Thanks to a hard working man and his passion for fishing together for his love of the ocean, our father Captain Bob Walsh Sr. 1930-1997 started taking fishermen out on the ocean from Lynn Harbor in 1965. He also worked for as a mechanic at Captain Flowers Marina in Revere, and was the mate aboard the vessel “Kanitsu” which also operated from Captain Fowler’s in the late 1950’s. He worked during th
e winter months for Mass Oil & Fuel Company of Lynn delivering heating oil. During the winter months we would hear our father say “I hope the spring comes early, I need to go fishing”. Come March he would spend much of his time getting the boat ready. Scraping and painting seem to fall upon us, his sons. At the time working for Dad was difficult, but looking back he was teaching and showing us the way to survive in this world. We were lucky to have been around our father, at the time when we thought that other kids were having more fun than us, we were learning so much more than we realized. The Captain started in 1965 with his first used passenger boat the 40’ “Sea Mist”. In 1969 he was able to purchase another used vessel from New Jersey the 50’ Edna L. Come 1970 he sold the “Sea Mist” and bought another used vessel the 65’ “Sea Wife” which he named because our mother would said “he (Dad) was with her” (the boat) more than he was with her. The year 1976 found the Captain heading to New York were he purchased another used vessel the 110’ Amberjack IV. The Captain, as the years when by, kept wanting larger boats. He would say to us “that he needed the larger boat” to go further out to sea in order to catch more and larger “Fish”. The larger the boat the more work for all of us. I can remember that the mortgage was not always paid on time and the Captain would say “ We have to keep fishing” be thankful for our health, believe in God and “Get to Work”. Other boats came and were sold, in 1993 the Captain went to Louisiana, rented an abandoned ship yard and started building on his own his first custom built 95’ aluminum vessel, which he named the “American Dream” the boat should have been named “Dad’s Dream”. He sailed the boat up to Lynn from Louisiana only to sell the boat a month latter to a man in Hawaii. What does he do next? He returns to Louisiana and builds another boat, this time naming it the “American Classic”, however, he was unable to sail the boat back to Lynn Harbor, He was diagnosed with cancer and past on July 1, 1997. The boat was finished by my brother John, who brought the boat home to Lynn Harbor in 1998. Dad left us not only his boat, he left us with the knowledge he shared with us over his life time, “You have to work in this life, so love the work you choose”, it will not be easy, but chances are you will live a happier life and “If you take care of the boat, the boat will take care of you”.
