Little Lady was born on the shores of the Mystic River in Connecticut in 1929, though you wouldn’t have recognized her then. Her colorful cosmetic lift came much later. She was just one of the many wooden draggers scouring the coast at the time, hauling in bountiful nets of fresh catch when Leonard Jason Sr., a twenty-two-year-old from the Azores, bought her and brought her to the Vineyard.

It was the 1930s, and trawling was revolutionizing the fishing industry. Like a hand scooping out the last kernels from a popcorn bag, the new diesel-powered boats dragged enormous funnel-shaped nets called otter trawls along the ocean bed. Little Lady is a side dragger, meaning the trawl is attached to the side of the boat instead of the stern.

Landry Harlan - MV Magazine