From the May 28, 1926 edition of the Vineyard Gazette:

Until comparatively recent years the people of Martha’s Vineyard have gained what wealth they may have possessed from the sea. The land may indeed have furnished a livelihood, but up to perhaps two generations ago the ambitious man who desired to amass wealth turned his eyes seaward.

There are probably fewer Islanders afloat today than ever before in Vineyard history and yet among those few is at least one whose name is known the length of the coast — Capt. Bob Jackson of Edgartown, high-liner, sail-dragger, famous for his fearlessness and for his encounter with a German submarine during the late war, when his vessel was blown up and sunk on Georges Bank.

To meet Captain Jackson on the deck of his trim schooner is a worthwhile experience, chiefly because he is so utterly different in appearance from what one would image who has heard the tales of his various exploits. A big, brown, boyish looking man, who looks to be about 35 years old, yet owns to 50 summers. A cordial, good natured man, who smiles and looks his visitor squarely in the eye, and who will probably say that he can’t tell any stories, and never did anything anyhow. Such is Captain Bob, master of the schooner Hazel M. Jackson of Edgartown.

But once he starts to talk, and no one can do it better, he can hold his listener spellbound with tales of his own personal experiences, for Capt. Bob’s career has been spectacular and filled with thrills ever since he took to the water, and that was at a very tender age.

Strange to say, Captain Jackson was born quite a distance from salt water, on the County road, North Dartmouth, which section is a farming district. His father, Hiram Jackson, was a mulespinner in one of New Bedford’s cotton mills. The elder Jackson had a love for the water, however, and kept a small boat in Clark’s Cove, in which he used to go fishing whenever opportunity offered.

At the age of 13 young Bob Jackson went to work in a cotton mill, but shortly after his family moved to the island of Cuttyhunk, where the elder Jackson took up the occupation of fisherman. A year or so later, when Captain Bob was 15, his father was drowned, together with several others of a life saving crew, who attempted to rescue the seamen from the wreck of the brig Aquatic.

After that, to quote his own words, young Jackson had to hustle, and he chose blue water as the place to do his hustling. In his first boat, a 16 foot cat he set lobster pots all around Cuttyhunk and far to sea. Luck was with him and as the years passed he purchased other and larger boats, cat boats at first then sloops and at last a schooner, the Progress.

In his sloops and schooners Captain Jackson ventured into deep water ­— trawling, netting and swordfishing. In this last named branch of the industry he has been high-liner all but one season for 18 years. The biggest trip he has ever made was 152 fish in 16 days, and the largest fish, 550 pounds.

But if he has found good luck in swordfishing, he has also struck some that was worse than hard, for it was in his first schooner, the Progress when swordfishing, that he was sunk by the submarine. Nearly 200 miles from land, on Georges Bank, the little vessel was hailed by the “tin fish” and Captain Bob and his men were allowed to get some provisions and water into their dories; that was all. The Progress went down and the men pulled for about 100 miles before they were picked up by another vessel.

The captain immediately built a larger vessel, the Liberty, but he had hardly become used to her when a strike of the fishermen’s union put him completely out of business and he sold the vessel. Later he built his present vessel, the Hazel M. Jackson, the largest vessel he has ever owned.

It might be thought that a man who has spent so much of his life at sea would not be much of a family man. But the captain has been married since he was 20 years of age and is the father of five children. Three of the oldest are married. His oldest son, a young man of 26, is one of his father’s crew, and there is a son and a daughter still with Captain and Mrs. Jackson at their beautiful home in Edgartown.

There is no hint of fear in Captain Jackson’s voice as he tells of dangers to be encountered, dangers he knows exist because he has braved them oft before. The fast-steaming ships which drive across the banks through darkness, storm and fog, and which now and then cut down the little fishermen as they lie in the track; and the shoals — every generation of fishermen from the days of the early colonists has contributed its share of history and tradition to the shoals of Georges Bank.

But Captain Bob weighs these dangers as a business man weighs the possibility of a drop in the market — allowing for the result which may follow, and guarding against it as far as is possible. Playing a game, as it were, against fate and the elements, and all the while maintaining a cool head, a steady hand and a calculating eye.

Compiled by Hilary Wallcox

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