“BOAT PROCEEDS BUY WAR BONDS – Boatswain JOE M. MEDINA, U.S. Navy Reserve, of San Diego has presented Uncle Sam with a dual-purpose $10,000 CHRISTMAS PRESENT on Saturday; his fleet of four tunaboats, which he has been operating in the San Diego area for 18 years, and were taken over by the U.S. Navy for war work. Yesterday, Mr. Medina converted the cash into 10 additional powerful blows at the axis – $1,000 war bonds, x10 (i.e. $10,000 – equivalent to $190,240 today – ed.) ‘Christmas means very much to me and this is the best way I can preserve it,’ Medina smiled, fingering the bonds. A resident of San Diego for 22 years, Medina joined the Navy on August 20th. He resides at 760 Armada Place on Point Loma.”
(*Source: San Diego UNION & Daily Bee newspaper – Friday, December 25, 1942 – Pg. 16)
*Editorial/Biographical Notes: Mr. JOSE MACHADO MEDINA (father of Lucille) was born December 10, 1905 in the village of Ribeiras, island of Pico, Azores, Portugal, and immigrated into the United States via Boston, Massachusetts on April 2, 1920 aboard the “Britannia” on the way to Providence, R.I. He was eventually Naturalized on June 27, 1927 in San Diego Superior Court. In 1934, Jose M. Medina Sr. and his brother commissioned two new tuna boats to be built by the Campbell Machine Company. The keel timbers were the largest timbers that the Benson Lumber Mill had ever sawn at that time. One was 112’ long and the other 118’ long. Benson Lumber had the logs “floated” down from the Columbia River in the Pacific Northwest, the trip taking about a month. The capacity for the larger ship was about 250 tons of iced fish, powered by diesel engines. ~ Jose was credited as being the first local fisherman to explore the fishing grounds off the Marquesas Islands near Tahiti in 1935, and by 1939 he was part owner and vice-president of the Fisherman’s Tuna Packing Company. ~ While the tuna fishing industry kept growing, so did the tuna fleet. Jose Medina and his co-investors commissioned the ‘QUEEN MARY’ to be built by the Campbell Machine Co. in 1941. The cost was $190,000. His daughter Evelyn Medina (who would become a Festa “Head Cook” as an adult – ed.) ‘sponsored’ the craft, by smashing a bottle of champagne across the bow. The ‘Queen Mary’ was the largest tuna fishing vessel for many years at 147’ long with a beam of 30’, and had a capacity of 400 tons of fish. The diesel engines could supply enough energy to light a small town. In later years, Jose Jr. inherited the ship and it was (oh, the irony!? – ed.) used for biological research to find ways to save the declining dolphin population.
Jose and Mary Medina purchased the Dog House Cafe at 1925 Bacon Street (now the Arizona Cafe – ed.) in 1941, and a year later in 1942, they owned the Pacific Shores Cafe at 4929 Newport Avenue (“Opening Day” happened to be December 7, 1941 [!], so it was World War II the next day; yet the Pacific Shores Bar is still in operation at that location, 83 years later – ed.). Jose even petitioned to have a dancing license for cabaret style entertainment. ~ *After Pearl Harbor, the U.S. Navy commandeered Jose’s fleet of four tuna boats. The largest boat, the ‘Queen Mary’, was sent to carry the cargo of the other boats and return the goods to San Diego. It took two years for Jose Medina and his partners to be compensated. Despite that delay, a newspaper article states that not only did Jose participate in the post Pearl Harbor efforts, he also made an extra effort to purchase war bonds (see above – ed.). ~ In 1946, Jose was a spokesman who met with then U.S. Senator William F. Knowland, to discuss the fishing industry, markets, taxes and labor. They toured the fishing fleet and talked about ways to enhance the fishing industry. The result was that San Diego was recognized as the leader in commercial fishing, and that the cool deep waters of the Pacific were the place to concentrate future fishing endeavors. A year later Jose represented the fishing industry in negotiations with the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service to the betterment of environmental issues. ~ Ashore, Jose had two other businesses that were very successful, in 1949, he and his partner owned the Medina & Monise Liquor Store at 760 2nd Avenue. In 1952, they owned Medina & Monise, Inc., Marine Surveyors at the Broadway Pier. It is interesting to note that Jose Jr. later owned the Medina Marine Insurance Agency, also on the Broadway Pier. ~ Professionally, Jose “Joe” Machado Medina owned at least five tuna fishing vessels, his fleet including the; ‘SAN JOAQUIN’, ‘OLYMPIA’, ‘PATRIA’, ‘CABRILLO’, and the ‘QUEEN MARY’. He died on July 5, 1961 in San Diego, California, and is buried at Holy Cross Cemetery.