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As the Sailor Loves the Sea

by Ballard Hadman; co-published with Francis E. Caldwell

272 pages; quality trade paperback (softcover); catalogue #99-0037; ISBN 1-55212-286-7; US$21.50, C$29.16, EUR19.00, £13.20

Ballard Hadman went to Alaska to visit, stayed to marry a fisherman and raise a family. This is her vivid, entertaining story of adventures on the frontier.

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about the book      about the author      preface      catalogue info

About the Book Salmon trolling is no dream of ease. It's a hard and sometimes hazardous life, but dangerous in a good way because it tests your measure almost every day. There's loneliness, bravery, often misery and frustration because you're in a tiny, rolling boat and at the mercy of wind and sea. But there's loveliness too, as one hauls anchor amidst the rosy glow of a new dawn and cruises out of some wild, secluded harbor each morning in search of salmon. And when you catch one of these silvery, powerful animals you feel a glow, yet a sadness because you had to end the life of such a magnificent creature. But you're a food producer, so you say a little prayer for the fish and hope for more, many more, before darkness drives you into harbor again to drop anchor, and hope it will hold, then ice your catch and cook your dinner and crawl into a narrow, cramped bunk for a few hours rest. Then, after what seems only the blink of an eye comes sounds of chains rattling as nearby boats haul anchor, and you peer up at the skylight and are amazed that dawn is breaking. You struggle into your oilskins and boots and prepare for another long, long day. No one could describe the life better than Ballard Hadman in her classic book, As the sailor loves the sea.   Also written by Francis E. Caldwell,   Pacific Troller Cassiar's Elusive Gold

About the Author Born in Wyoming in 1908, of a pioneering, western family, beautiful, artistically-talented and with a glowing personality that caused one to become an instant devoted friend, Ballard Hadman was one of those rare individuals one never forgets. After a brief career as an artist and movie-stand in for actress Ann Harding at MGM., Ballard learned, in 1937, her two brothers were building a boat at Klawock, Alaska, had named it the Diana, after her, and planned to troll for salmon near Craig, Alaska. She couldn't stand thinking of her namesake being launched without her presence, so she left California and booked passage on a steamer to southeast Alaska. Despite her initial misgivings about the rugged life of a fisherman and the often profane, colorful and individualistic characters that made up the trolling fleet of the 1930s, Ballard, the extrovert, quickly became so fond of the life and the people ( and they of her) she married fisherman James Hadman and stayed in Alaska to raise a family. Mrs. Hadman died in Tuscon, Arizona of cancer in 1968, one month short of her 60th birthday. Please visit the author's website: www.francisdonnacaldwell.com

Preface

BALLARD Hadman was born in Laramie, Wyoming on the 23 of May, 1908. She was the middle child in a family of three and the only girl. In a sort of frenzy to recognize family ties, she was christened Virginia Diana Elizabeth Putman Ballard! Her father, Allen, my grandfather, was a doctor who started and ran one-man hospitals in several locations across the West. My grandmother, Mabel, Mimi in the book, was his nurse.

Grandfather died unexpectedly about 1925 and Mimi was left alone with the task of raising and educating John, Charles and Virginia. A woman of talent and resource, she took her family to Washington DC where she got a job with the Indian Health Service. During the several years the family spent in DC Virginia attended art school at the Corcoran Gallery where she received excellent training in a wide spectrum of art disciplines.

The family left DC in the early thirties after Mimi accepted a nursing position on the Blackfoot Indian Reservation in western Montana. Virginia lived there for several years before moving to Pasadena, California, where she not only continued to paint, but also married another artist. During this period she worked as a stand-in for movie actress Ann Harding at MGM in Hollywood.

By 1936 the marriage was in trouble, and in 1937 she made a trip to Klawock, Alaska, on the west coast of Prince of Wales Island, to spend several weeks with her brothers, who were building a fishing boat, and also sort out her feelings about her recent divorce. While helping her brothers troll of salmon aboard the DIANA, which they had named for her, she met and married my father, Bob Hadman, in 1938. I came along the following year. The family lived in Craig until I was of school age and then we moved to Ketchikan where we lived until the late 1950s. Another son, John, was born in 1945 and currently resides in Skagit County, Washington.

About 1950 my mother met Margaret "Maggie" Bell, a successful author of young adult fiction with an Alaskan theme. Maggie wrote her stories with authority as she had been raised around salmon canneries in southeast Alaska. Her father was Craig Millar, the founder of Craig, and a pioneer salmon cannery man. At the time mother met her, Maggie lived alone in the ghost town of Loring. Maggie stayed with us on the rare occasions she came to town. During these visits she encouraged my mother to write about her experiences.

Virginia wrote a couple of chapters of what would become AS THE SAILOR LOVES THE SEA. Maggie sent them to her agent in New York. The book was sold to Harpers & Brothers Publishers on the strength of these chapters. Virginia wrote under the pen name Ballard and the book was published in 1951. It immediately climbed the New York Times "Best Seller List." That same year, the book was selected by the Book of the Month Club for printing in their own edition and distribution to members. In June of 1951, Woman's Home Companion magazine published an excerpt from the book entitled "I Married Alaska." The most amusing thing I remember about that particular event was the arrival of a staff photographer at Ketchikan with enough luggage and equipment to completely fill the back of our old Dodge pickup. He even brought his own food! When preparing to depart he wanted to stop and take pictures of the gulls swarming on the town garbage dump. He turned to my father, who was driving, and asked,"They won't attack me will they?" Upon being assured they wouldn't, he got out to snap some photos. Father turned to mother and with his lopsided grin said, "I don't have the heart to tell him what they may do to him." The photographer survived his encounter with the gulls and the magazine ran the article complete with, what seemed to me at the time, really hokey pictures.

Mother planed to write a sequel to the book but somehow it never came to pass. She ran what must have been the closest thing to a writer's salon that Ketchikan had to offer. She assisted other people in their efforts to write but never wrote again for herself. I don't know why but after some forty odd years and my own experiences, I suspect it had to do with the truly amazing success of her first book and her realization that she would be unlikely to realize that level of success again. Mother didn't deal well with failure.

In the 1960's, Ballard and Bob spent winters traveling in a truck camper through the desert southwest and Mexico. About 1964 Ballard was diagnosed with cancer and had surgery. The initial results were favorable and she had a couple more years of travel. She virtually adopted a very poor Mexican village and I remember her pleasure when they delivered a rototiller to the villagers. In 1968 her cancer reoccurred and she died a month short of her 60th birthday in Tuscon, Arizona, where she is buried.

Father continued fishing until 1975. He reached his 65th birthday on July 12, and that very day, during the height of the season, pulled his fishing gear, ran the CHRISTINE II to Seattle and sold both boat and permit. He lived in West Seattle until his death in 1993 at age 83.

Charlie, Ballard's older brother, lived with his mother until her death. He spent several winters in the southwest with Ballard, until her death, then went back to Sitka and entered the Alaska Pioneer's Home. He died in 1969. John, her younger brother, and his family, lived on Ring Island in Sitka Sound for many years until his death in 1987, His wife, Margaret and daughter, Katherine are still residents of Sitka.

Your narrator, Jamie in the book, fished with his father every summer from 1945 to 1956. In 1957, at the age of 17, I bought the salmon troller GO GETTER and fished it until 1962 when I was drafted. Between the military, school and some difficult career choices, I never returned to my first love, salmon trolling. In 1996 I retired and in the spring of 1998 flew to Sitka where I bought the 40-foot wooden salmon troller MYRTH-a classic and eloquent testimony to the power of the dream. I have fished two seasons now. There are frustrations and difficulties but there are also moments that make my heart sing.

Jim Hadman,
Samish Island, Washington,
September, 1999

Catalogue Information