Andrew Joyce, an avid writer who moved to Gloucester in 2018, found a fountainhead of stories to fuel his efforts.
While many Cape Ann residents flock to Florida to leave the cold behind, Joyce left his native Florida to make Gloucester his new home.
In his latest work, he recently published a book about many of the local fishing captains made famous in the National Geographic hit reality show “Wicked Tuna,” which ran for 13 seasons.
The television show made the fishermen well known, being recognized and called out for photos or autographs, at airports, the local marina and wherever they may have turned up on the road or doing guest appearances.
Joyce expressed gratitude to Lenny Linquata, owner of the Gloucester House, for setting him on a path to begin arranging interviews for this latest project, starting with Capt. Bob Cook, formerly of Beverly and now an Essex resident. His next interview featured Gloucester’s Capt. Dave Carraro, the all-time champion of Wicked Tuna with five wins.
The titled the book “Wicked: The Men of Wicked Tuna,” which features eight of the boats and their captains.
Although Joyce had lived on various boats in Florida for more than 40 years, he was never a fisherman — but he soon became hooked on the subject.
The author begins each chapter with a vignette or story.
“With every single one of these guys, as soon as they could stand up and walk, they had a fishing pole in their hands,” Joyce said. “I wanted to know their family histories. They were all sensational with their tales out at sea and their love of fishing.”
One chapter talks about the Portuguese roots of Jack Patrican, of the boat Time Flies, whose grandfather worked in Gloucester as a fish cutter. The chapter featuring Capt. Dave Marciano recalls when he had a boat sink in 20 minutes while out a sea in nearly zero degree temperatures. Luckily, another boat was nearby and they had life-saving emergency gear.
“Things slowly fell into place to make this book happen,” Joyce said. “I wanted to tell the guys’ stories from as far back as I could go, bringing in their grandparents and parents. Then I told their life stories from birth onward: before, during, and after the show — especially how they came to be on the show. I thought people would find that interesting.”
The original working title was “Wicked: The Men and Women of Wicked Tuna,” but he noted that he had trouble connecting with the two women captains from the show who live out of town. Instead, he focused on the captains he was able to contact.
The result is this latest book, about a favorite topic on Cape Ann and around the world because the series aired internationally on the National Geographic Channel in 171 countries and in 43 languages. Joyce also wanted to thank local writer Emily Gmitter for her copy editing.
A free spirit, Joyce, 75, has written 10 books and 143 short stories; he was a ghost writer for four other books. The subjects are diverse, including both fiction and nonfiction.
His writing is sparked by his voracious appetite for reading. Even on the road as a young man exploring the world, he always had a book with him.
Other titles he wrote include: “Redemption: The Further Adventures of Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer,” “Molly Lee,” “Resolution,” “Bedtime Stories for Grown-Ups” and “Mahoney.” He also worked with the late Prudence Fish, a Gloucester historian.
Joyce’s book “Yellow Hair,” received a Book of the Year award from Just Reviews and Best Historical Fiction of 2016 from Colleen’s Book Reviews. The book documents “the injustices done to the Sioux Nation from their first treaty with the United States in 1805 through Wounded Knee in 1890,” according to Joyce’s bio.
It was research for another book that brought Joyce to Gloucester in the fall of 2017 to conduct interviews for “Ellis,” a book about the late Ellis Hodgkins of Fort Lauderdale, who died in 2022. An Ipswich native, Hodgkins later lived on T-Wharf in Rockport where he chartered fishing trips before moving to Florida where he died many decades later. He was a storied tuna fisherman on Cape Ann.
“I fell in love with Gloucester. When I went back to Florida, I sold everything I owned and hopped a plane back up here,” Joyce said. “I had lived on all kinds of boats for 42 years. And when I got up here, it was a new experience to live on land.
“I landed (pun intended) on Jan. 4, 2018 right after a big snowstorm. It was the first time I had really seen snow. I loved it. Gloucester is different.”
If it weren’t for the Ellis book, Joyce never would have come to Cape Ann.
“But I was meant to be here,” he said. “It was all quite serendipitous.”
The latest book can be bought at The Bookstore of Gloucester, the Gloucester House gift shop. Cape Ann Marina’s gift shop, Tuck’s Candy Shop in Rockport, The Country Store in Rockport and online.
Gail McCarthy may be contacted at 978-675-2706, or gmccarthy@northofboston.com.