Sailing parties: An ethnochronicle of Beach Haven\u27s charterboat captains and their families, 1876-1976

The aim of this dissertation is to test a new genre, the ethnochronicle, by examining the particular experience of men in a specialized occupation through their own words and other first-hand accounts. Charterboat fishing involves a captain\u27s taking a small group of people out for a day\u27s fishing on his own boat. The independent charterboat captains of Beach Haven developed a cash-producing occupation that blossomed, matured and withered in a resort town on a barrier island off the coast of New Jersey during a hundred year period from 1876 to 1976. Ethnohistorical methods are used to elicit testimony about the actions of individuals in their cultural context, and to lessen the role of the author in interpreting their meaning. Interviews, as well as newspaper accounts and other contemporaneous records, are employed to create a story of the occupation of charter captain. Where national and natural events have impinged upon individual experience, interviews have been conducted to place these events in context, but the focus remains that of the Beach Haven captains. The result is a text densely textured with personal comment, memory and individual action. In the final chapter, the usefulness of the ethnochronicle is discussed