Smith Cove Fleet, circa 1960

Posted on by Fredrik Bodin
Smith Cove in East Gloucester was, and still is, populated by both fishing and pleasure boats. In the background of the photo is East Main Street, with Banner Hill rising above it. The boats, from left to right: Harpoon sword fishing boat "Jaguar" (previously named Lord Jim and also a WWII submarine chaser), owned by Dr. Fred Breed; "Jumping Jennifer," Tom Morse's fishing boat; Party fishing boat "Winner III," owned by Bobby Anderson; and the "Naomi Bruce III," co-owned by Cy Tysver and the Shoares family. Vessel histories are complex, and all comments and corrections are welcome.
Smith Cove in East Gloucester was, and still is, populated by both fishing and pleasure boats. In the background of the photo is East Main Street, with Banner Hill rising above it. The boats, from left to right: Harpoon swordfishing boat “Jaguar” (previously named Lord Jim and also a WWII submarine chaser), owned by Dr. Fred Breed; “Jumping Jennifer,” Tom Morse’s fishing boat; Party fishing boat “Winner III,” owned by Bobby Anderson; and the “Naomi Bruce III,” co-owned by Cy Tysver and the Shoares family. Vessel histories are complex, and all comments and corrections are welcome.

Published by Fredrik Bodin

Fred Bodin is a photographer who owns a gallery on Main Street in downtown Gloucester, MA. The gallery features Fred's land and seascapes, as well as historic images printed from the old negatives.

6 thoughts on “Smith Cove Fleet, circa 1960”

  2. Fred Breed was the ophthalmologist many of us went to until he died, still practicing well into his 80s, as I recall. (The day he was about to perform a tricky laser procedure on my eyes, I met a smiling older woman in the waiting room. “You seem pleased by something,” I said. “Oh, yes,” said she. “This is the fiftieth anniversary of the day Dr. Breed first started treating me.” Yikes! I thought…and I’m about to trust this old guy to blast my eyeballs with a laser beam? It all came out fine).

    He used to tell swordfishing tales while he worked on my eyes, including recalling one time fishing off Greenland when his crewmate developed acute appendicitis and he had to operate on him at sea, remembering his surgical rotation decades earlier. I believe the boat was sold after he died to a couple that set out around the world and wrecked it off Australia’s Great Barrier Reef.

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  4. Excellent history and thanks for the lesson did not get over this way much in my younger days! Dave & Kim 🙂

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  5. Does anyone know if Dr Breed has any family still in the area? My grandfather rebuit the Lord Jim after she was hulled in 1959, and sold her to Dr Breed. I am looking to fill in many blanks in the history, of a grand old schooner that was part of our lives for 4 + years.
    Looking for any information and pictures of this Lord Jim. Stu

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    1. As a teenager, I worked on “The Jaguar” during the summers of 1967 and 1968 while Spider Andresen was I suppose you’d call the “First Mate”. We’d regularly go out to George’s Banks and fill up the hold with 600 to 800 pound swordfish, then anchor off Menemsha on The Vineyard. Once witnessed Dr. Breed perform a cataract operation on a swordfish to show us how the procedure was done. So many, many wonderful memories from those summers when the Breed family took me in with welcoming arms. Very kind and gracious family. My father had died when I was 14 (in June of ’66) and I’ll be forever grateful for their support.

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