Watching the Sheriff work
April 25, 2018
Rec board lawyer hire raises questions
April 25, 2018
Menacing morning storms gave way to sunlit afternoon skies Sunday in Dulac, where more than 40 boats of varying sizes cruised down Bayou Grand Caillou for the annual blessing of the fleet.
Families flocked to the bayouside, from vehicles, houses and outdoor crawfish boils, waving and smiling as a Roman Catholic priest and his deacon sprinkled holy water toward them, vessels that were docked.
Practiced on nearly all Terrebonne Bayous where fishermen dwell as well as on Bayou Lafourche, the boat blessings are held as the spring shrimp season draws near.
Consuelo Verdin, mistress of the 84-foot My Dad Whitney, which was the lead boat in the procession, saw to the needs of guests while her other half, Captain Manson Falgout, stayed steady at the big wooden wheel.
Music bellowed from the boats — ranging from country to rap to traditional Cajun — as the passengers danced and ate crawfish which were boiled on deck.
The Rev. Joseph Tregre and the deacon, Linwood Liner, were on the boat’s bow, wearing flowing white vestments that billowed in the winds.
Each held his own aspergillum, the wand for dispensing holy water which Tregre had blessed on the Easter Vigil.
The procession stopped where the bayou meets the Houma Navigational Canal for a solemn ceremony. Music and laughter ceased.
“It’s a tradition for the lost fishermen who died at sea. We always keep them in remembrance, and honor their memory,” said Consuelo Verdin.
With a microphone in one hand and a rosary in the other, Tregre said a prayer as boats and jet-skis circled the lead boat.
He then cast a wreath into the waters, which landed wrong side up. Some later thought it was a divine hand that flipped it to the correct position.
“Did you notice the wreath flipped over onto the right side?” said one woman on the boat, Margie Duplantis. “I mean come on, we have a beautiful day and the wreath turned back over onto the right side.”
Some thought the ritual was beneficial to the fishermen:
“I think it is,” said Brad Scott, of Grand Caillou Fire Department. “I mean hopefully get a good finding shrimp season.”
Others were more pragmatic:
“It’s my life, it’s all I do, it’s what I’ve done all my life. I’m gonna make the best of it no matter what,” said Johnny Mauldin, a shrimper. “All we can do is hope the price stays up and we do what we do.”
Tregre, wjo just finished his thesis in bioethics, said that despite a need to study he jumped at the chance to do the blessing.
At one point, Falgout allowed Tregre to take the steering wheel and pilot “My Dad Whitney.” Falgout complimented him on his steering as Tregre successfully drove the boat through a draw bridge.
Tregre’s guest deacon is also his mentor. The 77-year-old Liner is no stranger to boats. The largest boat he ever stepped foot on was the USS Yorktown, when he was in the U.S. Marine Corps.
As the vessel docked when back at port, Tregre took one last step to the bow , and gazed at the bayou.
“I always got jealous. I was a pastor in Galliano, and the other priest always did the blessing in Golden Meadow,” he said. “I couldn’t go because I had mass and I didn’t get to see it.”
