Name/Title
Fishermen with catch, Hancox Street vicinity, Stonington CTEntry/Object ID
2002.0613.050Scope and Content
Two fishermen on boat with large fish caught. Note on slip "near above location - large house left at foot of Ash St. and Mason's barn next - that's quite a catch they have - what is it?
Hancox Street vicinity
From Family Members, July 2026: This photograph shows Captain Elisha Clarke, the son of Joshua Perry Clarke, my great-great-grandfather. Joshua Perry lived in Avondale for more than sixty years. He and his wife raised five children, although their youngest son, Charlie, died at the age of six.
Elisha and his brother, Edward Perry Clarke, both became fishermen. Elisha's sloop, Bessie, was built in Avondale by Cleve Clark and named for his daughter. This photograph captures Elisha aboard the Bessie at the Stonington Fish Dock, proudly displaying a shark. On the back of the photograph, his daughter Bessie inscribed a note to her grandfather, Joshua Perry Clarke.
Edward named his schooner, the Mattie and Lena, after his sisters. On July 11, 1894, the Westerly Sun reported that Edward had "captured 34 swordfish, a much larger number than any other boat engaged in the business hereabouts."
By the 1920s, Elisha was known for more than his success at sea. On July 10, 1925, The Stonington Mirror and Mystic Journal asked, "Have you tried any of Captain Elisha Clarke's clam chowder at his attractive place in Quiambaug?" The question itself suggests that Captain Clarke's chowder had become a local favorite and that nearly everyone in the area was talking about it.
Shark identified by Keith Cowley of the Living Shark Museum in Downtown Westerly: Sand Tiger shark, Carcharias taurus, still found along our coastline and up into Long Island Sound. Sand Tigers are rarely implicated in bites on humans in our region therefore are “out of sight, out of mind” existing peacefully as a native species in CT & RI.
Copy on slide 9-3
taken by Ingrid Fedderson, 1991
Index card done by Jack FixCollection
Dorothea Hewitt Gould Collection