Stories from Dreamland

It was called the Dreamland.

That wouldn’t have meant much to people picking up recent newspapers in Ventura, Calif. They read about a 68-foot fishing boat that ran aground and was torn apart.

Here in Everett, there was a time when the Dreamland meant the world.

For the Martinis family, a salmon fishing dynasty, the vessel’s destruction is a sad chapter in a sweeping story.

"I was sick. To see it broken up just made me sick," said John Martinis Sr., 73, whose late father, Paul Martinis Sr., had the purse seiner built in Tacoma in 1949.

"Everyone in the family had the same feeling. Even though it was owned and operated by someone else, it was a loss to us," said Martinis, who fished in Alaska aboard the Dreamland and later served in Snohomish County government and the state Legislature.

The family was alerted to articles and photos on the Web site of the Ventura County Star newspaper (www.venturacountystar.com).

On Nov. 6, current Dreamland owner Rob Day was steering into Ventura Harbor after a night of squid fishing when he missed the harbor entrance. In predawn darkness, he ran aground in Pierpont Bay.

According to the newspaper, Day thinks the Dreamland could have been towed back to sea. But fearing a diesel spill, California Department of Fish and Game officials ordered that the boat stay put. It was dismantled piece by piece at "its seaside grave," the newspaper said.

"It was a very sad end to a beautiful boat," said Barbara Martinis Piercey, 71, of Everett. She opened her scrapbooks last week and explained a sizable family tree.

Four brothers in her father’s generation came here from Croatia. They came from the island of Vis in the Adriatic Sea.

"The Dreamland was part of a historic fishing fleet owned by the Martinis brothers," she said.

Piercey’s father, Antonio "Tony" Martinis, owned the Freeland. Paul Sr. had the Dreamland. Matt Martinis owned the Iceland, and Vince Martinis had the Polarland.

The clan was one of a number of Croatian fishing families, some related and others bonded by marriage, that settled in Everett, among them the Mardesich and Marincovich families.

"My father (Paul Sr.) was sort of the admiral of the fleet," said Dr. Andy Martinis, 78, of Edmonds. "He was the oldest, and brought his brothers over from Yugoslavia, one at a time." As each immigrated, another purse seiner was acquired.

Paul Martinis Sr. and his wife, Pearl Marincovich Martinis, had two daughters, Winifred and Katie, and three sons, Paul Jr., Andrew and John.

Andrew and John have vivid memories of fishing in Alaska aboard the Dreamland every summer, returning each August for the salmon run in Puget Sound.

"In 1950, when we went north that year, the Dreamland and the Freeland had 100,000 sockeye in four days," John Sr. said. "It was the weather and the wind blowing in, it sent all the Bristol Bay fish along the beach.

"My father was the leader," he said. "The fleet was run collectively, but he put things together. He could read tides and current. He was absolutely remarkable about understanding fish.

"I fished six years and then went into business for myself, into the sporting goods business," John Sr. said. His son, John Martinis Jr., now operates John’s Sporting Goods, a sport fishing shop in Everett.

Andy Martinis would fish in the summer while pursuing his medical degree at the University of Washington.

"I had to fly up to meet the boat in Alaska when I was in medical school," he said. "We got up early, worked very hard during the day, and sometimes didn’t finish until the wee hours.

"Fishing was a very intense, rugged time," he said. "We had a lot of stormy weather in Alaska."

Local fishing families saw tragedies as well as triumphs in the industry’s heyday.

In 1945, Pete and John Mardesich were lost at sea off Astoria, Ore., when the Dorothy Joan went down. The Sunset, owned by Nick Mardesich and his sons, was lost in Alaska in 1949. The Dorothy Joan and the Sunset were sister ships.

Piercey, whose sons Guy and Paul are fishermen, spent summers without a father.

"My dad was gone all the time, he wasn’t here for my graduation," she said. Her family wasn’t alone. "As a kid, we’d go to the other homes during the summer. Paul’s wife would rent a cabin on Lake Stevens," Piercey recalled.

In the winter, the men mended nets and worked on the boats at Everett’s 14th Street Dock.

In 1954, Paul Martinis Sr. was honored at the Everett Elks Club for contributions to the fishing industry. "He was declared the King of Salmon. President Eisenhower sent a recognition award, and the Snohomish County Superior Court made him an honorary judge," John Sr. said.

"He was the honcho, the big kahuna," Andy Martinis said of their father.

After Paul Sr. retired, Paul Jr. took over the Dreamland, going to Alaska every summer as their father had.

Paul Martinis Jr. died earlier this year. Andy Martinis said the Dreamland and his brother’s license to fish in southeast Alaska were sold on contract to a California squid fisherman.

Of the fleet, only the Freeland is still operated by a family member, Tony Martinis Sr.’s son Paul Martinis.

"The family, they were big-time," Piercey said. "They were called high-liners — that’s an honor."

"My father was such a high-liner," Andy Martinis said. "They used to say fish would not come into Puget Sound until Paul Martinis got back from Alaska."

Saddened by pictures of the wrecked Dreamland, Andy Martinis said, "It’s fortunate in some ways that my dad and my brother never saw those. They would feel even deeper about it than my brother John and I do."

Columnist Julie Muhlstein: 425-339-3460 or muhlsteinjulie@heraldnet.com.