By John Corry
New York Times Services
Reprinted from St. Petersburg Times, Saturday September 20 1975
The Norma and Gladys docked at Fulton Street and the East River this week, carrying with her a crew from Newfoundland and a story about the Grand Bank fishery. The story was that the fishery is being fished out.
The Norma and Gladys, a schooner 93 feet long, came in on the ebb tide, sailed past Pier 16, went under the shadow of the Brooklyn Bridge, moved downstream again, and then came into Pier 16 using her engines.
“When they” navigate in these rivers, they won’t take too much of a chance,” said Sean Campbell of the South Street Seaport Museum.
“Fenders rigged on portside for a port side landing,” said Lawrence R. Neville, a retired rear admiral.
“Is this a special occasion?” asked a businessman who was standing on Pier 16.
Then, when the Norma and Gladys had docked, a delegation from Pier 16 marched on board.
“Greetings,” Ted Henley, the deputy minister of tourism for Newfoundland, said to the crew.
“Welcome,” Bruce Rankin, the Consul general of Canada, said.
Glen Pelley, the first mate, who is temporarily in command of the Norma and Gladys, stepped forward to hear a proclamation from the Mayor Abraham Beame. The proclamation said that Monday was “Newfoundland fishing schooner day.”
Later, Pelley said that neither he nor any member of the crew had ever been to sea under sail before, but that they had all been sailors of one kind or another.
“Anyone used to ships can pick this up in a week or so,” he said. Like everyone else on board, he said he was fond of the old schooner.
SO FAR, the Norma & Gladys has sailed from Newfoundland to Boston to New York. She will go to Kingston, Jamaica, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Honolulu, and Japan, and then continue around the world by way of the Indian Ocean and Suez Canal. She will not return to Newfoundland until next summer.
Her purpose is to promote the expansion of Canada’s 12-mile on her territorial sea to a 200-mile economic zone. Canada says that the Grand Banks fishing ground is being depleted by foreign trawlers; the crew of the Norma & Gladys agrees.
“I’ll tell you something- they should have done this 30 years ago,” First mate Pelley said.
“Very necessary to save the Grand Banks,” said Charles Parsons, a member of the crew.
PARSONS said that when he had applied to join the crew of the schooner his wife threatened to divorce him. On the day the schooner sailed, he said, she did.
“But I couldn’t see myself passing up a trip like this,” Parsons said. He said that when a had a itch to travel it was something he had to do.
“Me? I thought I’d like the trip,” said Wilfred Ash, the ship’s carpenter.
Ash, who sat in a tub of rope, spoke in the slow, measured tones of a man from Brooklyn, Nfld. He was the oldest man on board, and everyone called him “Uncle Dick.”
The Norma & Gladys was built in 1945 and fished off the Grand for two years. Then she was converted into a motorized coastal freighter. Two years ago she was restored to her original riggings and lines.
___________________
Transcribed by Lester Green, July 2015
These transcriptions may contain human errors. As always, confirm these as you would any other source material.