FISHING BILOXI, MISSISSIPPI
Adam S. Eterovich
Blessing the Shrimp Fleet
The
town of D’Iberville was once a part of un-incorporated North Biloxi. The city
of nearly 7,000, won incorporation in February of 1988. As Croatian immigrants were ushered in, D’Iberville fishing and boat
building industry grew and helped with Biloxi’s rise as the "Seafood
Capital of the World." The first
coastal "Blessing the Shrimp Fleet" was held in the waters adjacent
to Sacred Heart Catholic Church in D’Iberville in 1920, at the request of the
Croatian fishermen living in the area. Linked by their common heritage and
industry, the cities of Biloxi and D’Iberville were also linked by ferries and
boats. Later a bridge, which entered D’Iberville on Central Avenue, was
completed and thus commercial development grew in this area, complimenting
existing development along D’Iberville’s waterfront on the back Bay of Biloxi.
(St.
Martin Chamber 1999)
Biloxi Shrimp Festival
For
close to 75 years, fisherman and shrimpers of Mississippi's Gulf Coast have
gathered with their boats to inaugurate the beginning of the shrimping season
with the Biloxi Shrimp Festival and the Blessing of the Fleet. The Blessing of
the Fleet and the Biloxi Shrimp Festival, selected as one of the Southeast
Tourism Society's Top 20 events for the month of May, begins Saturday, May 4
with the Great Biloxi Schooner Race featuring the Glenn L. Swetman and Mike Sekul (Croatian). The Sekul and
Swetman are 65-foot two-masted schooners, replicas of the "white
winged" boats harvested seafood on the Coast in the late 1800s and early
1900s when Mississippi's Gulf Coast, known as the Seafood Capitol of the World,
was the largest exporter of raw oysters and home to more than 40 seafood
factories. "These sailboats brought in all the seafood along the entire
Gulf Coast," said Robin David, executive director of the Maritime and
Seafood Industry Museum. "Seeing the Sekul and Swetman is like taking a
step back in time." Following the schooner race, a special mass honoring
deceased fishermen and those going to sea will be held at St. Micheal's Church
in Biloxi. After mass the celebration will continue at the Biloxi Community
Center where food, drink and live music will be featured as past Shrimp
Festival royalty are honored and the new king and queen are chosen. The Swetman
and Sekul will reappear Sunday, May 5 at the Blessing of the Fleet
ceremony. After a wreath is dropped in
memory of deceased fishermen, approximately 200 decorated boats will congregate
in front of the Biloxi Yacht Club as they parade by the bishop's anchored float
to receive a blessing for safe travels and a bountiful harvest. Prizes will be
awarded for the best decorated boats. "Blessing of the Fleet is an
integral part of the Coast experience," said Stephen Richer, executive
director of Mississippi Gulf Coast Convention & Visitors Bureau. "It's
not only a chance for family and friends to commemorate the history and
heritage of the Coast, but visitors can experience this rich Coastal tradition
while enjoying the good food and good times for which our destination is
known." (Capital City Press 2002)
Fish Canneries and Processors in Biloxi
Among
the sixteen fish canneries and fish processors in Biloxi, Mississippi are:
Mavar Shrimp and Oyster Company, Ivan Mavar from the Island of Molat; Sea Coast
Packing Company, Stephen Sekul from the Island of Brac; Kuluz Brothers Packing
Company, Ante Kuluz from the Island of Hvar; Dubaz Brothers Company, George
Dubac from Peljesac; Gulf Central Seafood Inc., Miho Sekul from the Island of
Brac; Shrimps and Oyster Packers-Anticich packing Company, Anticich from
Igrana; Sanitary Fish and Oyster Company, Ante Cvitanovich; Seafood Company,
Vice and Matre Gospodanovich; Biloxi Seafood Company, Cvitanovich and Smolcich.
Biloxi had over 900 fishing boats and 5000 fishermen. (Lahman, O. 1953)
Anticich Packing Company
Anticich
Packing Company is a large modern canning company that sells products in this country and exports. The
Company has 25 boats and employs several hundred workers and fisherman.
(Pejovich 1935)
Sea Coast Packing Co. Inc.
Sea
Coast Packing Company, Inc. is in the hands of Dalmatians from the Adriatic
Coast of Croatia. The Company is well known for canning oysters and crab. The
company is owned by Petar Pavlov and
Stephen M. Sekul. The products are known all over the country. The label for
canned crab is "Clipper" and "Miss". The canning is done
under strict government regulation and
in compliance with U. S. Food and Drug
Act. At all times, there is a state official to control the crabs and
oysters when they bring them out of the
sea. He then controls cooking, canning, cleanliness, cans and that the weight
is correct. The Company pays very high taxes for that service, that's why all
labels read: Production supervised by U. S. Food & Drug Administration.
(Pejovic 1935)
In the Factory
Mary
Kuljis, who spent over fifty of her eighty-six years in the seafood factories,
recalled her work: The first job I had was in the factory, in the cannery where
they had oysters and shrimp...They had so many shrimp and so many oysters they
couldn't take care of them. Sometime they had to throw them away because there
wasn't enough workers to do the job. So they brought children, twelve, thirteen
years old to work. (Mary Kuljis
interview 1992).
Children
age fourteen could receive a work card which allowed them to work legally in
the factory, but most had a factory job at an even younger age. When inspectors
came to check work cards, the underage children would hide lest they get caught
and removed from the factory. They balanced their work with their education.
Before attending school each morning, the children went to work in the
factories. They returned once classes ended and put in two or three more hours
at the picking tables or oyster carts earning $.50 or $1.00 a day. Sea Coast, Kaluz's, Gulf Central, Dunbar and
Dukate, and other factories lined the Point and Back Bay. Closeby lived the
women who kept the factories running. They usually worked at one factory,
season after season. The factory owners wanted the fastest pickers and shuckers
so they took care of their employees, and employees in turn felt loyalty to the
factory. However, if the management mistreated them, they could go down the
street to another cannery. An experienced factory employee could always find a
job. One former employee said that the women chose the factory according to
which boats brought in the catch. They knew which boats brought in the biggest
oysters, which made their job of shucking easier, then went to the factory
where those boats offloaded. During the oyster season, the work environment was
much the same. Oyster shucking was piece work also. Women equipped with an
oyster knife, a glove, and finger stars (small pieces of cloth to cover the
thumb and forefinger of the hand holding the knife) stood eight to a cart, four
on each side, shucking oysters and placing them in a cup. An oyster cup
attached to the side of the cart and held about a gallon of oysters. A series
of railroad tracks ran from the loading docks inside and throughout the
factory. The men unloaded the oysters into the carts. Four or five carts at a
time rolled into the steamboxes to steam open the oysters. From the steamroom,
a line of about nine carts travelled on one of the tracks running to the shucking
room. The eight women that worked at a cart usually worked together all the
time. In a sense then, they were a team. They tended to be friends or
relatives, sometimes all Slavonians
(Croatians) or all Cajun's. (Schmidt 1993)