PERU 



didn't accept, but the day for which I'd been asked Pardo 

 boated an 824-pound black marlin, the largest caught in the 

 two Americas up to that time. He invited me again in April, 

 195 1, and this time I was not slow in accepting. 



I arrived in Talara, Peru, on April 6, hoping to fish for 

 two weeks. I caught striped marlin the first day, passed up a 

 few others, baited some broadbill swordfish— then on that 

 fateful Friday the 13 th, hooked a black marlin that would 

 have gone over a thousand pounds only to lose it five hours 

 later after breaking up the chair. Unfortunately, Pardo's boat 

 was unable to go out again and therefore my fishing ended. 

 But I was far from disappointed. In six days I had seen black 

 marlin, striped marlin and swordfish aplenty and had the 

 thrill of hooking and fighting a monstrous fish. 



Meantime Alfred Glassell had been talking to some people 

 he knew in the commercial tuna industry out of San Pedro. 

 They were running freezer craft to Peru to freeze the tuna 

 and allied species and offered to let him use Oceanic V as 

 headquarters if he desired to fish off Peru, since he always 

 wanted to try. Due to the facts that the International Petro- 

 leum Company and the Lobitos Oil Company own all the 

 property on that coast, and Cabo Blanco belongs to Lobitos, 

 none of them were interested in developing fishing and noth- 

 ing had been done on that score. 



International had put in a few boats for their resident 

 employees and officials' friends to use out of Talara and these 

 people enjoyed great success with the small fish. Glassell, 

 accompanied by Red Stuart, went to Mancora, forty-four 

 miles north of Talara, where he joined Oceanic V. He char- 

 tered a commercial fishing boat named Don Freddie and 



69 



