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Spring 2009, Vol. 5, No. 1 | Back Issues
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Rob Reynolds repairs a dredge aboard the Ciona, the 40-foot workhorse MBL collecting boat in the 1960s and 1970s. Photo courtesy of Rob Reynolds.
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Looking Back: Tales from MBL Collecting Boats
John Valois and two other veterans of the MBL’s specimen collecting boats regaled a full house at the Woods Hole Library on January 26 with salty stories about their adventures. The plain-spoken and humorous Valois, who managed the MBL Supply Department (now the Marine Resources Center) from the early 1950s to 1991, repeated lore about the early collecting days on the Cayadetta, a steam boat that was also used for MBL class picnics before its decommissioning in 1933. “Captain John Veeder used to run barrels of lobsters and clams through the steam for the students’ lunch,” Valois said. In those days, he added, men on the collecting crew bunked on the second floor of Candle House, where a favorite prank was putting horseshoe crabs and eels in each other’s beds. Joining Valois for the library presentation were Rob Veeder and Rob Reynolds, both of whom agreed that their summer MBL collecting jobs were the best times imaginable. Reynolds collected from 1967 to 1973, a time which he called “the heydey of the MBL Supply Department. It was just the greatest place to be.”
The collectors’ talk was sponsored by the Woods Hole Historical Museum.
The Collecting Net is an employee newsletter published by the Communications Office. Comments and suggestions are welcome. Call (508) 289-7423 or e-mail us at
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