would get up at 4 a.m. on Monday, pack 

 fish, then take a shower and go to school." 



Mikey and his siblings lived in a four- 

 bedroom, frame house on the island. Most 

 of the children slept in a 400-square-foot 

 room in the attic — the boys were on one 

 side, the girls on the other. 



"Everybody slept two to a bed," he 



says. 



To keep up with her large family, 

 Maude would set off a siren at mealtime. 

 "You'd hear it all over the island," says 

 Maude. "If the children were not home in 

 time, they'd not get anything to eat." 



It was on a bill-collecting mission to 

 Virginia that Malcolm saw his first trawl 

 boat. "He told us kids that Wanchese Fish 

 would have a trawl boat some day," says 

 Mikey. "Shortly after that, he mortgaged 

 our house and bought his first used 

 trawler." 



He named the boat the Faith Evelyn 

 after his oldest daughter. 



Expansion 



After that, the Daniels family bought 

 other boats to fish Georges Bank off 

 Nantucket, the Grand Banks off Nova 

 Scotia, New Bedford and Boston. Some of 



the boats, including an Army T-boat, were 

 converted by Joey's father into draggers. 



"He bought everything piece by 

 piece," Joey says. "The freezer was bought 

 in an auction. By using lumber scraps and 

 family labor, my father built Fisherman's 

 Wharf Restaurant in three months at a cost 

 of $3,500." 



Even though Malcolm Daniels has 

 been dead a number of years, the woods 

 behind his widow's brick home are still 

 covered with assorted parts and other items 

 he collected. 



"He had vision," Maude says. "He 

 could see how something worked." 



Over the years, the fish company has 

 faced a number of setbacks — from high 

 interest on loans to small catches. In the fall 

 of 1981, fishing conditions were so bad in 

 North Carolina that they moved some of 

 the smaller trawlers to Florida. "It was a 

 slack year for flounder," Joey says. 



The company also moved its boats and 

 operations out of North Carolina into 

 Virginia when another company lost a 

 trawler in Oregon Inlet in 1981. Later, the 

 Daniels family moved some boats and 

 operations back to North Carolina. 



Now, the company has a thriving 



scallop and fish business. Their fishing fleet 

 includes 1 1 boats in North Carolina and 

 Virginia and two boats in South America. 



With business expanding, they are 

 building a new $8 million facility in 

 Suffolk, Va. The 170,000-square foot 

 building will be used for processing 

 seafood and cold storage. 



"Half of my fishing fleet is scallops," 

 Joey says. "They scallop from Virginia to 

 Massachusetts. The federal law for 

 scalloping only allows full-time permits 

 120 days a year. For each trip, you would 

 lose a day of travel time from North 

 Carolina to Virginia." 



Another benefit of the Virginia plant is 

 its accessibility to air and truck freight. "In 

 Wanchese, we are so far from the interstate 

 and the airports," he adds. 



Like their other operations, this facility 

 will be run by family members. 



Mikey admits it is not always easy 

 working with your own kinfolk. 



"All of us have different issues," says 

 Mikey. "Everyone thinks his issue is better 

 than the other person's. You have to learn 

 to bend. You have 10 to 15 ideas. We are 

 human beings. Through it all, we get back 

 together." m 



COASTWATCH 21 



