H. B. BAGS BIG BERTHA

or

(THE FISH THAT DIDN’T GET AWAY)

Other fishermen come home to tell of the big one that got away.  Not so Henry B. Richardson, member of our board of directors and head of H.B. Richardson & Co., accountants and auditors.  His professional passion for exactness and proving things carries right over into his fishing.

Didn’t he have a photograph, taken with him standing next to his fish with his hand on a flipper?  Who could doubt his catching it after that?

And didn’t he give us, the exact dimensions – eight feet, eight inches high by six feet, six inches in girth (the measure round the body; as at the waist – Webster) and 766 lbs. in weight.  She sure was a chubby little dickens!

Let’s hear H.B. tell us about it.

“We were off Wedgeport, Nova Scotia.  The hook was baited.  The bait was a herring which had been de-gutted (eviscerated – for the ladies).  Then the hook was inserted and the herring was sewed up again.  We had to make the herring skip over the waves as if it were alive.  The tuna was supposed to leap out of the water after the herring.

“Well, sir, that’s just what it did.  We were in this half-mile square of cross tide, (there are only about three places in the world where this type of cross tide exists and where tuna can be caught) when suddenly a tremendous form shot out of the water and snagged my herring.  From then on out it was my game, with a very game fish at the other end of my 39 thread.  For three-and-one half hours we played out the line, pulled it in and maneuvered [sic] the boat.  Finally we boated the big fish seven miles from the point of strike.  What a job!  What a thrill!  The girth of my chest almost equalled the tuna’s girth as my bosom swelled with pride!”

H.B. felt that this was an experience of a lifetime.  After all, only 25% of the tunas that struck were finally boated.  So he decided to call his wife – long distance.  Through the rural telephone system at Nova Scotia, connecting with the Bell system in U.S.A. and then again to the local rural system at Sussex, N.J., where his wife was staying, he finally made contact with the nearest phone, a half mile away.  They called his wife to the phone.  ”I’ve got an 800 lb. tuna,” he shouted over the phone, “and next to getting married and having three children this is the biggest thrill I’ve ever had!”  His wife responsed, “The idea!  Comparing me with a tuna!”

Kinda reminds me of the fella who went fishin’ up in the North woods.  He got a swell trout so he wired back to his wife?

“GOT ONE YESTERDAY, WEIGHTS SEVEN POUNDS, IT’S A BEAUTY.”

She wired back:

“I GOT ONE YESTERDAY TOO, WEIGHTS SEVEN POUNDS, TOO.  NOT A BEAUTY.  LOOKS LIKE YOU.  COME HOME AT ONCE.”

Reprinted from the Richardson Scale Co. newsletter  50th Anniversary Issue of                the Richardson beam, December 1951