Transferred To Shore Duty

Boca Chica Naval Air Station

Chuck was transferred from The USS Sea Cat SS 399 May 4, 1964 to Shore Duty at Boca Chica Naval Air Station. On his arrival to duty at the Naval Air Station they put him in charge of repairs to some Wells Air Start engines that were located at the very end of the runway, on the very backside of the Base.

They gave him ear plugs to wear because this was where the Jets taking flight cut on their after-burner which produced a very loud boom. He was there until he got those diesels rebuilt, and then he was attached to Fleming Key also a part of US Naval Air which was a different location, and it was a shallow water rescue service.

Fleming Key Bridge

He was in charge of maintaining all boats and engines there. We were still living in base housing in Sigsbee Park at that time.  It was a lot closer for him to get to work by water or on land, than going out to Boca Chica.

Fleming Key was accessed by a bridge from Trumbo point. During WWII Trumbo Point had been a Seaplane base, the area where the Seaplanes landed and took off was called the Sea Drone and this is where Chuck and Neiderfer, one of the guys stationed at Fleming Key used to hoop net for Florida Lobster at night. 

Trumbo Point

Another one of the the guys named Leroy Goforth also ran a boat and netted for lobster, they all had a lot of fun doing this and we had a lot of pleasure eating their catch, and there was extra money in our pockets.

For those of you who don’t know what a hoop net is I will explain as best I can. It is a big metal ring about the size of a hula hoop, maybe a little larger; attached to it is another net and has a larger hoop ring that bags. When the net is put overboard the bait is attached to the center of the bottom of the larger bag.

Hoop Net

When you pull the net up with the rope attached to the hoop the bag comes up and forms sides all around and you catch whatever is in the bag. They would run their nets about every hour till midnight.

They caught a lot of legal size lobster and sold it to Felton’s A& B Fish House, they also caught a lot of stone crabs, but at that time the Fish House was not buying any stone crabs.

So on the weekends we would boil the crab claws in a wash tub, and everyone stationed on Fleming Key and their families would have a feast, the excess stone crab catch was always released and they only took one claw!