Mr. Milton Zirlott is a retired commercial fisherman on the Gulf Coast. Zirlott was born on December 29, 1925, to Ellis Zirlott (born 1898 in Fowl River, Alabama) and Nittie Rhodes Zirlott (born around 1906 in Bayou LaBatre, Alabama). His father was a commercial shrimp fisherman and a boat-builder. His mother’s father was a net-maker. Zirlott went to school at Alba in Bayou LaBatre, Alabama. He had one brother, Robert Zirlott. Milton Zirlott worked with his father as a fisherman, and off-season, helped his father build boats. In 1944, Zirlott entered the US military, Naval Construction Battalion. He was sent to Williamsburg, Virginia, for training at a CB base. From there he was sent to Oakland, California, and then to Okinawa where he served on a tugboat as a deckhand. After four days, he was promoted to captain, based on his experience with boats. Zirlott liked being a captain on a tugboat; it was safer than some of his friends’ wartime assignments. A typhoon came through the island and destroyed the boats the CBs operated, as well as the ship dock they were building. World War II was coming to an end, and Zirlott was sent back to the States to be discharged. On June 23, 1946, he married Rosalie Ulery (born April 10, 1928, in San Joachim, California). They moved to his home in Alabama. At the time of this interview, they had been married sixty-five years. They have four children, Perry Zirlott (born September 1, 1948), Russell Zirlott (born July 30, 1950), Joyce Zirlott (born April 5, 1955), and Diane Zirlott Lumpkin (born April 1, 1960). Zirlott finished grade school, and he took some training during his military service in shopfitting and to become a boatswain. During his military service, he was a Seabees machinist mate, a crane operator, and became a tugboat captain. He was awarded the Asiatic Pacific Victory Medal. He was a member of the Southern Shrimp Alliance. Zirlott enjoys sport fishing, oystering, and crabbing for fun. Mr. Zirlott writes, “I have enjoyed my life. If God has any more time for us to be together, we would sure accept that.”

Scope and Content Note:
He talks about Fishing in the Gulf of Mexico in 1940s, shrimping equipment, boat-building wooden boats, changes in nets and boats, kinds of shrimp, military service in CBs, wetlands, Alabama?s barrier islands, Sand Island, Dauphin Island, regulations, emergency positioning radio beacon, water closings, Hurricane Katrina, BP Deepwater Horizon oil disaster, Vessels of Opportunity, BP?s remunerations and hirings, Dominick?s Seafood, Inc., deckhands, Gulf of Mexico, tar balls, shrimping in Colombia, South America.