Tina's Boatman

This is one of Tina's stories from when I was Harbour Master in Castletown Berehaven, West Cork, in the far west of Ireland at the entrance to Bantry Bay.

It all started by chance. This fishing port is the first point of landing from the Atlantic Ocean and the major fishing bank offshore to SW Ireland, Porcupine Bank. One day a big Factory Freezer Trawler came into the outer harbour with a sick man and other issues. The Captain needed an Agent, a Shipping Agent, to do all the things needed, contact the hospital, deal with the Customs, post mail, get good fresh provisions, lubricating oil, etc, etc.  There was no Agent in the town to do this, he looked at Tina, the Harbour Master's wife, said why don't you do it?  And she did! and she did this back in those days in the beginning of the 80's just before we went to Newfoundland.

Tina needed a Boatman, a good man with well-found fishing boat to help in running out into the bay to visiting shipping, and she found a gem in Alfie from Beara, the island off Castletown. He was a fine man, a tough fisherman, who had suffered the deprived brutal childhood common to many Irish boys early in the 20th century, a lot from Catholic priests and teachers. [ Gosh - one of the Irish nuns beat our little Velia for not knowing her Gaelic or something! we found that out years later.] 

Anyway despite this hard start to life Alfie carved out a good life, a family, a small neat fishing boat harvesting langoustine inshore for the French and Spanish fish market. 

The photo of Alfie [above] was taken about 4 am in the Harbour Office one morning whilst we were waiting for an American seismic vessel to come into port with a sick man. Tina and I were kept awake and amused by Alfie's stories [and lots of coffee!] One story was how he ran away as a youth and joined a steam trawler sailing out of Milford Haven. Believe me there's tough work fishing, real hard work, but it does not get any more arduous than an old steam trawler. He said "I thought that I'd died & gone to heaven!" He said "They gave me a clean bed with sheets and blankets, they woke me with cocoa or hot tea, and when I'd finished my work they gave me a lovely food, and then THEY PAID ME!" They treated him with dignity and gruff kindness. This gave him a start in life and also a great fondness for the British. Years later no IRA sympathiser dare say anything in the town in his presence or an iron fist would clout his jaw! and believe me his hands were like iron. 

Alfie was a gem of a man, totally reliable, a first class seafarer and had that wonderful Irish capacity of story-telling. He was a great friend to Tina.

There are some sequels to this story, the vessel was from Western Geophysical and ended up employing Gerard for some time, I taught navigation in Castletown [night classes] for an Bord Iscaigh Mhara and coached Alfie's son to get his Skipper's Certificate. And the Seismic Vessel was the biggest vessel ever to get into Castletown [then and since] and I piloted the vessel into the inner harbour and used Alfie as the Pilot Boat.

We would have liked to have stayed in Ireland but we could not afford it. We used up all funds made in the Middle East. But I must say that Tina never stopped laughing in West Cork and has fond memories that include Alfie.