“I hear people in the city think it’s a big deal to have an office with a window,” said Deer Isle lobsterman Julie Eaton; “I have five windows (her boat’s windshield has four separate panes and one big pane on the side), and the view always changes.” Deer Isle sternman Kelly Ann Trundy feels the same way. Because she lives on an island where most people fish for a living, five years ago she said, “I just wanted to try it so I could say I did it, and I ended up loving it.” Asked what she loves about it, she replied, “Being out on the water. It’s peaceful. Seeing different things.”
Although Eaton and Trundy may be the exceptions rather than average fishermen’s wives, you’d be hard pressed to find one who isn’t an active partner in her husband’s business. The day of the fisherman’s wife going down to the shore to keep watch for her husband’s and other boats to come back in is, for the most part, over. But that wife, too, kept the books and perhaps picked the crab her husband trapped as by-catch.
Many still do that, including Cheryl Robinson, of Little Deer Isle. She started processing her husband’s crab at home 30-odd years ago to earn money and avoid having to pay a babysitter for her three kids. She started by herself, explaining, “My father used to pick.” She’s worked in her new building for five years, the result of grants, “A lot of us in this area — eight that I know of” — got to process crab. She explained, “[The grant] was supposed to help people get jobs.” She hired four, saying, “That’s all I had room for.” She, sister Teddy Eaton, son Ricky, daughter-in-law Sheri Robinson, and scallop fisherman Dana Billings together process three crates, or 300 lbs. of crab each day: her husband’s catch and that of several other fishermen. The space taken by the bathroom and crab cooling room has left her with only one complaint: “I’d like to have a bigger picking area.” Besides keeping her own books, Cheryl keeps her husband’s and does the family income tax preparation.
Most wives find that keeping their husband’s books comes with the job of becoming a fisherman’s wife. Suzy Shepard, of Stonington, thinks so. A hairdresser, she’s kept husband Mike’s books for the 25 years they’ve been married. During the years her two sons were growing up (they got commercial fishing licenses and started lobstering at ages eight and ten), she substitute-taught at their schools, was an active founder of the Island Fishermen’s Wives Association, and for over ten years has been Town Hostess, announcing all the July Fourth events. Suzy went back to hairdressing four years ago, and although her son Patrick is in college, she still keeps the books and does income tax preparation for her husband and tax preparation for lobsterman son Matthew. She’s also the IFWA calendar’s Miss November.
Caty Frazier, of Burnt Cove, Deer Isle, keeps the books for her lobsterman husband, Perley, who has an advantage most other fishermen don’t: his wife is a professional bookkeeper. Caty keeps the books and makes the payroll for Stonington’s Penobscot Bay Press [PBP], which publishes three town newspapers.
Not only does Caty work for the PBP between four and five days a week, she keeps all Perley’s receipts (how many pounds he landed each day, each week, each month), does the payroll and makes out the paychecks for his crew, which varies with the season; and does the 1099s. She also keeps the books and does tax preparation for another fisherman. On Saturdays Caty baby-sits her eight-year-old granddaughter, which she says she loves, as it’s their only chance to be together. On top of this, in summer Caty goes on Perley’s seafood truck and on Friday mornings sells at the farmer’s market in Stonington. On Saturday mornings she sells at the Farmer’s Market in Blue Hill and some Sundays wherever Perley chooses.
Donna Brewer, of Stonington, also drove a seafood truck: her husband, Marsden’s, to Boston three times a week between 1990 and 1997, at times with an added child and black Labrador in her old, “always overloaded” truck.
She also sold air to scuba and urchin divers for the Brewers’ Strictly Fresh Seafood Corporation. All 26 years of marriage, she’s kept the books and done the income tax preparation. As if this weren’t enough, this former president of the Island Fishermen’s Wives still makes lunch every day for her husband and his sternman.
Kelly Ann Trundy says for 16 years she and her husband, Keith, also a sternman, have worked “together as a team, as a family.” She does 95 percent of the bookkeeping — online because by the time she gets in from work, the banks are closed. “I could always count on him to fill in for me, as he could, me,” she said of her husband, explaining, “If his boss wasn’t going out that day, Keith would take my place. Keith doesn’t fish in winter. I do.” She said Keith helps out around the house and with the kids. Whoever gets home first starts supper and “runs the kids here or there.” She said, “We do, really, work together.”
Another thing the Trundys share, beside their three children, is a love of tattoos: Keith’s and Kelly’s arms are covered with colorful decoration from shoulder to wrist. If you want to see Kelly’s, you’ll have to go to the Island Fishermen’s Wives’ calendar (sales benefit safety training for fishermen), which can be purchased by e-mail to IFWA@msn.com. She’s the calendar girl (clothed) for March. As for being a sternman, she said, “I love what I do. It isn’t a chore because I love getting up at 3:30 in the morning.”
Julie Eaton doesn’t mind getting up early, either. She fishes alone in her 30-foot Repco, CAT SASS; husband Sidney Eaton fishes in his. He does all the bookkeeping and does all the income tax preparation for both. (She said of their businesses, “It’s more like a corporation with two boats.”) Sidney makes the bank deposits because he comes in first. He even picks up Julie’s paycheck. She said, “I never see what I’m making from day to day.” Once a week, they combine the checks and deposit them into their joint account.
“In October, we pay all our bills a year ahead,” Julie said. “We have no bills in winter, when we’re not making money. That’s something my husband taught me.” She cautioned, though, “Not always, depending on the year, do we have a lot left over, but our bills are paid, and we have what we need. And there’s enough left over to carry us through.” (She’s the calendar girl for October.)
Despite the limited number of jobs available on islands, Deer Isle fishermen can take pride in the many ways their wives join them as full partners.
