Jeff’s Blog

“WATERFRONT – Fishing Industry Dealt Real Blows – Albacore, Tuna Season Closes After Fantastic Series of Events – Highlighted by a series of fantastic and dramatic events unparalleled in the history of the world’s fishing fleets, San Diego’s 1951 albacore and tuna season ended last week. The devastating effect of imported tuna from South America and Japan on the fishing fleet is graphically illustrated by a statement of the American Tunaboat Association that the Industry suffered a momentary loss of $20,000,000 (equivalent to $231,585,160 today, an incredible $26,437 per hour! – ed.) during the season. There is every prospect millions more will be lost before the clipper fleet gets back on an even keel.

RUSSIANS PLAY PART

Involved In the fisheries disputes over the imported tuna were the governments of the United States, Canada, Peru, Nicaragua, Japan, and Soviet Russia. The part played by Russia heretofore has never been disclosed in this country. The Japs know it, for many of their fishing craft, poaching in Russian territorial waters along the Kamchatka Peninsula and Sakhalin Island, have vanished from the sea along with their crews. There was no Japanese tuna, frozen, canned or fresh, dumped in Russian markets. Explosions, fire, stranding and storms were responsible for the destruction and sinking of the San Diego tuna clippers ‘AMERICAN GIRL’ and ‘COUNTESS’, while 10 other local fishing craft went to Davy Jones’ locker. Estimated value of the 12 vessels was approximately $2,000,000 (equivalent to $23,158,515 today – ed.). Two other albacore boats vanished in a fog off the Baja California coast and have not been heard from since.

DOZEN KILLED

A dozen fishermen lost their lives and 32 more had to be rescued by the Coast Guard. Included in the list of vessels lost were the ‘PALOMA’, ‘KINGFISHER’, ‘SKIPJACK’, ‘ELSIE A.’, ‘SELMA’, ‘STANDARD II’, ‘BUTTERFLY’, ‘DONNA MAE’, ‘RELIABLE’, and the ‘WEST WIND’. And the first mutiny reported in 35 years aboard a San Diego fishing boat occurred during the turbulent year. There was a near riot within the shadows of the Civic Center when a group of angry women protested action of the City Health Department in stopping the sale of albacore aboard the Cape Cod-type fishing schooner ‘PUGENT SOUND’. And a tuna clipper captain charged that his crew deserted after the craft was stranded on the lower Baja California coast…, but this later was disproved by a Coast Guard Board of Inquiry. Another clipper, the ‘NOTRE DAME’, was seized and fined $6,000 (equivalent to $71,630 today – ed.), a record penalty, for allegedly fishing without a license in Ecuadorean waters (*Editorial Note: This ‘Notre Dame’ seizure will be recalled in 1966 by A.T.A. Manager Auggie Felando as a seminal event after 15 [and counting…] years of continued seizures, fines, and thefts of and aboard U.S. tuna vessels.).

REPRISALS LOOM

Nicaragua, Peru, and Ecuador threatened reprisals if the American government imposed a tariff that would prove harmful to their fisheries. The local fishing fleet is dependent on these countries for both bait and tuna. Canada sought the protection of her salmon industry from the Japanese. Alaska, Washington state, Oregon, and California implored the U. S. State Department to protect the tuna, salmon, and mackerel fisheries from Japanese encroachment. These problems are now being considered in Tokyo and Washington D. C..

The greatest blow sustained by the albacore fleet occurred on the fateful morning of AUGUST 21^st when the San Diego UNION newspaper broke the story of the thousands of tons of DUTY-FREE albacore that Japan was sending to our Pacific Coast. This data had been compiled by Dr. W. M. Chapman, Research Director of the Tunaboat Association. Meanwhile, more than 1,000 albacore boats were operating out of San Diego harbor at the time.

NEWS BLARED

The news literally stupefied the fishermen who sensed something was wrong, but didn’t know the cause. Stark drama was enacted along the waterfront as news of The Union’s disclosure blared from radio loud speakers on the jig boats! Off Baja’s Cedros Island where 500 boats were fishing it was reported that the noise of the radios outlining the news could be heard for miles. Then followed refusal of some of the canneries to purchase albacore! First to close was the WESTGATE-SUN HARBOR unloading station on the Embarcadero here!

Veterans of World War II who had invested their life savings in an albacore boat saw both their investment and their means of livelihood swept away. Their vitriolic statements against the Washington D. C. administration would have shocked the nation had they been published. Their rage was understandable. It was summed up by a statement of a veteran who had fought at Iwo Jima and Tarawa and in other battles of the Western Pacific, “I fought through 3 hellish years to help make America secure and now I find that the – – – against whom I had to fight have stripped me of everything,’ he said.

FLEET SCATTERS

The albacore fleet, by late October, had scattered from Bristol Bay to the Gulf of Panama. It may be years before San Diego harbor once more becomes the operating base of the colorful and picturesque 1,000-boat fleet. October also witnessed the unprecedented spectacle of 190 idle clippers moored to docks and piers, at boat yards, and at the Embarcadero. Adding to the confusion were reports of masters of two inter-coastal steamers calling at San Diego that they had sighted huge schools of fish from Panama to Cedros Island. But not a single vessel had left port for the schools were reported as skipjack, and canneries were not accepting this species of seafood. Today 45 of the clippers have returned to the fishing banks, but this port’s five canneries are virtually IDLE and are not expected to resume operations until February, at the earliest.

January of 1952, will be a fateful month for the tuna industry. The House has passed a bill imposing a $60 tariff on imported tuna. The Senate is scheduled to act on the measure next month. On the Senate action hinges the possible fate of a $90,000,000 (equivalent to $1,042,133,179 today – ed.) industry. Local tuna officials reiterate they simply cannot compete against Japanese fishermen who receive 30¢ per day in wages, or Peruvian fishermen whose wage is 20¢ per day.”

(*Source: San Diego Union & DAILY BEE newspaper – Sunday, December 2, 1951 – Pg. 29)

“U.S. *LOSING* ROLE IN ‘TUNA WAR’ CITED – American citizens have been shot and wounded on the high seas, they have been arrested and their boats seized in international waters since the ‘tuna wars’ began off Latin America in 1951. In a gradually escalating dispute between American fishermen and a handful of Latin American countries over fishing rights, there have been almost 100 recorded incidents. Former U.S. Navy vessels and Air Force planes, turned over to those countries on military assistance programs, have been used to harass the fleet which is the United States’ most significant fish producer. American tuna last year was retailed at more than $250,000,000 (equivalent to $2,246,811,500 today – Yes, over 2¼ BILLION dollar$, or $6,155,648 daily, – ed.). There have been 81 American fishing vessels seized and hauled into Latin ports since the first shot was fired across a tunaboats bow back in 1951.

200-MILE LIMIT

The dispute centers around a difference of opinion between the United States and 7 Latin American countries over territorial rights. PERU, ECUADOR, CHILE, COSTA RICA, EL SALVADOR, HONDURAS, and NICARAGUA all now claim 200 miles out to sea. COLUMBIA, GUATEMALA, and PANAMA claim 9 miles out to sea, while MEXICO claims 12 miles. The United States, on the other hand, still officially accepts the 1960 GENEVA CONVENTION which specifies 3 MILES as the territorial limit. The United States is somewhat embarrassed, however, by the fact that our U.S. Congress just last week approved a measure to extend U.S. fishing rights to 12 MILES. This stems from the alarm with which fishermen in the Pacific Northwest have regarded the influx of Russian trawlers sweeping the ocean bottom up to the 3-mile U.S. limit.

FRONT DOORS

If tuna fishermen consider some of the outrage of their brothers in the Northwest, they may be more sympathetic with the Latin countries which object to Americans depleting the tuna stock which they consider at their front doors. With the most recent seizure of 3 San Diego vessels by PERU last week, the total fines levied against American fishermen during this dispute have risen to $264,922 (equivalent to $2,380,919 today – ed.). The tuna fishing fleet, almost entirely based in San Diego, has paid an estimated $2,000,000 in licenses (equivalent to $17,9744,492 today – ed.) during this period for the privilege of fishing on the high seas off these countries in water the world community recognize as international. These were some of the facts and figures released last week by Mr. August Felando, Manager of the AMERICAN TUNABOAT ASSOCIATION (A.T.A.) in the wake of the most recent flare-up.

IN *NOT ONE SINGLE EPISODE* HAS THE U.S. GOVERNMENT ORDERED MILLITARY PROTECTION OR INTERVENTION

Instead, the federal government has been reimbursing the fines resulting from what its agents term ‘illegal seizures’. It is ironic that the U.S. Government has to stand back while gunboats and patrol craft which formerly flew the American flag; fire at, shoot, and seize U.S. fishing vessels, Felando said. At the same time that the United States is paying these illegal fines, it is appropriating millions of dollars in foreign aid and loans to the countries harassing American tunaboats which refuse to purchase licenses. More than $800,000,000 (equivalent to $7,189,796,800 today – ed.) in grants and loans has gone to Peru alone since 1946, he said (i.e. averaged of those 20 years = $359,489,840 annually and/or $984,903 [nearly a Million!?] daily. – ed.).

SHRIMP FLEET AID

The U.S. State Department defends its ‘kid gloves’ attitude toward the Latin American countries involved as ‘necessary’ to prevent the spread of communism in Central America. Diplomats point out that if America exerts force to protect the tuna fleet, the results would very likely topple governments now in the non-communist camp. The United States, however, is quietly protecting, by force, the rights of another of its great fleets. This is the SHRIMP FLEET fishing in the Gulf of Mexico, Felando said. Until the U.S. government ordered U.S. Coast Guard vessels to accompany the shrimp fleet fishing adjacent to Mexican waters, dozens of American boats were seized by Mexican patrol boats. The ‘Shrimp Patrol’, as the U.S. Coast Guard calls it, has put an end to these seizures, he added.

BOMB THREAT

Several months ago France ordered a destroyer to the waters off Brazil after her fishing fleet was harassed by the South American country. There have been no more Brazilian incidents. Yet American tunaboat seizures have been occurring at the rate of about one per month, with most of the recent incidents involving Peru. The San Diego vessels ‘SUN EUROPA’, ‘RONNIE S.’ and ‘EASTERN PACIFIC’ were seized between 24 and 28 miles off the coast of northern Peru last Sunday and Monday by officials claiming that Peruvian fishing rights extend 200 miles out to sea. The ‘Eastern Pacific’ and the ‘Ronnie S.’ paid approximately $17,000 (equivalent to $152,783 today – ed.) in fines before they were released. Although a Peruvian port captain threatened to order the bombing of any American fishing vessel found fishing without licenses in Peru’s claimed 200-mile limit, there was no bloodshed in the most recent encounter. This was not the case last December when the Captain and navigator of the ‘MAYFLOWER’, also of San Diego, were shot and wounded by a Peruvian official who stopped their vessel 70 miles out at sea. The Peruvian boat (a former U.S. tug boat once stationed at San Diego) left finally, without imposing a fine. The Peruvians, however, made away with a $2,000 (equivalent to $19,111 today – ed.) speedboat belonging to the ‘Mayflower’. ‘The FISHERMAN’S PROTECTIVE ACT doesn’t cover injuries suffered by our fishermen or loss of property, such as the speedboat,’ Felando said. ‘Fortunately, the wounds of the two crewmen were not serious. They were lucky. Much luckier than the fellow who was gunned down a few years ago by an Ecuadorian. That victim will be paralyzed from the waist down for the rest of his life. He didn’t receive 1¢ for the gunshot wound which crippled him for life.’

ECUADOR LEADS

Numerically, Ecuador leads in total seizures with 43, followed by Peru with 25, Columbia with 5, Panama with 3, and El Salvador and Chile with 1 each. Fishermen are willing to pay for licenses even though the U.S. Government doesn’t recognize the claimed territorial waters of these countries, Feland said. ‘But the $12-per-ton, per trip, rate these countries seek is just too much!’ said Felando. ‘If the entire fleet purchased licenses from Peru on a single trip, it would cost more than $250,000 (equivalent to $2,246,812 today – ed.)

CANNON RANGE

Latin American arguments advanced to support their 200-mile claim are that the 3-mile limit is outdated, having been set up in the day when it represented the distance a cannon ball could be fired to protect a nation’s shoreline*. Other reasons have been given, including protection of their mineral and fish resources, and national security. The fact that our U.S. Congress has voted to extend our fishing rights to 12 miles too lends support to the Latin argument. ‘That’s alright with us,’ said Felando. ‘We don’t mind staying 12 miles offshore, but when you are seized 70 miles at sea, we think it is nothing short of piracy and our government should protect us.”

(*Source: San Diego Union & DAILY BEE – Sunday, October 9, 1966 – Pgs. 103 & 111)

*Editorial Note: The 3-mile territorial limit was determined upon at the 1960 Geneva Convention because the major maritime and naval powers (including the United States and the Soviet Union) clung to that distance at sea primarily because a 12-mile limit would effectively limit, close off, and place under national sovereignty more than 100 straits used for international navigation.

At the start of the conference, only 25 states maintained the traditional claims to a 3-mile territorial sea, while 66 countries had claimed a 12-mile teritorial sea limit. But by the late 1960s, a trend to a 12-mile territorial sea had gradually emerged throughout the world. However, the more powerful maritime and naval powers still insisted on the older 3-mile limit on territorial seas. Originally, that 3-mile limit as a rule of international law, was based upon the customs and practices of the more powerful maritime nations, and was first proposed in 1703 by the Dutch legal writer, Cornelius van Bynkershoeck (1673-1743). It was asserted that the extent of a nation’s dominion over the sea was measured by that nation’s ability to control the sea from land, and that the test of this ability was the range of cannon shot, which was then about 3 nautical miles. (Source: perplexity.ai)

“NEW TUNABOAT HAS FRUITFUL MAIDEN VOYAGE – Back from its maiden trip to Central American fishing banks, the new ‘ENDEAVOR’, skippered by Capt. JOE MONISE, yesterday began uploading a cargo of 360 tons of tuna for the WESTGATE SEA PRODUCTS COMPANY. The ‘Endeavor’ has been out 57 days, and, in a season generally regarded as the leanest in San Diego fishing history, returned with a full catch. All day, crowds watched the fish being hoisted out of the ship’s hold in huge buckets and dumped overboard into a sluice channel that sweeps them in swiftly running water under Harbor Drive for a distance of 378’ to the Westgate hopper, which is below sea level. The fish are then lifted by a conveyor to weighing scales, after which they are dropped into another gravity flow into the plant’s processing department.

DUPLICATES NAMESAKE

The new ‘Endeavor’ is a replica of the original tunaboat of the same name that taken over by the U.S. Navy on the outbreak of the WWII with Japan, and was sunk in the South Pacific. An eye witness report of the sinking of the original ‘Endeavor’ was given yesterday by Mr. JOE DORES, second Engineer of the new boat and the only present crew member who was attached to the ‘Endeavor I’ when the U.S. Navy took her over. The sinking occurred off Guadalcanal on October 24, 1942, Dores said. The vessel was attacked and shelled by three Japanese destroyers, while transporting a cargo of gasoline and 3,500 rounds of 3.50 inch ammunition from Tulagi to Guadalcanal.

JAPS DESERT VICTIMS

The ‘Endeavor’ burst into flames before it sank, and all its crew of 70 men leaped into the ocean. Three of them died in the water and one was wounded by exploding ammunition. The three Jap destroyers steamed away after sinking the American boat, and made no attempt to shoot the crew. Dores was in the water three hours when he and the other crew members were picked up by small U.S. Navy boats from Guadalcanal. He was taken ill with malaria soon after going ashore and while convalescing was returned to the American mainland. Dores resides with his parent Mr. & Mrs Joe Dores Sr., at 3225 Garrison St.”

(*Source: San Diego UNION & Daily Bee newspaper – Thursday, August 30, 1945 – Pg. 11)

“FISHING FLEET HAS NO LUCK ON ALBACORE HUNT – Twenty fishing boats have returned to San Diego this week either empty or nearly so after expeditions to the COLUMBIA RIVER fishing banks after albacore, it was reported yesteday at the offices of the American Fishermen’s Tunaboat Association. Rough weather was blamed for the poor fishing. The ‘GOLDEN GATE’ with a 90-ton capacity brought in 6 albacore (not ‘tons’, but 6 individual ‘fish’ – ed.). The ‘PRINCESS PAT’ with 190 ton capacity, brought none; the ‘VICTORY’ with 110 ton capacity, caught 5 tons of fish, and the ‘LIBERATOR’ and ‘DOMINATOR’ brought in 15 tons each.

The (new edition – ed.) ‘ENDEAVOR’, which discharged 360 tons of tuna last week for the Westgate Sea Products Co., has been held in port by a leak in an ammonia line of the refrigerating system. A few tons of fish which became discolored and impregnated by ammonia odor had to be destroyed. Days in port for the ‘Endeavor’ after having discharged her cargo are estimated to represent a demurrage (i.e. a fancy word for a fee paid after failing to discharge a pertinent container or cargo in the allotted contracted time – ed.) costing $1,000 (equivalent to $17,234 today – ed.), Tunaboat Association officials said.

Meanwhile, it was reported yesterday that the large tunaboat ‘LUSITANIA’ will deliver a full load of skipjack tuna to the Van Camp Sea Food Co. today. The Tunaboat Association said the ‘Lusitania’ has been out two weeks in Mexican waters, skippered by Capt. Leonel G. da Rosa.”

(*Source: San Diego Union & DAILY BEE newspaper – Saturday, September 8, 1945 – Pg. 9)

“RICH MAN, POOR MAN – POINT LOMA: A PLACE WHERE DREAMS ARE FULFILLED – In a tiny backyard on Point Loma, an old Portuguese winemaker drained his glass of passion fruit liqueur and said: ‘I had my life here, working the tuna boats. But I don’t go back to sea. I have very little…, my garden and my wine.’ An hour later, a mile away, a retired Admiral looked down on a sea of sloops moored to the San Diego Yacht Club (where Portuguese were admitted only in recent years) and said: ‘People on Point Loma like good order. They are good, patriotic Americans.’

There once was a time, some eight decades ago (circa 1898 – ed.) when Point Loma was mostly sagebrush and chaparral. Only the sea-worshipping, hard-driving Portuguese, who lived in huts off the ankle-deep dust of Rosecrans, worked its shores, fishing for tuna with poles and saving their money to bring their brides to America. The brides arrived about the turn of the century, bursting into tears at the sight of this wilderness that seemed to promise little. But their men, undaunted, kept fishing and they amassed fleets of boats – and some…, great wealth. Traditionally, they paid their grocery bill once a year at the only greengrocer on the Point, Mr. GEORGE LEONARD’s, and they came to expect a box of candy in return for payment. When children were born, chances were their fathers were at sea, but the birth announcement was posted (with great flair!) on George Leonard’s bulletin board.

In the late 1920s, a spattering of wealthy Mission Hills expatriates joined the Portuguese. They built giant Spanish-style estates on La Playa beach, rode the trolley to work, and strove to explain to flabbergasted friends why they had moved to the boonies. From Point Loma to downtown took 35 minutes. Their children, in the style of the day, sledded face down on Flexi-Flyers, from one end of San Gorgonio St. to the other. As teenagers, they spooned (now referred to on Point Loma as ‘watching the submarine races’) on Bliss Cliff, along about where singer Frankie Lane now lives. The best private school in San Diego in those days was Madame KATHERINE TINGLEY’S Raja-Yoga, established off Catalina Blvd. as part of the mystical THEOSOPHICAL INSTITUTE in 1900. Surrounded by strange architecture never seen before in San Diego, children were taught mental arithmetic with emphasis on spare-the-rod-spoil-the-child discipline. Parties on the Point for the elite were elegant F. Scott Fitzgerald affairs held on the massive, landscaped lawns. Talk was of the plans real estate agent John P. Mills was promoting on Sunset Cliffs. Mill’s sales pitch included a Sunday drive from town in a big Cadillac, lemonade under a tent, a panoramic view of the Pacific, and easy terms. Mills saw some success too, until the proverbial carpet was pulled out from under him when the Stock Market crashed in 1929.

Gossip in 1921 focused on who would get invited to join the new Thursday Club. The Point Loma housewives who started it (after being rejected by the even more exclusive Wednesday Club) screened members carefully to insure ‘compatibility’. But the event of the decade was a (1915 – ed.) road race that lapped through La Playa and Ocean Beach. Famed racer Barney Oldfield drove a big Buick. Bales of hay lined the curbs. Average speed was an amazing (?!? – ed.) 40 m.p.h.

But Time changes everything. Point Loma is no longer a pristine wilderness. It has neon and billboards, a twirling chicken bucket, a giant donut, a bar called the ‘Boobie Trap’. Madame Tingley, her Theosophists and her great glass-domed temples on the hill are gone. So are the whalers, and the Chinese fishermen whose junks used to dot the bay off Roseville.

But some things have remained. The traditional Portuguese still eat linguiça and Portuguese beans with their eggs for breakfast. During the winemaking season, the heady aroma of fermenting grapes is so strong along the streets of the Portuguese community that the aroma permeates the lawns.

The view is still spectacular. The major pastime is still yachting. The residents remain ‘mature, culturally developed families,’ as long-time Point Loman PETER PECKHAM describes it. The social strata is upper crust; the politics conservative Republican; the security system A.D.T. Not too many years back ‘For Sale’ signs were not seen in front of Point Loma houses. As one real estate agent explained, ‘We have to be careful who we are dealing with.’ ‘After 43 years in uniform, there’s the U.S. Navy right there. I can look out and see my kind of officer make a lousy landing, poke a hole in his ship, and have to back up and start all over again.’ His name is Marshall E. Dornin, retired Admiral U.S.N., and he is tall and lanky and quick to scowl at the mention of massage parlor. At the moment, he’s sitting at a little round table in his redwood house high on the Point, gesturing out through glass to the panoramic view. Dornin is a past Chairman and now a Director of ‘Point Loma Village Beautiful‘, an organization begun in 1964 in an effort to clean up some of the billboards, neon, and commercial sex on Point Loma. P.L.V.B. has been victorious. Not only has it managed to get underground powerlines on Rosecrans and pass a billboard restriction code, but all important; it managed (with the help of the vice squad and the City Attorney) to shut down the last three massage parlors on the Point. ‘The vice squad made 15 arrests,’ says Dornin. ‘What we did was get people to sign statements responding to, ‘Do you think there is prostitution there and why?’ The District Attorney met with the owners, and basically told them they had enough evidence to padlock them for a year. They folded.’ Massage parlors, he says, just didn’t fit in with the way of life on Point Loma.

No, life on Point Loma is Portuguese fishermen who pass the time of day in their own shed down by the waterfront (where the Port District put stakes on top of the lamp posts so the pigeons and gulls couldn’t sit there).

Life here is Mr. Doc Holliday, 17 years a maintenance man for Cal Western when it was located on the grounds of the now defunct Theosophical Institute. Doc has a lifetime contract that enables him to live in an apartment at the end of the campus and take his meals at the cafeteria on what is now Point Loma College. Holliday pays $50 a month rent for one of the most splendid views on the Point.

Point Loma also has Mr. Art Jessop, of the San Diego jewelry family, who moved to the Point in 1936 and watched the dredging that turned mudflats into Shelter Island in 1949. ‘We used to row out and spear lobsters at night,’ he recalls. And Point Loma is a proposing $750,000 to resand (scientists call it ‘nourish’) the rapidly vanishing beach at La Playa. Geographically, Point Loma is blessed. Even the winds blow from the west, which means that salt spray ruins automobiles on the Ocean Beach side, but is nary a problem in Point Loma…

The U.S. Navy is all over the peninsula. At the front door, at Rosecrans & Lytton Sts. is the Naval Training Center (now known as Liberty Station – ed.). Here, pomp and ceremony every Friday afternoon mark the graduating of that week’s class of seamen. There is a Naval Undersea Center, the Naval Electronics Laboratory, a submarine group, an anti-submarine warfare training center and more, much much more…, Navy.

‘Every Point Loman loves to have the Navy on the end of the Point,’ say Karon Luce. ‘This area just couldn’t handle the traffic of a residential area. It would destroy Point Loma and make it just like Mira Mesa.’ Luce and her husband Gordon, President of San Diego Federal, live on Silvergate Avenue, just above the long, curving private Trepte Road, where ‘Committee of 100’ Ms. Bea Evenson and singer Frankie Laine (think “Mule Train” and 1959’s iconic “Rawhide” – b. Francesco Paolo LoVechio – ed.) live. When parties are given on the private drive, guests park below and are taken up the mountain by limousine. Real estate values on the Point have accelerated as fast as any area in the city. The typical three-bedroom tract-like home now sells for $90,000 (i.e. 1978 prices, now more like $427,732 – ed.). Lots on San Elijo St. that sold for $3,000 in the 1930s now have market values of $125,000 (equivalent to $2,000,000 to $8,000,000 today – ed.). Portuguese fishermen are now paying more each year in property taxes than they originally paid for the land itself. And some great contributors to San Diego’s past have lived on Point Loma. The list includes Ms. Lena Sefton Clark, who founded the Charity Ball for the Children’s Home Society; her brother Joe, President of the Museum of Natural History in Balboa Park; Mr. H. H. Timkin’s daughter Amelia, who spearheaded the building of the Fine Arts Gallery in 1925, and Mr. Earl W. Grant who left the esteemed Grant-Munger collection to the Fine Arts Gallery.

But; there’s another flavor to Point Loma… It’s Friday night and the backyard of Mrs. MARY MONIZ’ little cottage house (on Hugo St. – ed.) is filled with dark-haired, swaying and stomping teen-agers, moving in quasi-syncopation to tape recorded sounds that no doubt the neighbors are hearing too.

Soon the pint-sized Moniz takes a break from her teaching and calls over the fence for Mrs. HELEN LABRUZZI to come over. Labruzzi is in the middle of making 60 pounds of meatballs for a church dinner. But she comes over anyway, wisps of hair falling on her forehead.

Moniz and Labruzzi, with their rousing voices, are great kindred spirits and the do-gooders of the Portuguese community. Let those up the hill have the Symphony and the Fine Arts Gallery, Moniz and Labruzzi make sure that fund-raising dinners have meatballs, folkloric dancers have costumes, and everybody has plain old moral support.

Moniz has been rehearsing for years with the PORTUGUESE-AMERICAN DANCERS, who perform all over Southern California. At one point, her house got so full of costumes she had to build an extra room. Now, at least part of every day is spent teaching Portuguese dance, for free.

Labruzzi has lived on Point Loma for 54 years (i.e. arriving here circa 1924 – ed.). In Portuguese fashion; she first took care of her ailing mother, then her father, then a blind uncle. Now, for the first time in 52 years she and her husband (Dominic – ed.) live without other family members. ‘It’s tough,’ she says of the tuna fishing life. ‘You have to make the judgments all the time. There’s never any waiting for your husband to come home from fishing and take care of it. It may be three months before you see him.’

Some of the Portuguese, especially those from the MADEIRA Islands, still marry young. Often young men go to sea, like their fathers did, at age 17 or 18. ‘Who else at that age can make $15,000 to $18,000 a year?’ (equivalent to $71,289 or $85,546 today – ed.) explains Ms. MARY GIGLITTO, President of CABRILLO FESTIVAL INC. The money is a major draw; an experienced crewman on a tunaboat can expect to bring home $50,000 to $60,000 (equivalent to $261,392 today – ed.) a year.

But slowly education is becoming more important. Point Loma’s schools now have bilingual programs in Portuguese, and more youths are staving off the call of the sea until they finish High School.

And slowly…, the clannishness of the Portuguese is fading. ‘It is definitely a closer community,’ explains Rev. PATRICK FOX, an Irishman of thick brogue who resides over the predominantly Portuguese parish of ST. AGNES CATHOLIC CHURCH. ‘In some ways that is good. In their quiet way, they can support each other. On the other hand, they get SO close knit that they find it difficult to get along with other parts of the community. I have insisted that they reach out to other communities. We do this while trying to encourage them to retain the traditions of their past.’ The traditions include the FESTA do ESPIRITO SANTO, or Celebration of the Holy Spirit, to be held this year on May 14^th. The Procession, with gaily colored costumes and singing and feasting, begins and ends at the tiny chapel (aka. Império Capela – ed.) on Addison St. (now Avenida de Portugal – ed.), now decorated with Christmas lights.

And every September there is the CABRILLO FESTIVAL, held in honor of Portuguese-born (nowadays that nativity is in dispute via Dr. Wendy Kramer – ed.) JUAN RODRIGUEZ CABRILLO, who discovered San Diego at Ballast Point in 1542 and claimed it for Queen Isabella of Spain.

Above the landing spot of Ballast Point, at the tip of Point Loma, through the gates of the Navy Electronics Laboratory, is the CABRILLO NATIONAL MONUMENT. It has become the most visited national monument in the country, surpassing the attendance at the Statue of Liberty. Here, too, is the old POINT LOMA LIGHTHOUSE, completed in 1854 (but not used since 1891 because ship captains complained that the fog often obscured its beam). And, here also is the statue of our JUAN CABRILLO – 14’ high and 14,000 lbs., which almost settled in San Francisco.

In 1935, the story goes, the Portuguese government authorized a Portuguese sculptor, Mr. ALVARO De BREE, to begin work on a statue of Cabrillo to be offered as a gift to California for the 1940 San Francisco Exposition. The statue, however, was never exhibited and, in fact, disappeared. About this time, our Mr. LAWRENCE OLIVER, one of the early Portuguese to settle on Point Loma, decided that *SAN DIEGO* (because of its Portuguese influence) should have the statue. He went to San Francisco and launched a search for it, but had no luck. Finally, he visited a friend and during the conversation, talk turned to the statue. The friend, it turned out, was keeping the statue in her garage, in the original crate in which it was shipped! Without hesitation, Oliver launched a ‘kidnapping’, calling Col. Ed Fletcher (then State Senator), who arranged for a truck with a crane and a rail car to move the statue here to San Diego. Mr. Oliver, who died last December, recalls the snatching in his autobiography, ‘LOOKING BACKWARD’ as:

‘On the following Monday, there was quite a turmoil around the Bay Area, in San Francisco and Oakland, when news of the statue-snatching got around. The Committee (for the San Francisco Exposition) went to Sacramento with its attorneys to try to get the governor to order the statue returned to SAN FRANCISCO. He was in a tight spot because he had promised it to OAKLAND. Someone else had promised it to SACRAMENTO, and FRESNO thought that they should have it too. ‘The governor was upset and in a dilemma. I understand that in public he accused Sen. Fletcher of stealing the statue, and threatened to invoke the law…, but he never did anything.’ ‘For many years, the story behind the statue was kept secret because of the hard feelings,’ continues Oliver, ‘But that’s all over now. The statue is where it belongs.’

(*Source: San Diego UNION & Daily Bee newspaper – Sunday,April30, 1978 – Pgs. B1 & B3)

*Editorial Note: Info regarding Cabrillo’s nativity, see: https://tpgonlinedaily.com/who-was-cabrillo/

“WATERFRONT NEWS – MEXICO To Be At Tuna Talks For First Time – For the first time since the organization of the I.A.T.T.C. (i.e. INTER-AMERICAN TROPICAL TUNA COMMISSION), MEXICO will be represented at the Convention, which opens at 10:00 a.m. tomorrow at the Century Room of the El Cortez Hotel. Dr. John L. Kask, Director of Investigations for the Commission said the Mexican delegation will comprise of Sr. MARIO CARDES FIGUEROA, Miss MARIA A. TELLEZ, and Sr. HECTOR C. SALDANA. Other Commissioners are:

United States: Eugene D. Bennett of San Francisco, John D. Driscoll of San Diego, Robert Jones of Portland, Oregon, and Lawrence McHugh of the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service.

Panama: Sr. Carlos A. Lopez-Guervaca, Juan Alaivo, Mrs. Dora de Lanzmer, and Camilo Quintero.

Ecuador: Sr. Enrique P. Carbo, Eduardo Borneo, Francisco Baguerico, and A. Chiriboga.

Costa Rica: Sr. Jose M. Cardona-Cooper, Victor Nigro, Virgilio Aguilez, and Fernando Flores.

TALKS OF REGULATION

Dr. Kask, who succeeded Dr. Milner Schaefer as Commission Director of Investigations last June, formerly was Chairman of the Fisheries Research Board of Canada. Schaefer is now State Director of the University of California’s Institute of Marine Resources. Kask said one of the most important matters to be discussed at the convention will be the regulation of tuna fishing, especially of yellowfin.

This regulation, if enforced, will have a profound effect on operations of the San Diego tuna fleet. So important is this matter the Commission’s recommendation will be reviewed at a *closed* meeting of government officials from the U.S., Mexico, Panama, Ecuador, Costa Rica, and other interested Latin-American nations Friday. Kask said the election of officers for 1965 and selection of next year’s convention city will take place at the closing sessions on Thursday…”

(*Source: San Diego Union & DAILY BEE newspaper – Tuesday, March 17, 1964 – Pg. 19)

“WATERFRONT NEWS – …The new tuna clipper ‘CITY OF TACOMA’, which sailed from San Diego last week, will fish for the STAR KIST Cannery at MAYAGUEZ, PUERTO RICO. The ‘Tacoma’ was built and is owned by Mr. Arne Strom, a veteran in the Southern California tuna industry. Storm, a former San Diegan, lives in Tacoma, Washington.”

*Editorial Note: Mr. Arne Strom was long associated locally with Harbor Boat & Yacht Co. here, the Pacific Boatbuilding Co., and the Tacoma Boat Co. there. He likely deserves his own biography on his San Diego history.

(*Source: San Diego Union & DAILY BEE newspaper – Sunday, June 14, 1964 – Pg. 22)

“WATERFRONT – 8 Clippers, 2 Reefers Put UP FORSALE– Eight San Diego tuna clippers and two refrigerating motorships, the ‘WESTGATE’ and ‘PUERTO DEL SOL’, all purchased from their San Diego owners by Mr. César Vallerino of Lima, Peru back in August of 1961, are for sale. All vessels formerly were managed by NATIONAL MARINE TERMINALS. The tuna clippers are the ‘BARBARA K.’, ‘JUDY S.’, ‘SUN SPLENDOR’, ‘LUCY ELENA’, ‘MARY JO’, ‘SEA GIANT’, the ‘TALISMAN’, and ‘CAROL S.’. Southern California canneries are reported negotiating for purchase of the two ‘reefers’ (i.e. refrigerated motorships – ed.) and tuna clippers, in addition to two refrigerating plants owned by Mr. Vallerino at PAITA and PUERTO COLORADO, PERU.

For several years the ‘Westgate’ and ‘Puerto del Sol’ were engaged in bringing frozen tuna here (to San Diego) from Peru for the ‘WESTGATE-CALIFORNIA’ Cannery here. Both were taken off the run last year and have been engaged in transporting frozen fish from PERU to American canneries in Puerto Rico and fish meal to New Orleans and other Gulf ports. ‘Westgate-California’ Cannery has been receiving its fish from South America chiefly on fishing craft managed by ‘NATIONAL MARINE’.

The latter company first started operations in South American waters 9 years ago (circa 1955 – ed.) when the company purchased the fleet of ‘SUN PACIFIC, INC.’. It also acquired the refrigerating motorship ‘SPICEWOOD’ and the ‘Puerto Colorado’ reefer plant. The ‘Spicewood’ was replaced by the ‘Puerto del Sol’. Mr. Vallerino is reported to be disposing of all his fishing interests in Panama and South America. They included large fish meal plants in addition to the fishing boats and reefer plants.” —

*Editorial Note: This may (?) have something to do with the military coup d’tat that removed President Manuel Prado y Ugarteche from power? Much more information is needed to verify this though.

(*Source: San Diego Union & DAILY BEE newspaper – Thursday, March 5, 1964 – Pg. 40)

“LOCAL CONCERN OVER FATE OF TUNA INDUSTRY GROWS – Concern over the fate of San Diego’s world-famed tuna fishing industry mounted yesterday with the disclosure that approximately 50% of the catches of the local clipper fleet are being processed in SAN PEDRO canneries. This followed the news Wednesday that the VAN CAMP SEA FOOD CO. has no plans for reopening its San Diego plant in the immediate future. Van Camp officials, contacted by telephone yesterday at the Terminal Island plant, said reports current here that the San Diego plant eventually will be sold was news to them. The Union also contacted by telephone officials of the FRENCH SARDINE CO. at Terminal Island concerning reports that the company’s local affiliate, HIGH SEAS PACKING CO. at Roseville, would sharply curtail operations following completion of the company’s new Terminal Island cannery this summer. ‘CALL US IN JULY’, was the reply. Waterfront observers pointed out that with all the tuna clippers of the Van Camp fleet scheduled to unload their catches at San Pedro, and most of the clippers for High Seas Tuna Packing Co. and French Sardine Co. at Terminal Island doing the same, nearly 50% of the total catch is going north.

SEASONAL REOPENING

The Chamber of Commerce, meantime, reported Van Camp foresees a possibility of reopening its San Diego cannery during the summer albacore season. Mr. Stanley Grove, Chamber Manager, talked with Mr. Gilbert C. Van Camp, Director of the packing company, by phone at Terminal Island. Grove quoted Van Camp as saying, ‘We have no intention of closing our San Diego location permanently. When the summer albacore season arrives, there might be enough fish coming in to make the operation of both plants a paying proposition.

ONE PLANT SUFFICIENT

‘It is just common sense to keep one cannery going at somewhere near normal capacity instead of having them both in operation on a stand-by basis, and our northern plant can pack all the fish we’re getting at this time.’ The industry, still reeling from foreign tuna imports and beset by a series of misfortunes, (cont. next pg.) received another shocker yesterday by apparently ‘authentic reports’ that negotiations are under way which may result in the closing of a third San Diego cannery. Idle now are the plants of VAN CAMP and WESTGATE-SUN HARBOR.

‘If the present trend continues, within the space of a few years the San Diego tuna fleet will be operating out of San Pedro,’ Mr. FRANK M. PERRY, former President of the AMERICAN TUNABOAT ASSOCIATION (A.T.A.) and owner of several clippers, declared yesterday. ‘If any cannery here is to be placed on the market then every effort should be made to purchase it to handle the catches of the local tunaboats,’ Perry said. Mr. Perry stressed that many families have spent their entire careers in developing the San Diego fishing industry, that the sons of many pioneer skippers are following in the footsteps of their fathers, and that millions of dollars are involved in ship and shore operations of the fishing fleet. ‘To permit this valuable industry to fold up and move to San Pedro is unthinkable.’, said Perry.”

(*Source: San Diego Union & DAILY BEE newspaper – Friday, April 11, 1952 – Pg. 1 & 2)

“AZORES NATIVES SEE TUNABOAT LAUNCHING HERE – The paths of three natives of the tiny Portuguese Island of Pico met yesterday on a NATIONAL IRON WORKS launching platform. The occasion was the christening of the 106’ tuna clipper ‘LUCKY STAR’. The three men were Mr. MANUEL FREITAS, co-owner and Captain of the new vessel, Father JOHN X. MADRUGA, who said the invocation, and Mr. LAWRENCE OLIVER (aka. Lourenço Oliveira – ed.), honored guest at the ceremony. Freitas and Oliver both reside in San Diego, but Father Madruga came here only 10 months ago on his first visit to the United States. All three men knew each other well on Pico. Father Madruga is staying here with his brother, Mr. ANTONE X. MADRUGA of 2930 McCall St.

1,300 CHEERING

As 1,300 spectators cheered, the ‘Lucky Star’ went down the ways at 4:15 p.m. after Freitas’ daughter Rita, sent the all-steel ship on its path with a bottle of champagne. For Freitas, it was a far cry from the days when he first came here from the Azores in 1913, and fished in ‘day boats’ that made small catches of barracuda, yellowtail, and bonito on short ocean trips. Mr. Oliver, President of AMERICAN PROCESSING CO., recalled that spoilage was high in those days of no refrigeration. Tuna sold then for just $30 per ton and the only packing was done with iron cans and soldering irons.

LATEST DESIGNS

Freitas’ new vessel is fitted with the latest propulsion, refrigeration, and navigation equipment. He said that it will join the fishing fleet that sails regularly to Central and South American waters for tuna. His first tuna boat was the 85’ ‘DEL MONTE’, built in 1927. In 1929 he purchased the ‘NAVIGATOR’, a 121’ vessel which was the largest in the fleet for many years. It was later taken over by the U.S. Navy and lost in WWII. Despite his 50 years, Freitas was accepted for duty by the U.S. Navy in WWII and saw 2½ years of service in the South Pacific as Commander of a ‘Yippee’ (aka ‘YP’ – ed.) boat.

GUESTS PRESENT

Guests at yesterday’s launching included Mr. George Wallace, Vice-President of the AMERICAN TUNABOAT ASSOCIATION (A.T.A.), Mr. Earl Nielsen, General Manager of the HIGH SEAS TUNA PACKING CO.in Roseville, and under whose flag Freitas will sail; Mr. Emil Ott, Executive Secretary of the California Fish & Game Commission, and Mr. Ray H. Beaton, Executive Secretary of the California Fish Canneries Association. Also included among guest speakers was Maj. General Leo Hermle, Marine Corps. Commanding Officer here.”

(*Source: San Diego UNION &Daily Bee newspaper – Sunday,August24, 1947 – Pg. A11 / dpg.13 – w/Pic)

Editorial Note: Mr. Manuel Homem Freitas was born February 4, 1892 in Calheta Nesquim, Pico, Azores, Portugal. His Baptism record there (on paper Pg. entry #7 for that year) shows him as the son of Manuel Homem Freitas (Sr.) & Violante Augusta da Silva, listing paternal grandparents as Antonio Homem Freitas & Francisca Anjos; with maternal grandparents being João José Silveira & Maria Ignacia. ~ Mr. Lawrence Oliver (aka Lourenço Oliveira) was also born in Calheta Nesquim, Pico, Azores, Portugal on March 3, 1887. His parents were Manuel Lourenço Oliveira & Maria Jesus. ~ Mr. “Oliver” actually “smuggled” himself out of his homeland into the U.S. as a teenager, and eventually became very successful here in San Diego; including writing and publishing his highly recommended (sez I) autobiography “Never Backward“.