Jameson “Jamie” Bell was born October 15, 1971 in Fort Lawton Beach, Florida and is currently employed as a Marine Electronics Technician at Chris Electronics in New Bedford, MA. In this interview, he discusses his past in the electronics field, his feelings about his job including his favorite and least favorite aspects of it. He shares how he interacts with fishermen, captains, customers and coworkers, and how his job is a good fit for his personality.

Jameson Bell works with marine electronics. He is paid hourly and is not part of a union. He explains the types of electronics in a wheelhouse, how navigational electronics have changed over the years, and how that has affected the fishing industry. He explains the costs of navigational equipment and the life expectancy of various marine equipment, such as the magnetron. He also discusses the different types of people he meets on the waterfront, including ship captains, fishermen, and other workers. He discusses the drug use on the waterfront.

Jeff Cook is one of the owners of New Bedford Welding Supply in New Bedford, MA. He studied welding in high school and college and has worked for his family run business from a young age, starting with painting the gas cylinders and working his way up to customer sales.  He discusses the role of New Bedford Welding Supply in the fishing industry, the changes in welding equipment over the years, the role of his family members in the family business, and the positive and negative aspects of his job.

Jenifer Sanabria emigrated from Honduras to New Bedford, MA nine years ago and currently works in a packing line at a seafood factory. The company works with a variety of fish including filleted codfish, the process starts from when the boats arrive with the product, and they are processed, filleted and packaged for distribution across New England. She has a family back home that she has committed to providing to for the rest of her life. 

Joao “John” Bernardo describes his work as an upholsterer for the last 38 years, including jobs for commercial fishing boat owners. Bernardo discusses his other jobs related to the commercial fishing industry, working with other Portuguese immigrants in the fish houses and how he learned his current craft.

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.

Joe Moniz first came to the States as a soccer player. Later he emigrated to New Bedford from St. Michael in the Azores, where he’d been a farmer, as were most of his family. He’s been a lumper for many years, although he started out in construction for five years before lumping. He talks about the work of a lumper and the process of unloading boats, changes in the industry and in boats and technology and its effects on the job, changes in kinds and hauls of fish, and his love for the independence of the work.

Jeff Ferreira is a 50-year-old supervisor of F & B Rubberized in New Bedford, MA, a company that specializes in tire recycling for use in the fishing industry. In this interview, he describes the history of the company, his job at F & B Rubberized, and the uses of recycled tires in the fishing industry.  He speaks about his company notably as a family business and what he hopes for the future of fishing and tire recycling.  

John Isaksen is a retired fisherman, ship repair shop owner, and boat owner. He was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1936 and moved to Norway with his mother before World War II to care for his sick grandfather. They returned to Brooklyn in 1945 after the war. John's father was a fisherman who operated in Brooklyn during the winter and on George's Bank during the summer. In 1945, John and his family relocated to New Bedford, Massachusetts. He attended vocational high school and embarked on a career in fishing and boat repair.

John Liarkos, a male, was interviewed on September 24th, 2005, at the New Bedford Harbormaster House. At the time of the interview, he was 51 years old and resided in New Bedford, Massachusetts. Liarkos is the owner of Sea Fuels, a marine diesel station. Born in New Bedford, Liarkos grew up in a family of seven children. His father, originally from New York, and mother, from Canada, both moved to New Bedford during their youth. Liarkos's father and uncle owned Stanley Oil Company, which supplied fuel to the fishing industry.

John Miranda describes family life in Portugal, his immigration to America in 1980 and his training in engineering in both Portugal and the U.S. He discusses working for R.A. Mitchell for three decades, engineering changes in the fishing industry over the last 3 decades and his hopes for the future of fishing in general.

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.