Barbara Murray
Barbara Murray is the mother of five children and wife of a fisherman. She married into a fishing family. Her husband Anthony emigrated from Fox Harbour, a small fishing village in Newfoundland. He was an Engineer and Skipper of F/V Mary Tapper. Three of her brothers-in-law fished out of New Bedford.
“That’s all he knew; all he knew was how to fish. Because when he came from Newfoundland, the first thing he started doing was fishing. He always fished and the first boat, the Mary Tapper, was owned by Charlie Tapper in Fairhaven. You can’t stop them once it’s in their blood.”
“The wives, now they were the ones who stayed home and took care of the kids and hope everybody would come back. Because once they went out, you didn’t know if they will come back. You had to get adjusted to being by yourself and making sure the kids were all right. And if something like a fuse or something went, you had to go and change it yourself. You know, that’s what was rough in the beginning but then you get used to it.”
“Well, you know, it’s like anything else, if somebody has a spouse in the service, you worry because they’re not home either. There’s not much you can do. And you say, well, he’s gone. I hope that he’ll be back, you know? Because you don’t know what it’s going to be like out there. So, it’s tough to figure it out. You do the best you can. And when you got five kids running around, it’s easy.”
“I know a lot of stories. He didn’t have to tell me. We hear word of mouth. One time they had a fire aboard. Another time they were down at Georges Banks, which is way down. And it was windy, and I guess the boat took a sea. So, the boat went this way and then the boat went the other way and then came up. Oh, yeah. I’m sure there was much more about. I never heard them. You hear them from somebody else.”
“My husband did not know how to write a check. I can tell you that. Did not know how to write a check. I used to take care of everything. You know when the rent came due or something like that, I just wrote the check. I had told him to write one one day he didn’t even know how to.”
“Because they go out for like a week, then they’d only be home three or four days. You know, unless there was real bad weather or something, then they stayed in longer. And the only time you could know they’d be home was Christmas. You couldn’t expect them for graduations, or baby’s birth because you didn’t know. One day, I think it was my last baby. I took my husband down the dock to go fishing and I ended up going back to the hospital and having my last. I think I told his brother. His brother was going out on his own boat, and he called him on the radio and told him ‘You got another baby!'”
