Salvie Ruocco of Island Bay

A life at sea

Salvie Ruocco of Island Bay

Luigi Salvatore Ruocco, 9 October 1924 – 26 October 2011

Luigi Salvatore Ruocco - Salvie - worked as an Island Bay fisherman from his teens until his 80s.  Derek Johnson sat down with Salvie's family to hear his story.

Early last century, Wellington's Island Bay was a draw for fishermen moving in from the Shetland Islands and Italy, creating a unique community built around the hard work of fishing and a sense of family and community.

In 1925, Salvie Ruocco's dad (also Luigi) left Capri and joined that community, a year after Salvie was born. He intended to stay a short time, like a lot of emigrants in those days, but spent the rest of his life in Island Bay. It would be another 13 years before 14-year-old Salvie, with his mother Ilma (nee Federico) and his sister Teresa (now Cucurullo), joined the elder Luigi. It's fair to say that Salvie wasn't looking forward to leaving his friends in Capri: he hid out for a couple of days before the boat left for New Zealand!

A new life

Young Salvie Ruocco

But Salvie soon settled into Wellington life, initially working as a restaurant kitchen hand. His dad had come to New Zealand to fish, so it can't have been too unexpected that Salvie would follow him to sea. So it was that, aged 17, Salvie joined his dad on the Rosalia, embarking on a career that would take him to his 80s.

After fishing with his father, Salvie went out with the Muollo brothers - Antonino, Raffaele, Cataldo and Giovanni (Johnny) - for five years. Initially, they fished on the Diaz,during a period that included a shipwreck near Makara, from which the crew were rescued. Then Salvie bought a share in theSan Antonino with the Muollo brothers. This brings us to 1948, and Salvie still only 24.

In the early 1950s, Salvie was one of the first fishers from Island Bay to try out cray fishing in the Chatham Islands. That's 1952, pre-dating the big rush by a number years, though early enough to catch the developing market for lobster tails in the USA. He did that for six months with Salvie Amitrano, and after vessel troubles returned to Wellington to try his hand on a trawler - The Thomas Curroll.

Then, in 1953 and not quite 30, Salvie decided to work under his own steam. With his dad, he built the first San Costanza - a 42-footer - in Nelson and fished it with his dad and Matteo Iovine. For 12 years, they line fished and crayfished around the Wairarapa coast and in the Cook Strait, staying out for two or three nights at a time.

Family man

In 1954, Salvie married Luisa (nee Basile). Signora Ruocco comes from another Island Bay fishing family of Italian extraction, and her brother Tony runs Wellington Trawling Company. Somehow, the couple found time to raise a much-loved family. Luisa is still living in the same Island Bay house she bought with Salvie the year after they were married.

In an industry where it's no surprise to hear of failed relationships in the lives of many fishermen, the strength of the Ruoccos' marriage is, if not legendary, then at least worthy of celebration.

The couple had five children, with half a dozen grandchildren so far. Eldest daughter Ilma Cave, who lives in Sydney and works in IT, read the eulogy at her father's funeral; the couple's other daughter Antonella lives in Wellington. Their eldest son, also called Luigi, is universally known as Bidgi. He took building as his trade but it's no surprise to learn that he went to sea with his dad - to the tune of a 20-year stretch! Bidgi's brothers Tony and John have also joined their father for various stints at sea. In fact, the two younger brothers are commercial crayfishing during the current season.

In his prime

Luigi Ruocco sr, Mariano, Salve on San Constanzo

By 1965, a now very experienced Salvie kept the San Costanza name and applied it to a new, larger (50-foot) boat. He was still lining and crayfishing in the same areas, but the larger boat was equipped with refrigeration and let him stay out up to six days. The savings in travelling time and extended fishing helped keep Salvie competitive in the face of increasing numbers of boats then fishing off the Wairarapa. She was worked from Queen's Wharf in Wellington, while the earlier boat had been berthed at Island Bay. In fact, over Salvie's life, Island Bay had gone from a vibrant base for fishing - a couple of dozen boats in the 50s - to two or three now, plus recreational craft.

It was around this time the elder Luigi retired, though, in true Ruocco fashion, he carried on fishing with Salvie on and off until 1969. Salvie and Matteo were also joined by Paolo Saffiotti, with Paolo working with Salvie for the next three decades. Paolo himself passed away three years ago, aged 91, working with Salvie practically until the end.

In one of several refits, around 1976, San Costanza was equipped with a dredge and the team went scallop fishing in the Tasman bay. A couple of years later found the boat and her crew lining off the west coast.

His earlier experience with trawling must have made a big impression. As Bidgi says: "He'd done some straight trawling and a bit of pair trawling up Kapiti, so in 1978 he converted the second San Costanza to a trawler and in 1979 we went trawling. As well as putting in the trawl gear, he moved the San Costanza's wheelhouse from near the stern to the bow, to provide more room for the gear. It worked, but he always liked the earlier version of the boat. The new position didn't suit her."

The next generation

Salvie Ruocco and Mattio Iovine - East Coast

Salvie's sons all spent time on his boats. Says Bidgi: "He used to take us out fishing, and I remember spending three or four days up the coast when I was 11." All three sons have worked with their father, Bidgi the first to go out full time. "I was 21, and the thing about my father is that he's a very hard worker. When I started fishing, there's my father aged 55 and Paolo nearly 60, and I used to struggle to keep up half a day with them!"

Salvie's sons had plenty of chance to witness their father's ingenuity, from building lobster pots from supplejack and cane to handling emergencies at sea. Luisa relates the story of Salvie making craypots when he was ashore. "In those days they'd go into the bush and collect supplejack to make the cray pots, Then the yard would be full up of them. He just worked all the time - he was amazing."

Luisa's brother Tony adds that "with the old-style gear, before nylon ropes and so on, you lost a lot more at sea." John Basile remembers putting out 60 pots and "after a southerly, you might back and find just 10! Then you'd have to make another 50 to replace them."

Tony again: "Once, in 1956, after putting 60 or 70 pots out at the end of July or early August, they came back with five or six pots on their bow, after losing all their gear in a southerly. But by the end of the week - within five days - Salvie had 40 pots back on the boat, starting from almost nothing."

Bidgi remembers one story from his early days. "He really liked to buy the newest toys for his boats. I remember he popped on this big echo sounder, one of the last of the stylus type, costing about $9000. One day we were trawling in the Cook Strait and the sounder drew so much power that it completely emptied the batteries and the engine stopped!"

But the problem didn't stop Salvie. "So there we were by ourselves in the Strait with all the trawl gear out in the water. The old man and Paolo used ropes to improvise a pulley system that bypassed the engine and used the generator motor from the freezer, I think, to get the alternator spinning enough to recharge the batteries. We turned all the electronics off and it took about an hour to get enough power to start the engine!"

Tony's brother John notes that "Salvie was good with the engine... he could pull it to pieces and put it back together again." Tony agreed: "He got to know a lot about motors, because you have to be able to do manage if things break down while you're at sea for five days."

Tony continues to marvel at the man's ingenuity and solid sense. "He came here as a 14-year-old, with just a bit of schooling in Italy till then, and was a very successful person. He was a very sociable, outgoing man. He was self-taught, and his university was other people. He connected with people very naturally, and used to be very interested in what they had to say. And from scratch, he built different boats, worked hard, brought up a family of five, gave them all the best of everything."

Weather wise

Lining for bluenose

Salvie's ingenuity is echoed in efficiency with his fishing. He always seemed to be prepared to take advantage of the changing conditions at sea - and the conditions are very changeable in the Cook Strait and Wairarapa coast. "If it was too rough for lining," says Bidgi, "he could work butterfish nets off the coast." Tony Basile concurs, "You could get more fishing days by working according to the weather. Instead of working out in the deep he would always have butterfish nets on board. With a nor'wester coming off shore you can always go out. You can't with a southerly, but with a nor'wester you can work your gear in close."

Making every voyage pay resulted in varied catches, depending on what gear was available and which fish were out there. Bidgi recalls that in the 70s, "he'd be out crayfishing and on the last day, they'd go to pick up the pots in the morning and then they'd put the drags out outside Black Rock and catch a load of groper. They'd come back with crayfish, butterfish, moki, groper and bass..."

The next big move on the vessel front was actually a downsize, selling San Constanza in 1986 to buy the smallerWavecrest. Salvie and Bidgi were joined by second son Tony, and they fished Palliser Bay out of Ngawi.

In the same way that Salvie would try new fishing techniques, he sold his fish to a variety of outlets; as Luisa says, "He had a go with everyone!" He fished to the old Wellington Fishermen's Cooperative, and all the major local wholesalers, including Townsend and Poole, Pacific Fisheries and Neal's Fisheries.

A new era

Salvie and Luisa at a get-together of Wellington fishermen

Salvie was in his late 50s for the catch years assessed for the impending Quota Management System, and was still going strong and working hard. In 1987, aged 63, the QMS was introduced and Salvie gained crayfish and bluenose quota. As Tony Basile says, "He was getting towards the later time of his career, and I think he accepted the QMS pretty well. He did appeal, though, and managed to get a bit extra. But if he'd retired early, he'd have missed out. Because he was a keen worker and he was in good health, he just hung on in there into the 80s and came into the QMS."

So Salvie did well with the QMS, and unlike some fishers at his stage of career, he hung onto it and carried on working. But being generous, as well as a hard worker who expected the same from his crew, there are aspects of owning quota which he chose not to exploit. As Tony Basile tells it: "He never took the value of the quota into account when splitting up the catch at the end of a trip. The boat would get a share, and he'd get a share with each of the crew. It's an older generation way of looking at it, sharing the asset - the quota - as part of the catch. Really, he should have taken the quota off the top. For example, this year crayfish prices are around $65 a kilo and the lease price is around $40, therefore the boat and crew gets $25; you're not sharing the $65. And even then, with most boats the skipper gets double the share of the crew."

Final stretch

Paolo Saffioti - washing deck

Age 70 - around 1995 - Salvie sold theWavecrest and bought Vito which he fished from Wellington, making day trips with Tony and third son John until he retired from commercial fishing in 2003. A keen recreational fisherman, Salvie made the occasional commercial trip into his 80s.

Then about two years ago, this hardworking, larger-than-life, family man discovered he had cancer. His family can talk about the details, but the disbelief and sense of loss is still apparent. He was going strong when it was discovered, but by then he must have had it for some time and the disease had spread. Salvie still maintained a positive attitude, marshalling his strength till the end, making a "good rebound" as Tony Basile puts it - and he still went fishing. His family recall Salvie going out Christmas day, 2010, to pick up the cray pots!

That Luigi Salvatore Ruocco was a liked and respected fisherman is in no doubt, though even his family were touched and surprised by the depth of feeling among his friends and colleagues in the industry. People were shocked to hear of his passing, many not realising he had been ill.

San Costanza

He leaves behind a family that he loved and an industry which was also his passion. About his father's approach to working, Bidgi says, "His main motivation wasn't money. It was doing it. He was successful at it but that success was driven by the love of doing it more than the ambition of making money. Even if he hadn't got a return he'd still have gone fishing.

"What drove him was being an individual with that connection to the sea. And that's why I think he always wanted to try different things, because he loved the adventure and challenge of it."

I'd like to extend my thanks to the Ruocco and Basile families for their assistance in the preparation of this all-too brief rummage around the corners of Salvie's life. It's been a pleasure and an honour to help celebrate their beloved husband, father and brother-in-law.