I Never Met a Boat I Didn't Love: Forty Years of Commercial Fishing. A Journey through Life. - Paperback

by Gustav F. Bahruth (Author)

We've all heard of the old proverb "Find a job you love and you will never have to work a day of your life." This book is the true story of the development, challenges, and equipment of the commercial shrimp industry, and many of the adventures that came along with it. It tells of growing up on Great South Bay, Long Island, New York through sixty years into retirement. From the author's first sixty five year old wood boat at the age of fifteen through his working career on a vast number of commercial vessels, and living aboard and cruising over thirty thousand miles on a 30-year-old restored Chris Craft. A master of storytelling takes you on a voyage of adventure, humor, and history. Including a once in a lifetime storm in the Bermuda Triangle as witnessed through the eyes of the author, Capt. G.F. Bahruth

Author Biography

Gustav Frank Bahruth was born and raised in Babylon, New York. He graduated from Babylon High School. Several years later he graduated from State University in Farmingdale, Long Island. A month after graduation he married the love of his life and moved to Schenectady, New York to accept a position with General Electric to work in a large steam turbine experimental laboratory. After several months he had heard from his cousins that he could double his income in a new venture in Florida. The commercial shrimp trawling industry on the west coast was expanding rapidly. With the support of his wife they decided to pack up and move to Fort Myers Beach and get back to his love of the water and start a family. Within six months they knew they had made the right decision and with the partnership of his brother, purchased their first trawler. For the next forty years he had purchased and worked boats of increasing size and power covering the waters from The Panama Canal to Canada with many ports in between. When the shrimping business collapsed in the early eighties he started a marine survey and delivery business extending from El Salvadore in the Pacific Ocean through Kingston, Ontario, Canada. In the late eighties he and his wife packed it up, took their parents and moved to the Smokey Mountains of North Carolina. After the parents had passed on to a better spot, and feeling the need to get back on the water, they sold their house and moved permanently aboard a pleasure vessel and cruised until the passing of his wife split up his only crew. He currently resides in and is currently completing a restoration of a 39 year old Bristol sloop in Fort Myers, Florida.