Races from the fishing grounds off Cape Cod to the T Wharf in Boston were about much more than ego and bragging rights. The first boat to reach the market commanded the highest prices for its haul. Runners-up had to haggle with dealers who’d already had their pick of the catch. So the stage was set in 1901 for a legendary battle between Active, Capt. John Bull, and Lear C., Capt. Manuel Crawley. “Both were daring young men on their flying sloops of Cape Cod,” Josef Berger wrote (under the name Jeremiah Digges) in his book about the Portuguese fishermen, In Great Waters. “And both later came to be known among the ‘killers’ — the big money-makers — of the New England fishery. A man shipping with either skipper knew he was going to make money as long as the combined dangers of wind, sea, and the skipper’s sailing habits spared his life.”
Active was a 41-foot sloop, gross tonnage of 74, constructed in Essex in 1895. It had a hard master in the restless Bull. “If it were humanly possible to get his fishing done in a ‘quick trip,’ Captain Johnny Bull did it,” Berger wrote, “and when it was humanly possible he tried it anyhow.” Both Active and Lear C. had been having good luck in the Chatham fishing grounds on the day of their contest over more than 100 “fast and furious miles” from the Cape Cod elbow, all the way around the Lower Cape, and across Cape Cod Bay.
Active was the first to head to Boston. Lear C. followed by 20 minutes, but had the advantage of being better designed for the prevailing southwest winds. Both boats were under full sets of sail as they reached the Highland Light, neck and neck. There, Captain Bull watched in astonishment as Captain Crawley took in his upper sails.
“It was blowing a howler now,” Berger wrote, “and even these sturdy craft could stand only so much. In discretion lay the only chance of winning this race. And when Captain Manuel had seen that, he had turned discreet. But Captain Johnny, with the strategy of desperation for which he was noted, kept his canvas on.”
“For a few miraculous moments it worked. The Active, with her nose in white water and her crew in silent prayer, began to draw away. A few minutes, and then — crack! — down over her lee bow crumpled the gaff-topsail and ballooner. And with her topmast carried away, there was no more thought of trying to outsail the Lear C.“
Johnny Bull wasn’t finished, however. As Active rounded Race Point, he swung it over to Provincetown Harbor; completely off course. “His crew were wondering if the strain had also caused something to carry away in the skipper’s own upper rigging,” Berger wrote. Bull spoke the steam tug Peter B. Bradley to ask the cost of a tow to Boston. He made a deal at $140 and within 10 minutes “Active was again on her way to market — in the teeth of headwinds to which she gracefully curtsied as she glided along at the end of her towline!”
“Late the next morning when Captain Manuel luffed the Lear C. in for T Wharf in Boston, after endless hours of tacking against the headwinds over Cape Cod Bay, there he beheld the disabled Active, peacefully creaking at her dock lines while shoresmen were taking out the trip of fish that Captain Johnny Bull had already sold!”1
Bull had an easy time forgetting the $140 penalty he’d incurred for his devilish stratagem — Active sold $1,150 worth of fish that day.
1 In Great Waters: The Story of the Portuguese Fishermen (1941), by Josef Berger (as Jeremiah Digges), Pages 193-197.