Miragliotta Family (Carlo)

There are some who so strongly hear the call of the Ocean, and which becomes their home. Being on Land remains a foreign place. Carlo Miragliotta would perhaps share some commonalities with the main character in Ernest Hemingway’s finest work – The Old Man and the Sea. Carlo was born in 1899 to parents Antonio and Rosaria Miragliotta, in the seaside town of Capo D’Orlando in Sicily. He started fishing at age 9. He was wounded in the eye whilst serving in the Italian Navy in 1918 and was left with a permanent scar on his left cheek. It led to his nickname “Scarface”. By the time he was interned in 1940 in WA, he held a ¼ share in the Princess Mafalda with C. Tripi and B. Seminara. He later part owned the Proton, one of the most successful Crayfishing Freezer Boats to ever fish off WA. He was also involved in Trap and Line Fishing for Snapper. He helped raise 3 boys, ensuring they all received and completed their education. He passed away in in 1991 at the age of 91, still fishing in his final years.

A Local Newspaper article captured these words in 1987.

Every morning at 4am the old man boards his boat and heads out across the flat waters of Fishing Boat Harbor in Fremantle. With the inky darkness enveloping his small boat, and using only the stars as a guide, he lets the diesel engine carry him gently out to sea with its rhythmic chugging.

With the exception of foul weather, the old Fremantle fisherman, Mr Carlo Miragliotta, has been doing this for the past 78 years and from the WA port for 24 years.

He claims to be the oldest fisherman in WA. He has been dubbed by fellow fishermen as the Ancient Mariner of Fremantle. And he cannot live without fishing.

“I am at my best when I am at sea,” said the 87-year-old Italian, sitting on the edge of his small fishing boat and cleaning a couple of squid which he had caught that morning.

“When I am on the land, I am more stupid than ever. If I do not go fishing, if I do not see the sea, then I will surely die”.

This simple philosophy has landed him in much trouble over the years since he arrived in Fremantle as a young man in 1911.

But it has also helped him weather some terrible storms at sea, two wars and the loss of his most cherished possession, his beloved 20m fishing boat, the Proton.

Although he served in the army during the last six months of the World War I, he returned to Fremantle after a brief visit to Peru.

During World War II he was interned for three years for refusing to sign a neutrality document because he feared for his family in Milan.

After the war, he took up fishing again. Later, on a trip from Shark Bay to Geraldton, he survived one of the worst storms ever to hit him at sea.

But he lost his boat after joining a company which went bankrupt in 1962. For a while he tried to live at home, but the sea drew him like a magnet and he returned there once again. Carlo is a man doing the things he loves most – fishing.