A story of Sea Scalloping with a couple of videos

Sconticut Neck...,

a reply to: Fowlerstoad

When you say you looked at Smith’s Neck across the way I must assume your Grandfathers house was quite a ways out on The Neck. Probably beyond the road that led East over the causeway to West Island. Weird huh? You travel East to get to West Island...
Ever climb the towers over there?
How about the windmill on the little island off the point of Sconticut Neck, do you remember that?
My friends Nicky and Jimmy built it.
We had some wild parties out there......🤣

So grandad was a scalloper huh? Very cool!!!
I know the area very well. Ate many pizza’s sitting out side the little store midway out on The Neck.
I used to hide cases of beer in the woods across from it for my twin cousins who summered on West Island.
Great times!!!

Thanks for the reply!!

Cheers.......😎

a reply to: PiratesCut

Yes, our family still has a house out on Wilbur's Point. It is a Fairhaven address. I love that place ... and we will never sell that house. It is just such a memorable spot! The next generation loves it too, and we will pass it down in the family. Our family has a collection of those giant deep sea scallop shells to this day, that have been generally used as ashtrays, and nobody is willing to throw them away, for sentimental reasons.

I climbed those towers as a kid ... or at least one of them. The barrier had been broken, and we got inside, and went up a ways. It was covered in graffiti, and looked to be a party spot for the local teens, at a minimum. I was told those towers were put there in WWII as spotting points to scan for U-boats. We used to ride bikes over that causeway to West Island to get ice cream at Earl's Marina, and then even sometimes going further all the way to the West Island Beach, where those towers are. I also stomped around in those same woods you mentioned, east of the Strawn house (the first house on the island), looking at old stone walls, and even found an old stone fireplace associated with one of the walls. Good memories ... but the mosquitos and ticks always sucked out there hah.

I was also inside the windmill on Angelica Island ... that little island you mentioned. It was full of bird guano, and nesting birds. We climbed up to the top floor, until it became rickety, and later inaccessible. The lore behind it was that a man bought the island, and wanted to build on it, and put the windmill up first, but then either ran out of money, or something else bad happened to him, and then a storm came and tore up what was there. There is still an old concrete foundation in the center area of Angelica Island. The concrete foundation moorings for the windmill are also sill there, though the windmill was completely destroyed more recently. One of my neighbors painted that windmill in watercolor, the picture of which hangs in a bathroom in our house on Wilbur's point as an immortal tribute.

Please tell me more of your friends who built it - Nicky and Jimmy. I would love to know the truth of it all, because what I know is just rumor that has been passed down on the point. When you had those pizzas on the neck, was it at the (now gone) Rainbow Variety Store? Also ... were those really anti-sub recon towers? What else can you tell me? I would love to know all, and am very grateful for this chance to hear whatever you can share.

I love that you are familiar with all this

Alternatively, please feel free to PM me instead, if you don't want to put it out in the open on this thread!

A reply to Fowlerstoad......

Ready for this?....get something to drink, Buckle Up...


I live exactly 10 nautical miles from the tip of Sconticut Neck as the crow flies. That’s weird...LOL

The watch towers were built for WW2 but not just for Submarines but all ships.

New Bedford was an important port during the war. The nazis did sink a few fishing boats on Georges Bank.

The one on West Island was to overlook traffic from The Cape Cod Canal and Quicks Hole to the South.

From the Neck you can see Gay Head through Quick’s Hole.

Perhaps you’ve noticed Gay Head Light at night far to the South?
It’s a rotational beacon lighthouse and very high and bright!
The nav channel is due South from New Bedford’s fairway buoy to Quicks Hole. ( look fairway buoy up). Gotta make you do a little bit of work here anyway.....🤣

There is another tower on Gooseberry Island at Horseneck Beach that guarded the Western entrance to Buzzards Bay.

Did you know Fort Phoenix with the cannons near the Dike was a revolutionary War fort as was Fort Tabor West across the water from your Grandad’s house? Mine had a trailer on the Neck facing West Island when I was a kid. I remember it still even though it was gone by my 5th Summer.
The 62 was it? hurricane took the trailer.

One of the first battles of the Revolutionary war was fought at Fort Phoenix in Fairhaven, few know this. The British raided and burned FairHaven and New Bedford.
Go there and read the plaques...

When there also look at the bedrock closest to the road ON the dike. Looking closely you can see the how last glaciers ground over the bedrock from the Nor’east to the Sou’West. Follow the grooves.....

Here’s another fun fact: My grandfather was the Chief of Police in New Bedford.....

Yes, it was Rainbow Variety, I forgot the name that’s why I said halfway out the Neck...

The kid who worked there, my friend named him “prefem”......😆

Nicky and Jimmy who I went to School with grew up on Cottage Street in New Bedford very close to Union Street that runs from State Pier to Buttonwood Park.

There father was Dr. Pappas, a psychiatrist. He was from Greece and no, he did not go broke.
Far from it but he was actually crazy as a #house rat, no joke!!!!

The Doctor as we called him dreamed of retiring to the island and the windmill was his first project in that regard. If you remember, the blades of the windmill faced Sou’west towards the prevailing winds here.
He thought he’d cover his energy needs first.
The Doctor WAS truly insane.

I’m afraid Jimmy is galloping after him these days, sadly....
That’s is as far as “The Dream”ever got on the island.
We sure did have some WILD parties out there though.
Nicky and Jimmy were fun but also a bit twisted. (understatement)

Let’s see, what else.....The Island, I grew up calling it Black Rock but I know that’s wrong.
Black Rock is a tad further out and a touch West of it.
I’d just forgotten it’s name.

Hmmm......Earl’s Marina, a friend of a friend who owns a prosthetics place on Popes Island close to the Fairhaven bridge opened up a kind of Dive Bar in the marina some years ago. Forgot how many, don’t know if it’s still open.
I’ve seen a couple of interesting nights there though....haha.

Many years ago much of the lower Neck was owned by the S & H Green Stamp Co. It was a place in New Bedford you shopped for all kinds of stuff. I remember going there with my Grandmother where they’d give you stamps which you filled little books with and when you had enough you traded them in for .......STUFF.

Well S & H divided up all that land into what’s called postage stamp lots. Having a double lot in the area even today is a big thing. When you saved enough stamps you could trade them in for one of these lots...... Weird huh?
Feel free to investigate what I’m telling you, ALL of it!
The Neck has a long and crazy history. Rum running, all kinds of stuff.

If you go back far enough there were farms in the middle of the Neck where it was wide had fresh water and was well forested.

The farms were mostly dairy as you can still tell even today.
Along the shoreline though, no one lived but it was ringed the whole Neck round with fishing shacks.

People built long rickety piers that one man only could stand on that reached out well beyond the rocks to fish.
The Bays and Harbors were stuffed with so much fish it seemed one could walk upon them. And the Lobsters!!!
They could be gathered out of the tide pools at low tide by hand. Guess what.....they fed them to the PIGS!!!
Lobstah fed Pork.....mmmmm. Ever stuff and roast a whole pig with lobstahs???.....OMG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Again, no joke.....

People came from the interior, near and far to spend the summer catching, drying, and salting fish for the long, cold New England Winters. Many would have starved without this food.....again, No Joke!

These people, they were smart enough to know to live AWAY from the water in those days....🤣🤣

Hmmm.....You know the two big white windmills in town? They are kinda in my Aunts back yard near the Fairhaven PD. Her house is on Rte. 6
She owns Down To Earth health foods in New Bedford, you may have heard of it. It’s kinda the only real place like that around.

What else?....I guess that’s all for now.

Probably enough to pop your head.....LOL.

Think of anything else drop me a PM if you want.
We should cease this open back and forth here....

I’ve been happily married for 40 years next April.

We had two girls, both married with 4 grandkids total.

My youngest daughter lives not far from you a few streets into Acushnet off Main St. Just past the blinking yellow light at the fork and her hubby keeps a 30 ft. Black Watch at the Fairhaven Shipyard just inside the Dike.

It’s a fishin machine!!!!

So, you guys summer here. I may well be able to help you open your the horizons a tad......😀

A very, very, very good friend owns Kyler’s Catch Seafood Market along I -195 near the Coggeshal St. Bridge....

OK....Bye for now......DaPirate.....😎








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