woods, and what he would do is cut down a tree that was coming out of the side of the mountain. You know how they come out and then they go straight up? He'd cut that down. I still remember him bringing one of those down, and then he would cut it using the old, what, you know, the type of chisel that was, I think they called them... it was like an axe, except it had the blade, the sharpened blade towards you (...). And he could cut it down like that, straight ahead of him. (...)

TI: But it's interesting, I never realized, so they looked for particular trees that were on the mountainside because they were already curved.

HS: Curved.

TI: And they would use that. I was always wondering how they made that curve.

HS: They couldn't get that curve.

TI: So they'd look for trees.

HS: That, and because the bow, the bow, what you call the bow timber had to be, it was about that wide. And he'd shape it so that it had little... and he would shape this thing so -- and then at the end, then he would add the lower part, timber to the bottom to get the keel. Well, those could be straight, of course, and that was just getting straight pieces of lumber for that. And then the side, side things, he would put the ribs in, take him quite a while to get the ribs all put in, and then he would have to put the, the side planks that would hold the, give you the hull. Now, that one required a little more, he would have to put those into, into this large steamer that he used, he had built, and the steamer was made out of wood, too. And it would be, he'd have a fire at one end and boiling water, and this would go into this sort of long, long square (...) tunnel that he'd made out of, out of 4 x 8, oh, 4 x 10s rather -- I'm sorry, 2 x 10s, and it would be about, oh, it was about 12 to 15 feet long. And put, he'd put the lumber into, not the shiplap, but the planks into that, and steam it for, I don't know, for about, it'd be quite a while, an hour, something like that, maybe longer, until it was really well-soaked with really hot, hot steam, and so that it could bend. And then, we were two kids, but we were only ten years old, we couldn't help him for that part. He'd have to call across to the other side, and there was one family out there, good boatbuilders, called Matsumotos. They, Matsumotos had, he had four sons, and they ranged in age from about eighteen to twelve, thirteen, something like that. And they'd be all working over there, too, and he'd call over and say he needed a hand, and then two of the boys would come row across, row across the little Cow Bay when the tide was (in), and he had to always time it so it was right so they could row across. And they'd come in, and then they would pull this timber out, this plank out, hot as heck, and they would be wearing, they didn't have any gloves in those days, they used to take towels and they would hold this, hold this steaming timber out of it and then put it on the side. And they bang it, they would use these old u-clamps, they're clamps that, big ones, and they would clamp it to the bow, and then to each rib, and pull this thing around, then they would nail it, and then they'd have to caulk each nail. So it was a big process to do this, but once... so he can only do about three or four at a time, and then the boys would go back and work, go back to their side. And then when he was ready for the next lot, he'd call over and they'd come over.

TI: That's a good story.

HS: It was a, it was a long process, and I'm not sure he could build more than one. Well, on the average, probably one boat a year, but one boat, I don't know how much it cost in those days, but it would be, it would be couple, couple thousand dollars or more. Well, that was a lot of money. A thousand dollars could get you through the year as far as food and everything else was concerned.

TI: But you think about today's, today's, how things are done today, and if you had a hand-built boat by craftsmen, a whole year, I mean, that would be so expensive.

HS: Oh, yeah. Of course, you'd never do that now. Well, you know, the Matsumotos went to Fraser Valley -- after they came back from the internment camps, they went back to the West Coast when they could, when they were allowed to go back again, and they put up their boat shop, became the most prominent boat shop in the lower mainland of British Columbia. And they built, then, the real big luxury-type yachts, like the Chriscraft-type, you know, the big yachts. And that's what they became, and I think the company's still going today, even today. The old man is, I think he died a few (years ago and) it was the older brother died just a few years ago. I remember meeting him, and he was still, had become a big boat-building industry, company.

<End Segment 9> - Copyright © 2006 Densho. All Rights Reserved.