As a lad of 15, I went to Alaska with a friend to work on his father's commercial fishing boat. The name of that boat was the Gert. Most of the detail on the Early Tide is from memory and old pictures. The plans for a troller hull were obtained from the Whatcom Museum in Bellingham, Washington. They are from the H.C. Hanson collection.
Built about 1945, boats like the Early Tide were quite common. They were primarily built and used to troll for salmon. They could troll for nine to ten months of the year. Trolling for salmon made the owner and workers enough money to survive but did not bring in the big dollars.
Halibut fishing, on the other hand, brought in big profits and wages. During this time period, halibut season was only from six to eight weeks long. This type of boat was consequently designed so the rigging could be changed to become a longliner boat during halibut season. Once the season ended, the boat reverted back to a troller.
Trolling was a one man operation whereas when the boat converted to a longliner it took at least three men, one to steer the boat to follow the line as they are retrieving it and the gurdy man to pull the line in. His job was also to shake the fish off, and the last man had the hard job of having to coil the line as it came in. Note the coiled lines on the deck of this model.
This model has a water pump for cooling the engine as you will notice in some of the pictures.
The Early Tide
