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Pacific Troller: Life on the Northwest Fishing Grounds

by Francis E. Caldwell; co-published with Anchor Publishing

152 pages; quality trade paperback (softcover); catalogue #99-0034; ISBN 1-55212-283-2; US$16.50, C$23.00, EUR15.00, £10.40

A close-up of life on the Northwest fishing grounds.

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about the book      about the author      excerpt      catalogue info

About the Book For four decades writer-photographer Francis (Frank) Caldwell has fished the Pacific Coast from Alaska to California. In this always readable book unfolds a clear, close-up view of the fisherman's day-to-day life. The author shares the excitement of a school of fish biting furiously at dusk, the frustrations and humor of the radiotelephone, the many characters he has known, the close shaves, the storms, the too-frequent tragedies of friends lost at sea, the frightening experience of seeing a UFO off the Oregon Coast one spooky night. Included is a vivid description of the terrible giant wave that occurred in Lituya Bay, Alaska, in 1958.   Also written by Francis E. Caldwell,   Cassiar's Elusive Gold Co-published by Francis E. Caldwell,   As the Sailor Loves the Sea

About the Author

Besides putting in 40 seasons as a commercial fisherman in Alaska, Francis E. Caldwell is a full-time, established photojournalist, with hundreds of magazine articles and five books published. He has traveled extensively on four continents pursuing stock photography, specializing in travel and wildlife/nature. He and his wife Donna operate AFFORDABLE PHOTO STOCK, a library containing 100,000 images, based in Port Angeles, Washington.

Please visit the author's website: www.francisdonnacaldwell.com

Excerpt

Introduction

Cape Fairweather, Alaska, lies about 15°, or 900 miles, up the coast from Cape Foulweather, which is just south of Depoe Bay, Oregon. Captain James Cook named Fairweather in 1778, either after a Captain Fairweather or because of climatic conditions at the time of discovery. If the latter, most mariners would agree that the cape was poorly named. Cook just happened by on an unusual day.

Cape Fairweather is 60 miles north of Cape Spencer, where the Inside Passage ends and the open ocean of the Gulf of Alaska begins. The cape is unpretentious, an evenly rounded point, long and low in elevation. A slight indentation behind it gives a whisper of protection from southeasterly winds. Salmon trollers driven from the Fairweather grounds, 50 miles offshore, frequently anchor behind the cape when the dangerous bar at the entrance to sheltered Lituya Bay, 15 miles to the south, is impassable.

The land near Cape Fairweather, covered with stunted spruce whose tops lean away from the prevailing southeast winds, is glacial moraine strewn with large boulders. Majestic Mt. Fairweather juts 15,320 feet into the heavens behind the cape, wearing a perennial snowcap. The cape's only inhabitants are moose, marmots, squirrels, eagles and huge brown bears.

Oregon's Cape Foulweather provides no lee for fishing boats. It is one of the windiest places along the coast, so much so there have been plans for building a plant on its summit to produce electricity from wind power. On the very top of the cape, and only a short distance from the Pacific Coast Highway, is a gift shop that clings to the steep cliffs. The manager says they sometimes are forced to flee the building because of winds, recorded a high as 140 knots, even though the shop is built almost as strong as a lighthouse.

Between these two capes are a lot of whitecaps and most of the Pacific trolling grounds. Included are the Alaskan salmon grounds, the British Columbia salmon and albacore grounds and almost half the Oregon grounds.

Most of this book was first drafted on harbor days and during long wheel watches between Capes Foulweather and Fairweather, with a "Jimmy" diesel purring beneath my feet and an iron mike grinding out its "whump, whump," as it steered. In the background, above the noise of the engine, a radio transmitter squealed about the poor fishing and the lousy weather.

This is a book about the commercial trolling business, about king and silver salmon, albacore tuna, halibut, sudden storms, flying spray, dangerous bars, the boats of the fleet and the men and women who operate them.

Catalogue Information