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01907 Summer 2021

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this discovery when he recalled the happiness<br />

he felt while being on a boat and lobstering<br />

with friends, so he decided to do<br />

that full time and stay on the Swampscott<br />

police force as a reserve officer, picking up<br />

details when needed.<br />

He officially retired from the Swampscott<br />

Police Department two years ago<br />

and said that he was quite happy with his<br />

decision to make a career on the sea.<br />

"My office is beautiful, being out on<br />

the water all the time," he said. "It doesn't<br />

really get old."<br />

Although the ocean and the views are<br />

spectacular, not every day out at sea is a<br />

good one.<br />

Gambale and his friend Mike Tuffy<br />

recalled lobstering in the winter:<br />

The two went out on a freezing, windy<br />

day, figuring they'd never know how bad<br />

conditions actually were until they went.<br />

Some days, when Gambale didn't want<br />

to go out on the boat, he said he would<br />

recall advice from an old friend named<br />

Lou Williams, who told him, "you never<br />

know what you're going to get if you go<br />

out, but you do know what you're going to<br />

get if you don't."<br />

And so, Gambale, Tuffy and another<br />

friend went out to sea. Gambale said<br />

the wind and snow were so bad that day<br />

that they couldn't even see through the<br />

window at the ship's bow. It was so cold,<br />

Captain Mike Gambale shows a female lobster with<br />

a cluster of eggs that he caught off the coast of<br />

Swampscott. Female lobsters that are capable of<br />

breeding will be marked on the tail and returned to<br />

the ocean.<br />

Gambale and Tuffy said, they had to put<br />

the lobsters on ice so they didn't freeze to<br />

death. The waves were so big that Gambale<br />

said he was standing near the back<br />

of the boat when he saw Tuffy, who was<br />

driving, go up into the air and hit his body<br />

vertically on the roof.<br />

Gambale said after the wave passed<br />

Tuffy landed on the ground, and Gambale<br />

and his friend thought their companion<br />

was dead. Tuffy was, in fact, not dead —<br />

he quickly jumped back up and said he<br />

was ready to go again. When asked if days<br />

like that ever make them seasick, Tuffy<br />

said no — "only sick of the sea."<br />

That experience, they said, was one of<br />

the worst lobstering days they'd ever had.<br />

Neither lobster in the winter anymore.<br />

With the bad comes a lot of good, and<br />

Gambale said he still has a smile on his<br />

face every day — or most days — as he<br />

heads off to work. Driving through the<br />

harbor, Gambale knows all of the other<br />

lobstermen and waves at them as they<br />

pass each other. He knows the names of<br />

all of the islands, too, including Children's<br />

Island and Pigs Island, where he said<br />

people used to take their boats to go party<br />

back in the day.<br />

He knows which areas to avoid because<br />

of rocks near the surface, as well as<br />

where the best views of the coast are.<br />

After a long day at sea, Gambale hooks<br />

his boat up to its mooring at Fisherman's<br />

Beach and takes his small motorboat into<br />

shore. He has a walk-in cooler space at<br />

the Fish House where he is able to store<br />

lobsters as he cleans up from the day.<br />

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