A DORYMAN'S DAY by Captain R. Barry Fischer

We'd be hard put to decide whether Barry Fisher was better at fishing or storytelling. The three stories in this book are rollicking gems, salty as a flake of cod set out to dry. After a "wharf rat" childhood in Gloucester, Barry Fischer went offshore dory-fishing when he was eighteen, fishing longline trawl gear from Grand Banks dories launched off the deck of a schooner--probably never recounted in such detail before by a fisherman. A few years later, he went on a late-season swordfishing trip, dory-fishing from a schooner with a crew betting against the weather and the odds that they'd come home with a catch. "Mysterious Ways of the Lord, or How Captain Jack Brant of the Swordfishing Schooner Lorna B Found God in a Split Second and Then Achieved Salvation on the Northern Edge of George's Bank" gives you just a hint of the wonderful story to come. 2001 paperback, 124 pages.