The Doryman's Reflection: A Fisherman's Life

by Paul Molyneaux

Overview

What happens when the oceans are emptied of all their fish? What happens when three hundred years of human knowledge and expertise disappear before the onslaught of the technology-driven world?

The Doryman’s Reflection is simply the most accurate and eloquent account of what transpired in the New England fisheries over the past half century, as told by the people who lived it, including author Paul Molyneaux.

Fishermen survive as relics, the last hunter-gatherers among us. Their boats, crammed with ropes and nets, carry the mystique of a nearly forgotten world ruled by the elements. Now an accomplished writer, Molyneaux as a young man journeyed to Maine with no experience and a dream of working on a boat. This is the story of his apprenticeship with Bernard Raynes, one of Maine’s last independent commercial fishermen.

The Doryman’s Reflection speaks to those who want to know what really happened, and what will happen, on our oceans.

Part coming-of-age memoir, part biography, it is a very personal account of what families in this dying but important industry face each day. Molyneaux shares his own history as a young man seeking the fisherman’s life in Maine and Alaska. Originally published in 2005, it has been thoroughly updated to cover the events of the past ten years.

Told through the life of the colorful and engaging Bernard Raynes, The Doryman’s Reflection is alive and real and powerful—far from a dry, pedantic treatise on the economics of commercial fishing.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781944824228
Publisher:	Seahorse
Publication date:	07/25/2017
Pages:	312
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.30(d)

About the Author

Paul Molyneaux began working in commercial fishing as a "lumper," unloading scallop boats, in 1976. He now writes about fisheries and marine issues for The New York Times, Yankee Magazine, and National Fisherman. He and his family split their time between Mexico and Maine.

Table of Contents

Part 1 No Refuge

1 No Refuge 3

2 Kerr's Pond 6

3 The Stratton Report 21

4 Midwives 28

5 Voyager 36

Part 2 Home on the Ocean

6 Alton's Shoes 69

7 Swordfish! 1983 84

8 The Sea Trek 101

9 Swordfish! (Reprise) 1985 111

Part 3 The Way of the Fisherman

10 Rockland, Maine, 1926 123

111 The LeBlancs' Journey 125

12 Haddock Nubble, 1930 139

13 Irene & Alton 155

Part 4 Living in the Eye of the Storm

14 Generation X 191

15 Dorymates 221

16 Poets and Warriors 230

Part 5 Closing

17 Twenty Years of Tar 267

18 Bernard's Final Chapter 270

Appendices

Glossary 277

Family Tree 279

Bibliography 281

Acknowledgments 283

Editorial Reviews

"The seemingly inexhaustible resources of the New World triggered a fish rush that would continue into the twentieth century. The story of what happened during the last moments of that rush is brilliantly told by Paul Molyneaux in The Doryman's Reflection." - The New York Review of Books

"The seemingly inexhaustible resources of the New World triggered a fish rush that would continue into the twentieth century. The story of what happened during the last moments of that rush is brilliantly told by Paul Molyneaux in The Doryman's Reflection." - The New York Review of Books

From the Publisher

Commercial fishermen increasingly belong to a world we have lost. Theirs has always been a dangerous, demanding profession, but today our harvesting of the sea's bounty has been changed irrevocably, with modern technology replacing sea savvy and a "make a buck now" mentality replacing a sense of conservation guided by an eye firmly focused on the future. This book recounts the life of one of this vanishing breed, Bernard Raynes. Having once served an apprenticeship under Raynes, veteran journalist Molyneaux (who specializes in writing on marine issues) brings vividness and vitality to this biography. Raynes is in fact one of the last independent commercial fishermen in Maine, where he has worked for decades. For all its personal interest, though, this book is more than a mere account of a durable, endearing character. It is an insightful look at an industry in an era of decline and dramatic change. Recommended for public libraries.-Jim Casada, emeritus, Winthrop Univ., Rock Hill, SC Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

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