The Log of the Herring-Pumper Beryl by Ian Daniel Ludders

Trade Paperback.

Erland Quinn captained the herring-pumper boat BERYL in the pearl-essence fishery of mid-20th-century Penobscot Bay, Maine. Here we read his logbook for 1955 in the company of his son Bob Quinn.

A Maine seafaring book that blends a 1950s herring logbook with family lore, oral history and song.

About the author:

Bob Quinn grew up lobstering and fishing with his father and uncle, learning seamanship aboard the herring pumper Beryl.  Quinn has been steeped in the lore of coastal Maine since he was a child.

His Uncle Bonney wrote nautical poems with a humorous bent and it is his recitations of these poems, along with his colorful commentary, for which he is best known. Quinn eventually moved to Eagle Island and assumed the caretaking of the family homestead. He has recorded two dozen of his uncle’s poems, and spends many evenings regaling neighbors and guests at the farmhouse with Uncle Bonney’s poems and his own salty stories.