Dan's Papers - March 13, 2009 - PLAN TO KEEP CAPTAIN MUNDUS' BOAT HERE FAILS

Frank Mundus was, perhaps, Montauk's most famous boat captain. An irascible, highly charged man with a shark gun and a baseball cap, he piloted his 43-foot boat, the Cricket for more than 30 years with a clear focus and only one thing in mind. Under a big sign reading MONSTER FISHING, he would head out with several enthusiastic sport fishermen on board and he would bring in sharks, some of them bigger than his boat. I actually saw one of them. He came in through the jetties with it lashed to the side of the Cricket, which listed under the weight, and then a dozen fishermen with heavy ropes hauled it onto a beach at Gosman's. There was no scale in Montauk large enough to weigh that one. Half the town was out there to greet him when he came in with this.

Mundus set several world fishing records - Montauk holds twice as many sport fishing records as any other community in the world - and he became the model for the character Quint in the book and movie Jaws. It's fair to say that the entire movie was based on Mundus's lifelong quest.

Mundus retired in 1999, but remained active, serving as a fishing guide on the Cricket, which was now leased out to others. In 2006, some documentary filmmakers came out to Montauk to make a film, Monster Man, about the life of Mundus, and for that to happen, the Cricket was completely repainted and restored.

Last year, however, Mundus passed away in Hawaii at the age of 82. Though some people liked him and others didn't, he was widely mourned in the town. He certainly was very unforgettable.

His wife, Jeanette, decided to put the Cricket up for sale on eBay in the hopes of selling it for a minimum of $100,000 to a collector. But in the bidding the highest bid was just $40,000. In Montauk, the longtime owner of a boat and fishing gear rental station, Henry Uihlein, launched a campaign to keep the Cricket in Montauk and have it placed at the triangle at the entrance to the fishing village with appropriate plaques. He persuaded Mundus's wife to accept $43,000, since she was not obliged to the high bidder, but last week, the bidder, a man from Connecticut, an avid fisherman with fond memories of Mundus, increased his bid to $53,000, and so she accepted that.

Montauk will remember Mundus through his exploits and, in a strange twist, through DVDs of Jaws, the 1975 film that features "Quint," the irascible and obsessed giant shark fisherman who in the end, in hand to hand and harpoon to jaws combat, loses out to the monster. The film today is still one of the 10 highest grossing and most entertaining movies ever made.

Meanwhile, out in Long Island Sound, there Cricket II will be, sniffing for sharks, not for Mundus, but for a new captain, a private fisherman, who was willing to take on this legend for a lot of cash.