The Blue Bleep Shrimping Boat

Little Miss Judy Believe It or Not!



NORMA JEAN II
The Norma Jean II is a one of our local shrimp boats and it is moored at Sasser抯 Docks located on Turner Creek. The captains and first mates also known as strikers are so friendly! They are always playing music and take the time to offer up a friendly wave! But I have to say, 揈very time it passes us by it brings to mind my father抯 shrimp boat the BLUE BEEP!

揃LUE BEEP?/u>
If you have been reading the stories that I have been writing about Daddy you already know that he never did anything half way. So when it came to the shrimping business you guessed it 搘e had it all.? Daddy brought a small shrimp boat or should I say, 揂 boat that he turned into a shrimping boat.? The boat once purchased was painted 揷obalt blue.? So therefore he named it the 揃lue Beep!?/u> Believe me I wish I knew why he picked this color, but if I had to guess somehow he most likely already had the paint on hand. As I am writing this I am smiling and every now and then I have to stop typing so that I can laugh. This truly happened.

After Daddy had purchased the boat, he re-powered it, and added the necessary trawling equipment making us ready. The engine was removed from a junk yard wrecked car and was made ocean ready by my father. All the trawling equipment was master minded by my father. As a child, I just thought it was a bunch of pipes sticking in different directions. And All I remember about the small engine that turned the pulley that pulled the shrimp net in was removed from a broken lawnmower.

The 揃lue Beep?was basically a cabin cruiser that had been gutted of all of it comfortable interior design. So therefore it was really now a true 揝hrimping Boat!? My father knew how to do almost everything when it came to fishing and shrimping, but he didn抰 especially want to be a shrimp boat captain. So he hired a captain to run the 揃lue Beep.?The captain would receive as pay 30% of earnings from the boat. This all sounded good to the new employee/captain. According to the newly hired captain, he knew it all when it came to shrimping. In fact according to his story I thought he should have had his own boat, but being a child what could I possibly know.

The first day that the 揃lue Beep?was out fishing the captain accidentally, while pulling in the net, drifted over it, and badly tangling it in the wheel. There were no wrecker services such as SEA Tow or Boat US in the ocean during this time. So therefore Daddy had to get in his boat, go to the ocean, and tow the 揃lue Beep?back to the dock. After a little discussion of which I wasn抰 suppose to hear, they repaired the net, at least what was left of it, and back to the ocean the 揃lue Beep?went. The second day wasn抰 much better. At least the net didn抰 get tangled in the wheel. However, the captain forgot about the rocks at the mouth of the Savannah River at least until he hit them. Once again, Daddy had to tow the 揃lue Beep?to the dock. I went to the house for this lecture. The damage wasn抰 too bad. Daddy fixed it in less than a week giving the captain a chance to get his shrimping plan together.

On the Captain抯 first day back with hopefully all of his mishaps behind him I suppose he was thinking about all that money he was going to make. After all 30% could be a hefty amount especially if he caught as many shrimp out of the ocean as he had figured in his mind. However, after a while my father figured it out. NOTHING FROM NOTHING IS ABSOLUTELY NOT- A-THING! Our shrimping boat business didn抰 last very long! And this was about when The Blue Beep went from shrimping to the for sale section!

Thanks for reading! Captain Judy