Captain Ed Shields tells the comprehensive history of the North Pacific codfish industry, shedding light on the lives of the men who sailed to the Bering Sea in search of cod from the 1860s until 1950. He describes the work that went into preparing the fishing fleet for five months on the high seas and ensuring that the ships came back safely with a full hold of cold. Men like "Bozo" Jorgenson, Sven the Terrible Swede, T Bone Red, "Codfish" Kelly and "Sourdough Hans" Olson fished from beautiful schooners like the Azalea, Wawona, John A, C A Thayerand the flagship Sophie Christenson. Relive those lost but not forgotten days with stories and photographs of the sailors and their ships, the dory fishermen and the raging sea.

Captain Ed Shields was born in Seattle and grew up on the waterfront, which led to his great knowledge and love of sailing vessels and the sea. He completed a master's degree in engineering at Harvard in 1940 and later studied navigation, earning his license as "Master of Ocean Uninspected Sail or Motor Vessels of Any Gross Tons" in 1948. He worked in the Shields family fishing business for many years, and when that business wrapped up, he took a job with the Coast Guard in the Seattle engineering office. He worked there until he retired in 1976.

Ed Shields' profile page