Pat Mundus: Big Ships, Charter Boats & 'Jaws'

"Boy do I have stories of my dad," laughs 62-year-old Pat Mundus. Her father, Frank Mundus, was a shark fisherman in Montauk, New York, and the record-holder for the largest great white shark caught (and possibly the largest fish ever caught with a rod and reel). The elder Mundus had a reputation for ostentatious displays of the sharks he'd caught when he got back to the docks. His daughter says that was simply his way of branding himself so he could sell more fishing charters. One particular charter was unusual, she says.

"It was only one guy, and he didn't even want to fish. He just wanted to be taken around on the boat." The man was Peter Benchley, author of the best-selling 1974 novel (and subsequent blockbuster 1975 movie) "Jaws," who became intrigued by the charismatic charter captain. Quint (played by Robert Shaw in the movie), the fictional captain hired to hunt the giant killer shark, was modeled after her father, says Pat. In fact, she says, the climactic scene with the giant shark in the movie really did happen to her dad. Pat says they'd harpooned a 4,500-pound great white, used barrels to try to slow it down, and the boat really did break down right in the middle of the fight.

The rest, of course, is fiction, and Pat says her dad had no hatred of sharks, unlike the movie character. In fact, she says, "As the world changed around him, so did he. After ‘Jaws,' when there were suddenly people everywhere trying to kill sharks, he became very worried about the onslaught and became a shark conservationist."

Pat's life is also one of changes. Growing up on the water, Pat says she enjoyed fishing with her dad but preferred sailing and eventually took off to the Caribbean at age 17 to work as delivery and charter crew on sailboats. Her love of the water brought her back to New York Maritime College, where she graduated in 1981, one of only 11 women out of the hundreds of graduates and the only woman who went to sea. She spent the next 17 years as a deck officer on tankers, sailing around the world.

"For every day aboard the ship, I'd get a vacation day. And after 90 days of work, I'd have all this time off," she says. Her husband, Earl Vorhees, who passed away several years ago, would fly to Europe to spend time with her, and she could use the time for one of her passions, sailing. The work suited her. "This was before cellphones and GPS," she says. "I used to take sextant sights every morning and evening and loved knowing where the stars and planets would be. I loved the harmony of shipboard life."

When she left the big ships, she and Earl bought Surprise, a 57-foot wooden ketch, and sailed south in the winter to Guatemala, Mexico, and Belize. Eventually they put the boat into charter. Now Pat owns East End Charters in Montauk and brokers charters mainly for New York City clients. "Basically, I'm a seagoing party planner," she jokes.

Remembering the challenges of being a female in a male-dominated career, Pat hires inexperienced young women and helps them get their U.S. Coast Guard captain's license. "It's a great job for young women," she says. "I've got a 20-year-old woman who captains my 57-footer. Others I hired have gone on to buy their own charter boats." There's a joy of competency that captaining a boat teaches, she says. "Docking is an art, and a captain on day charter does a lot of docking," she says. "Mastering hard things is very fulfilling."

Does she like fishing like her famous dad? "I'm not really into fishing now," says Pat, preferring hunting lobster with a Hawaiian sling.

"Dad was an incredibly astute shark hunter," she says. "His flashy ways made him more successful selling charters. That's how he supported the family." Pat says her next venture will be into writing. "You write about what you know, and I've got stories!"