TOUGH AS A BOILED OWL

A few years ago a local described her female neighbor as being “tough as a boiled owl.” It was a compliment.

The phrase immediately popped to mind when learning that Virginia (Ginny) Oliver, the “Lobster Lady” of Rockland, Maine, died this past January at age 105 after spending 97 years trapping and hauling lobsters on the Atlantic Ocean.

Ginny’s lobstering DNA was obvious and potent from the start. At age eight, she developed “sea legs” during her first haul on her father’s boat. After marrying a lobsterman with whom she had four children, Ginny quit her job at a printing press office to join him on his thrice-weekly hauls. Apparently, husband Bill never questioned who was in charge, especially after Ginny told him, “Someone’s got to be the boss. Might as well be me.” When Bill died, Ginny continued boarding their boat, the VIRGINIA, at least three times a week and cruising out the harbor with her son Max to check their 400 traps.

Her daily garb was a traditional yellow slicker and rubber boots but she never left home without wearing lipstick and earrings because “you never know who you are going to see.” Her days began at sunrise when she stuffed silver pogies into salt-soaked bait bags, then, as the sun rose higher on the horizon, cruise out to deeper waters on the VIRGINIA. Through dense fog, rough swells, pounding rain and torrid August afternoons, she maintained: “I’m not scared of nothin’.” 

When she was 100 years old and in the midst of a haul, she was bitten by a crab. Son Max knew they had to return to shore immediately to see a doctor. After closing the wound with seven stitches, the doc asked Ginny, “What are you out there lobstering for?” Ginny replied,“Because I want to.”

(GINNY OLIVER HOLDING HER FISHING LICENSE AT AGE 102.)

In 2020, Ginny was named Grand Marshall of the Maine Lobster Festival parade in Rockland. The organizers posted a message on their website, noting that Ginny started fishing “long before GPS and fiberglass hulls, before women were welcomed in the industry, and decades before the world came to know her name.” She also witnessed first hand the escalation of lobster prices: when she joined the crew on her father’s boat, lobster sold for approximately 28 cents per pound; today, lobster is $28.00+ a pound.

Without question, Ginny’s fame extended far beyond the Rockland town line. Ginny was offered (and accepted, of course) membership in the Cardiff Royal Naval Association in Great Britain, an honor she was “most proud to receive.” After her death, Maine Governor Janet Mills’s tribute noted that Ginny’s “nearly 10 decades trapping lobsters was amazing and an inspiration for the next century of hardworking fishers in the state.” Ginny was also the subject of two children’s books, one by Barbara A. Walsh and the other by Alexandra Hinrichs, ironically both titled THE LOBSTER LADY. 

Not surprisingly, one of Ginny’s favorite meals was a lobster roll. Her recipe stipulated it be made simply and only with boiled lobster and mayonnaise. She said, “If I’m going to have a lobster roll, I want lobster!”

Several years ago while being interviewed by the Associated Press, she confessed, “I like lobstering, I like being on the water, and I’m going to keep on doing it just as long as I can.”

Tough as a boiled owl? No question. And a legend here in Maine.