Fish Tales to Launch Fish House Series

The is launching a community lecture series called “Fish Tales from the Fish House” with its inaugural talk and video on May 2 at 7 p.m. by Richard Patch, a longtime fisherman who has been lobstering from Swampscott for 40 years.

The talk and video will be held at the Fish House at 425 Humphrey St. The event is free and open to the public but reservations are requested.

A cash bar will also be available. For more information and to make your reservation, call 781.962.5587.

“There are many colorful stories to be told about Swampscott’s past and present and we thought Richard was a perfect choice to start off what we hope will be a new community lecture tradition in Swampscott,” said Steve Speranza, Swampscott Yacht Club rear commodore. “Gloucester may have ‘Wicked Tuna’ but Swampscott has its own lobster tales.”

The Swampscott Yacht Club is housed at the Fish House, which was built in 1896, is on the National Historic Register of Historic Places and is the only municipal fish house on the East Coast.

The lecture series was conceived of, in part, to share the richness of community life and the history of coastal Swampscott, as well as introduce community members to the treasured Fish House.

For example, few know that the lobster pot was invented in 1808 by Ebenezer Thorndike, a Swampscott lobsterman.

The Swampscott Yacht Club is a volunteer club founded in 1933 for the purpose of promoting yachting and sailboat racing. Located on the second floor of the Fish House, there are more than 200 members, about half of whom are boaters, enjoying fishing, sailing, power boating, kayaking or rowing.

Membership costs as little as $340 per year.