Lending a Helping Hand

One thing I've learned "down ta the shoah" is that there's no such thing as asking for help. I used to ask, which I considered to be common etiquette. I figured that if someone didn't want help then it's actually helpful to stay out of the way and if they needed a hand then, by golly, go to town! But not so in the world of fishing. Every time that I asked for help, I got replies like "Oh, that's ok, deah, we got it." I suppose part of this had to do with being a young lady whom they didn't think should be lifting heavy items, but there are also different codes of courtesy on the dock of which I wasn't yet aware.

As I spent more time on the dock I observed that other fishermen didn't bother asking if someone needed a hand. They just saw where they could be of use and they jumped right in. When the job is done, thanks will be exchanged in a form something like this: "Shoah do 'preciate it, Billy." "No problem, Joe." Or not. Some guys aren't in the habit of expressing gratitude verbally, or perhaps they just think it's extraneous. But often their thanks will show up later down the road.

It is especially common for fishermen who are operating off of the same dock, meaning either they are members of the same fishermen's co-op or they sell lobsters to the same buyer, to help eachother out. There have been numerous occasions when we bring a trailer full of traps down to load onto the boat and someone else has pulled their boat up alongside the dock. In this case we might help the other fishermen load his boat in order to speed things up so that we might pull Cap's boat in sooner. In other words, the incentive to help another isn't always selfless. But regardless of the underlying motives, we are all in this game together. . . why not lend eachother a hand?