notepad and draw whatever came to mind-just play with it-people in different positions, moving them around, sometimes trying to put a picture together. I always had a pencil in my hand." It was not until adulthood that he would use his artistic talents as a means to preserve a piece of history. At eighteen, he enlisted in the US Navy but was discharged a year later because his help was needed at home. The tables had turned, and now Bill was caring for his disabled father, who had lost both of his legs to diabetes. The senior Cummings
(above) Young Bill and his friend are portrayed listening intently to an older, more experienced fisherman about what it takes to mend a hole in a net in The Pupils. (left) Watermen spinning yarns along the Liar's Bench.
would not be dissuaded by his physical limitations, and his yearning to get back on the water was as strong as ever. With a waterman's determination, son Bill found a way to make that happen. "I n the morning I would take Dad out of the house in his wheelchair, hoist him up into the front seat of the truck, put the wheelchair in the back of the truck, unload the chair, get him back into it, wheel him down to the boat and then hoist him, wheelchair and all, on board!" Bill would haul in the oysters and his father would cull them. Despite his parents' attempts to discourage him from becoming a commercial fisherman, it was to no avail. He was destined for a life on the water. On board his "baby," the 42-foot Zaca (named for Errol Flynn's schooner in the 1952 film, Cruise of the Zaca-Flynn was his wife's favorite actor),
Zaca at the Pound Nets SEA HISTORY 152,AUTUMN 2015
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