AIRCRAFT AND THE TUNA FLEET

This page is dedicated to the Tuna Fleet Pilots

Thanks to helicopter pilot "Tillman Jeffrey"

for the inspiration and some of his photos used in this page.

"A helicopter is an assembly of forty thousand loose pieces, flying more or less in formation"

Tillman Jeffrey (retired) is a seasoned helicopter pilot with over 10,500 hours flying helicopters with the tuna fleet and also Vietnam. The photo above shows Tillman landing on the deck of the Odette Theresa. Tillman joined the Army at age 19, trained and obtained his wings and saw plenty of action with the 173rd Airborne Brigade in Vietnam. He spent one and a half years in Fort Wolter, Texas, instructing students in the Hiller OH-23D and Hughes TH-55A helicopters. After the war and being wounded in Vietnam, Tillman returned to San Diego where he hooked up with the Tuna Fleet flying helicopters off of the M.V. Jeanine, M.V. Odette Thresa, and the M.V. Adriatic Sea.

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Aircraft in the early days of tuna bait fishing

One of the first persons to experiment with spotting aircraft from tuna boats was Captain Guy Silva, owner and skipper of the vessel Emma R S. This was back in the early thirties. He met with little or no success. It wasn't until the late fourties that George and Joe Soars on the M.V. Liberator a tuna bait boat, utilized a single engine pontoon Luscomb Silvair to spot schools of tuna. The airplane was lifted on and off the vessel by the main boom and carried on top of the conopy above the bait box. Then later many aircraft were used as spotters from both land and sea.

The Liberator's plane was equipped with pontoons. Later the pontoons were removed and George flew the plane for pleasure. Captain George Soars went on to become President of Cambell Industries a ship yard in San Diego.

THEN CAME THE HELICOPTERS

Then in the early fifties came the helicopters. They turned out to be a lot more successful than the propeller driven aircraft and are still in use today on the new super seiners. One of the first helicopters to be used was the Bell H13 like the ones used on "MASH".

Most of the helicopters being used today are either Hughes 500C or Robinson R44.

Hughes 500C

photo compliments of Tillman Jeffrey

Brailing Yellowfin Tuna aboard the Odette Theresa

M.V. AMERICAN QUEEN

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