<Begin Segment 22>

MN: Now I'm gonna ask you about Cedros, Mexico. Where is Cedros, and how did you end up fishing out there?

JM: This friend of ours, used to go there every year, so he came to us and (told us) there's a lot of yellowtail there, so we should go there. And we had a big boat, hundred footer. They had, he had a seventy footer, a smaller boat, but with a big boat like ours we can't work on a small school, but they could work on any kind of school. But in Cedros the fish shows once, once a month. It would run for about four or five days. If you miss it you (have) to wait another month, so in the meantime we'd go all over different areas to find schools of fish, but it was really hard. Then one time we were in a set and this storm came in, after everybody's in the set. Oh, it was terrible. And this boat came in from San Pedro. On a weather like that we'd never go out. We'd always anchor in the anchorage, but he saw all the boats in the set, and he knows the fish, you got to catch it when the fish shows, so he came and he let go of the net and come around, to catch the skiff. By that time the net is off the boat, so the rear end is high because the weight is off, so when he got to the skiff he put it in reverse. It didn't catch 'cause it was too high, and rammed into the skiff. And there's one man in the skiff, he fell overboard. He got on the (ship's) phone, "Mayday, mayday," but we're all working. We couldn't do anything. After we finish he says, "Man overboard. We need help." So everybody went looking, but in that storm, whitecap, you can't see anything, so we all turned around and we're going home, then he came on the (air again stating), "We're going against the rocks and we can't move," 'cause when they put the boat in reverse (and) when he hit the skiff, the man went overboard, they're all looking for the man. He (forgot he) had the engine in reverse and it chewed into the net and the cable, so they couldn't move. Then when it came on again, said, "We're going against the rocks. We need somebody to help us," but nobody'll go and (since) we had the biggest boat, I talked to my dad, saying we better go help. He said, "Oh, naturally, we're gonna help." The owner was on the boat. He's six foot five, big husky guy, came to the pilot house, said, "Where you going?" I said we're got to go help them. "It's too dangerous. Turn around." I said, "No, we can't do that. We're gonna help them. They're from San Pedro, too, and we have the biggest boat." So we went.

So we got on the skiff, we tried to row to the boat, but the current is so fast we couldn't reach it. Well, I took the boat around to the other side, we got on the skiff, and then we floated toward them. As we were (bringing) the net up, then all of a sudden the boots of the fisherman came in the net, and they grab a hold of the boots and then man was in (the boots) there. He was inside the net, so we brought the man up on the deck by my foot. So I'm stepping all over him. Say, wait, let's put him someplace, so opened up a hatch and we put him inside the hatch where's it's ice pack, and that was a good idea. After we got the net on board, we went back to our own boat and threw the line to tow them in. The current was so fast the boat was just going around in circles, so I put it in gear, to go forward. The rope got caught in our net, I mean, our propeller so we couldn't move. I got on the radio, "Mayday, mayday," and this steamship answered, but they were way out by San Diego. It's gonna take too long to get there. So we decided to dive into the water, and water was cold. The rope was wedged into the propeller, couldn't take it off. Everybody tried. Finally my dad went and he couldn't take it off either, but he went down again and got it loose, but when he came up he almost passed out. So finally we got it loose and we towed the ship into the (anchorage). They had divers at Cedros (Island) so they had, couple of divers come and they released that net and they were able to come home. Then after the season I got drafted in the army. I was in Fort Bliss, Texas. I got a (unexpected) phone call and the skipper called me, said, "I want you to get, get an attorney 'cause our insurance won't pay the, pay us." So we got an insurance attorney and we won the case, so we got paid, so we divided it among our crewmembers. But the skipper was devastated, especially when their insurance won't pay us for salvage. We salvaged the boat, and saved it. So that ended up pretty good.

MN: I'm assuming the skipper was devastated because he, that man died?

JM: Yes. (He got) hit, (fell) into the ocean. (...)

MN: Yes. And then when you saw the boot coming up with the net, did you know he was already dead in the net?

JM: No, no, we thought it was just the, the boots. They had the long boots. Then the body was in there.

MN: The insurance money must've been a nice bonus, though. I don't expect you were saving the boat for the money.

JM: No. (We just wanted to save the boat and the crew members).

MN: Were there other incidents like this where you thought you might actually die or somebody else might die on your boat?

JM: At that time?

MN: During this time you were fishing out there, did you have other incidents like this?

JM: No, that's the first... one time we had a big school of thirty, thirty-five tons in the net and we were being dragged into the rocks, so we threw the anchor, the big anchor (...). It broke the chain, and we don't know what to do 'cause if you're gonna hit the rock we have to abandon everything. Then the current took us around that and we were able to salvage the net. That was scary. But usually when it's stormy we don't fool around.

MN: There was also, you folks went dancing when you were on shore in Mexico.

JM: Huh?

MN: You went dancing when you went ashore in Mexico?

JM: Yes.

MN: That was every Friday, is that correct?

JM: No, we just went once.

MN: Oh, just once. Is this the time where you almost got arrested?

JM: [Laughs] We went to the bar, had a drink, then we had a bottle for the mayor, so we came out of the bar and the plainclothesmen caught us. And we (told him) this is for the mayor, but he couldn't speak English and we couldn't speak Spanish, so (...) he was taking us to jail. Then a Japanese diver came by. He was living there, but he was from Japan. He (spoke) Japanese, so we communicated with him, so he talked to the policeman (in Spanish) and he released us. So we took the bottle to the mayor, and the mayor was happy. You know, small island like that, (it's) hard to get whiskey. Then the dance, you can't go directly to the girl to ask for a dance, you have to ask the chaperone and then get the okay. (...) We took a shower, but we still smell of fish, those girls danced with us happily. They didn't even complain, so we had a good time.

MN: Did you do American dancing, or what kind of dancing did you do?

JM: Just regular walking. They had the swing, but they didn't know how to do swing. (Two cute mayor's daughters), we were real surprised that you had to ask the chaperone. (The mayor approved us).

MN: So why were the police gonna arrest you? Were you not supposed to have alcohol?

JM: No, you can't take alcohol on land 'cause it's tax free alcohol, Sea-store.

<End Segment 22> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.