Trish DiCienzo was born in Brockton, Massachusetts in the year 1963, the oldest of four kids. She married at age 18 and moved out to Boston for 22 years then moved to West Roxbury, Massachusetts where she worked in the police department. Later, she moved to Lakeville so she could work at a processing plant in New Bedford. Shortly afterward she was asked to transfer to Maritime Terminal where she works today.

In this interview, Paul Anthony gives a rich description of the fuel delivery industry on the New Bedford waterfront. He discusses the process of fueling a fishing boat, how payment works, fluctuations in fuel pricing, and the relationships between dockworkers.

This oral history was produced in 2017 as part of the Workers on the Waterfront Oral History Project conducted by New Bedford Fishing Heritage Center with funding from an Archie Green Fellowship provided by the Library of Congress.

Paul Lemieux is 60 years old, a third-generation French-Canadian who grew up in the New Bedford area and attended the Greater New Bedford Regional Vocational High School [Voc] where he learned welding. He started his own business, Blue Fleet Welding Services, in 1984 and has been working on the New Bedford waterfront in this capacity for 33 years.

Peter Heleen, fifty-six years old, has been involved in the fishing and shipping industry since he was a teenager. A graduate of the Massachusetts Maritime Academy, he worked for a variety of companies, including C.E. Beckman Company, a marine supply company, until 2013, when he became the yards purchasing manager for the Fairhaven Shipyard. He discusses his early years in the industry, the challenges of the job, his relationships with vendors and how the industry has changed over the years, particularly in terms of inventory management.

Petter and his wife Sharon own Harbor Hydraulics in Fairhaven, which he started with his brother some years ago. Petter graduated from New Bedford Vocational school, worked fishing with his father-in-law for a while, then at Scandia propellers, and eventually opened his own shop doing both installations and the business end of the paperwork. Sharon does the computer work and their son works in the shop and doing installations on the boats.

Phillip Mello describes his duties as a general manager at Bergies Seafood in New Bedford, MA, including auctions, transportation, fish cutting, sales, deliveries and networking. He joined Tichon Seafood in 1980 and continues to be active throughout the Fairhaven/New Bedford Harbor. Mello enjoys photography and documenting the fishing community. Changes in weather and fishing regulations have altered prices, catches and the economy of the fishing industry.

In this interview Richard Gallagher, an electrical engineer at Chris Electronics in New Bedford, MA, shares his work history, discusses various electrical components of boats, details his daily work, and explains the relationships with customers, fishermen, and between co-workers at Chris Electronics.

This oral history was produced in 2017 as part of the Workers on the Waterfront Oral History Project conducted by New Bedford Fishing Heritage Center with funding from an Archie Green Fellowship provided by the Library of Congress.

Description of the job of the tankerman, a licensed position on a fuel barge. Explanation about the benefit of fueling from a barge rather than a truck. Description of changes in fishing and scalloping since 1977. Demographic changes in the fishing community, lack of interest among young people. Some discussion about nicknames and superstitions, loss of the old-timers.

Robert Hicks is a fifty-two year old Plant Manager of Crystal Ice in New Bedford, Massachusetts.  He has been working at Crystal Ice since 1989, starting as a laborer and working his way up to Plant Manager. In this interview he describes his family history in the business, his early days at Crystal Ice, changes in the plant over the years, types of ice the plant makes, icing the fishing boats, other projects of Crystal Ice, and his favorite and least favorite parts of the job.

Bob Mitchell was born in Boston in 1943. His father, also named Bob, started the R.A. Mitchell marine engines and generators supply company in New Bedford, which he [son Bob] took over and is now largely run by him and two of his daughters on the New Bedford waterfront. Mitchell talks about his engines apprenticeship in England, after high school, with the Lister engine company, and his return to New Bedford to work with his father.