WICKMAN, Claude

Boatman Claude Wickman, Santa Catalina Island, 1903
Fisherman E. M. Backus
Photo by Charles Ironmonger

Boatman Claude Wickman, Santa Catalina Island, 1906
Photo by Charles Ironmonger

Evergreen Cemetery, Los Angeles

WICKMAN, Claude James (1884-1968), Avalon boatman at the turn of the century.

1910 Charles Frederick Holder wrote: “The Tuna Club Gaffers' Badge, instituted in 1907, was awarded to boatmen having gaffed a one-hundred- pound tuna under Blue Button specifications; or a fifty-pound tuna under Light Tackle specifications. It was won by: Captains Chappelle, A. S. Clover, O. I. Danielson, Harry Doss, C. A. Fisher, Geo. Farnsworth, Jim Gardner, Tad Gray, Geo. Johnson, Felice "Jose" Presiado (Mexican Joe), Geo. Michaelis, Percy Neal, Chris Ringsen, Claude Whitman [Wickman?], Geo. Zimolier . All the above boatmen have gaffed one-hundred-pound tunas...”[Holder, Charles F. The Channel Islands of California, 1910:250].