On August 1, 1938 – “TUNA FISHERMAN DISAPPEARS AT SEA – (San Diego) – Mr. HARRY MADRUGA, son of MANUEL F. MADRUGA SR., and co-owner of the San Diego tuna boat ‘YVONNE LOUISE’, was lost overboard today while the vessel was 280 miles south of Point Loma (San Diego), according to news received by J. J. Camillo, a local seafood broker whose brother Capt. Louis Camillo is master of the tuna boat. The accident occured at 8:15 a.m. and this afternoon the ‘Yvonne Louise’ was still searching for Madruga. (He did not survive – ed.).
(*Source: San Diego UNION newspaper – Tuesday, August 2, 1938 – Pg. 17)
*Editorial Note: Although the first entry here covers the first, most rudimentary “news” of Harry Madruga’s tragic end, some three weeks later another newspaper article appeared (below), this time with some personal notation by a shoreside friend of Madruga, of what it ‘feels like’ to have to face some of the harder realities of being involved in such a difficult, dangerous business; so I include it.
“BILL, SCALE MAN, IS SAD; FRIEND LOST AT SEA – To hundreds of San Diego fishermen, ‘Bill, the Scale Man‘ is a familiar figure; it is he who weighs the catches of the incoming tunaboats at a local cannery. Last Sunday a boat arrived – the ‘YVONNE LOUISE’, one of whose crew would never return. As she came alongside, the ‘Scale Man‘ jotted down his thoughts…
‘Sunday, 10:30 a.m. – It is a beautiful morning, and all the boys at the cannery are waiting for the ‘Yvonne Louise’. The Mexican youths throw dice while they wait. There is a shout of ‘Here she comes!’ Everyone runs to the dock. I leave the scale room and go with them, slowly. I can’t make myself believe that my good friend HARRY MADRUGA will not step ashore and greet me with his bright smile, as he always used to do. The sea has not yet given up its dead – but there is no hope that Harry will ever give a friendly answer to my greetings again. *HE WAS AN EXAMPLE OF WHAT IS BEST AND FINEST OF THOSE COURAGEOUS, OLD-TIME PORTUGUESE FISHERMEN… The boat is alongside, the crew coming ashore. My eyes scan them all…, no, he is not there. The tears rush to my eyes, and for the first time I realize that it is true. I have lost a true and honest friend.‘
Madruga was lost overboard August 1st, off the Mexican coast.”
(*Source: San Diego UNION newspaper – Tuesday, August 23, 1938 – Pg. 9)