From the “Interesting Vineyarders” column in the March 26. 1926 edition of the Vineyard Gazette:

Like all other sections of the country, lying on or near the coast, Martha’s Vineyard has a certain percentage of foreign-born citizens. And, as is true of many fishing or former whaling ports, these are principally Portuguese.

Many of them can tell an interesting tale. It may be a story of adventure or wide travels, of army service in some small insurrection or perhaps merely the details of their trip from the homeland to this country. This last, in many cases, will contain many odd and interesting incidents and almost unbelievable coincidences.

Alger and other writers have made heroes of young boys who went to sea. This article relates some of the experiences of a boy who not only went to sea, but settled among a foreign race who couldn’t understand a word of his language, and at that time he spoke no other. Such was the experience of Joseph Pinto of Vineyard Haven.

In his short life, for he is but 36 years of age, he has seen more of the world and the things within it than the average man does in a life time. Born at Oporto, Portugal, he came of a family whose menfolk had followed the sea for generations. Born at that calling their eyes were always turned away from the land and young Pinto, taking to the water as naturally as a duck, sailed as cabin boy on a merchant-man at the age of 10. Outbound cargoes for South American or United States ports, was wine. And the return cargoes were general merchandise.

Two boys were carried on the Portuguese sailing ships at that time, a cabin boy and a deck boy, and in six years’ time Pinto had made many voyages to various ports in the western hemisphere, and had been promoted to deck boy, drawing the wages of $5 a month! During these years he had been more or less discontented at various time and had spoken of leaving the ship to seek his fortune in one of the countries he visited. But his shipmates told him horrible stories of things which he might encounter in a strange land, and thus by frightening him, dissuaded the boy from his purpose.

At the end of this period he made Savannah, George on the barkentine Swartz Da Costa and it was at this time that he made up his mind to desert. At eight bells, midnight, on the day of sailing, de dropped off the end of the flying jibboom on to American soil, and the greatest struggle of his life began. There was not a soul of his own nationality in the city of Savannah, as far as he could discover. He couldn’t speak a word of English, and his total wealth consisted of a couple of dollars and the clothes he stood in.

Habit or instinct kept him around the waterfront and it was only a few days before he found employment on a harbor tug. Later he made a trip to Boston on a steamer. The work was agreeable, the wages much better than he had formerly received, but he was not learning English very rapidly, and discouragement sat heavily upon him. So dark did the outlook appear that he made arrangements to work his passage home on a Portuguese ship but on the very day of sailing, the captain repented of his bargain and refused to allow the boy to sail with him.

But there is always work in this land for a man who is really looking for it, and Pinto soon had another berth, this time on a New York fisherman. For a couple of seasons he fished in summer and went steamboating in winter, visiting southern ports in the gulf and West Indies.

And then one winter he came into Vineyard Haven on a tug boat. Here he met fellow countrymen who told him that the Island was a good place to locate, and within a year’s time, Pinto picked cranberries on the bogs of Seven Gates Farm. That was in 1909, and Joe Pinto has made his home on the Island ever since. Still sticking to his beloved ocean, he has done some fishing, yachting and freighting and during the past winter has been running the freighter Eben A. Thatcher, which has brought most of the coal consumed on the Island.

It was on the Vineyard that he met and married his wife who is of Island birth, and he declares unhesitatingly that Martha’s Vineyard is the finest place to live in that he has ever known. The proof of his appreciation is shown in his achievements as a citizen, for he is a voter and owns a home that any man might be proud of. He has learned to read and write the language of the country, and has two children in high school.

While his career has been exciting, as that of any seafaring man must be, it has not been spectacular nor marked for unusual accomplishment. But he has earned his place in the list of interesting Vineyarders by his perseverance in the face of heart-breaking opposition, by his honest labor, his thrift and sunny disposition, and most of all, his love for the country of his adoption - all of which have earned for him the admiration and respect of all who know him.

Compiled by Hilary Wall
library@mvgazette.com