With the sun beating down from the cloudless blue sky above and the makings of an authentic New England Clambake steaming underneath the canvas tarps, there was plenty of heat emanating from the Westport Fisherman’s Association 23rd Annual Clambake at the Sportsmen’s Club on John Dyer Road in Little Compton on Sunday September 17th.
The comforts of a well-established tradition were well in place. The 222 ticket-holders for the sold out event began arriving at noon to stake out their places on the three enormously long picnic tables set under the pavilion and getting in line for a serving of hearty New England Clam Chowder. Lively conversations about fishing, the fleet disappearance of summer, the collapse of the Red Sox, choices for the state primary election, and juicy tidbits of gossip were a backdrop for the spectacle of ‘the bake’.
Westport is blessed with opportunities to witness time-honored country traditions. The agricultural fair, complete with farm animals, crop and produce displays, and the hear-it-a-mile-away roar of tractors dragging their loads at the annual “pulls” is a gem in mid summer. Clambakes, often held in early fall or late summer, are another.
The crew gets ready...
There are few traditions in New England to match the building of a “bake”, an authentic production in which history intersects with appetite and community. A crowd gathered to watch the crew rake off the embers of the pyre of wood that had super-heated the round granite stones, then pile dense green rockweed atop the stones. With the rockweed already beginning to steam, the sweaty crew next piled on the trays holding over 200 mesh bags of food. The finishing touch was applied as the crew gracefully draped wet canvas tarps over the whole shebang.
then covers the steaming food with wet canvas tarps...
Some of the “veterans” involved in the yearly bake began learning as young men and are now elders.
Raymond Davol must be considered one of the deans of local Bake Masters. A fireman since 1963, and former chief of the Russell’s Mills Fire District 2, Mr. Davol remembers his mentor. “As a youngster in the 1930s I used to watch John Sheehan set bakes in Dartmouth, “ Davol said. He orchestrated his first bake in the 1960s and has been at it ever since, heading up 4 or 5 a year now.
There are a couple of young men on Davol’s crew who look up to him the same way he did to Sheehan. And the chief senses that it’s time to pass the torch. “I’ll be 76 in October,” he says, “and there are several young ones coming along now who are working their way into being a bake master. Next year might be my last.” In the meantime, the sturdily built Davol was in the hot seat again and produced a perfectly cooked ‘bake’.
While many men scale back when they reach age 65, Arnold Tripp joined the WFA crew of men gathering rockweed around the same time he got his senior citizen card. Now a spry 85, Tripp was one of ten WFA members who gathered 43 heavy bags of rockweed from the shores of the East Branch the day before the bake.
Mr. Tripp, like Mr. Davol, feels the march of time. “Jack Reynolds is the backbone of the whole group now and is an excellent leader. But these younger men who help out right now will carry us into the future”
By the time the canvas tarps had been pulled off the bake fire and the food piled high on the serving tables, the line of hungry people that snaked all the way down to John Dyer Road wasn’t thinking about the future. They were thinking the present - food, to be precise. And what a feast. Softshell clams, frankfurters, pork sausage, chourico, onion, potato, sweet potato, codfish, corn on the cob, dressing, brown bread, and, according to Cindy Reynolds, “lots of TLC”, went on to each plate. Plus a lobster for those bought the special. Whew.
and pulls the steaming trays out of the fire to bring to the serving tables.
Diners came from all over the southeast coast. “Clamboils are more common and I prefer clambakes. It’s a nice way to end summer,” said Ruth Niemczyk of New Bedford, who came with her husband Michael.
“It’s our signature event, an authentic tradition rooted locally,” WFA Project Coordinator Jeanne Girard said. “Our income is generated here and from our road race, membership drive, grants, and endowments.” The association’s programs include scholarships, a shellfish seed propagation program, a fisherman’s relief fund, maritime history project, and the MA Estuaries Project.
“We got lots of support from the community”, Girard said. Local businesses donated much of the food and thirty-five raffle prizes.
The grand prize, a handsome wooden Macomber 15’ Skiff built by Scott Gifford, was won by David Cole of Westport Point.
To some in the crowd, there’s another prize that we already have in our possession. “I like the tradition, the food, and the good cause for the environment and the commercial fishermen,” Paul Meagher said, Meagher immigrated to America from Ireland in 1978 and has lived in Westport since 1998.
“I’ve lived all over the world. Westport is my favorite place and I intend to die here,” he said. Many wouldn’t be quite so candid about it but share the same sentiments.
Comments