Capt. Jimmy Morgan, the legendary Menemsha fisherman and one of the last of a breed of commercial draggermen that included Louis Larsen, Eric Cottle, Robert Flanders and others, died Tuesday at the Martha’s Vineyard Hospital. He was 94.

From his years spent at the helm of the 46-foot wooden dragger the Mary and Verna, to more recent years as an artist and model boat builder, Jimmy Morgan had been a fixture in Menemsha for more than seven decades.

“The only one you can believe at this table is me,” he told the Gazette in a 2015 interview alongside his wife Roberta. “But when talking to an old man — I’m 91 — you should check your facts.”

When it came to fishing, Jimmy Morgan was the genuine article. He fished the rough waters of Georges Bank for decades beginning in 1942 when he went to work for Tom Tilton after graduating from the Tisbury High School.

“We didn’t have radar then,” he recalled in the Gazette interview. “Just a compass, charts, an alarm clock and a false clock. We navigated by time and traveled by depth. We would set the time when we left the harbor and traveled one hour in a direction to a particular buoy, say one hour south to a buoy off Noman’s Land. Then we’d reset the clock and set off to the south or southeast for another hour and a half. When we got close, we used a sounding lead — a 10-pound weight on a string — to measure the depth.”

Jimmy and Roberta Morgan in 2015 at their morning coffee stop at Humphrey's in Vineyard Haven.

Eli Dagostino

Jimmy and Roberta Morgan in 2015 at their morning coffee stop at Humphrey's in Vineyard Haven.

Eli Dagostino

In 1943 he joined the Merchant Marine and made four trips across the Atlantic. He returned in 1945 and began swordfishing with Louis Larsen and his brothers Bjarne and Dagbard aboard the Christine and Dan.

“The fishing business employed a lot of men,” he recalled. “All new dollars were coming to the Island. We’d go to Georges Bank for two weeks and fill the boat. On our best trip, we had 100 swordfish in the hold and 16 more on the deck. We made good money.”

In 1975 he bought the Mary and Verna, a 46-foot wooden dragger, which he captained until he turned 80 or 81.

He was on Georges Bank when his first child Barbara Morgan was born. “I called in — we could call in once a week — and learned that I was a dad. Can you imagine doing that these days?”

James Douglas Morgan met his wife Roberta Allen on a bowling night in Vineyard Haven in 1949. She was 18. Her father was a shipyard foreman and Vineyard Haven harbor master who came down to the Vineyard from Nova Scotia on a schooner before the Cape Cod Canal was built.

His mother was from Scotland; his father Clarence Morgan was an Islander who went lobstering, worked for the town and built stone walls. The Morgan family dates to the 1700s on the Island.

When he retired from fishing, Jimmy made boat models and weathervanes in the cellar of his home on Flanders Lane, listening to the Irish music he loved. “It was my sanctuary,” he said in the Gazette interview.

Even in recent years, scarcely a day went by that Jimmy did not go down to Menemsha, even if it was to just sit in his truck while Roberta ran her Harbor Craft shop. They would have celebrated their 68th wedding anniversary this year.

In addition to his wife he is survived by two children, four grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.

A graveside service will be held at Abel’s Hill Cemetery in Chilmark on Sunday, Sept. 30 at 12:15 p.m. The Rev. Dr. Charlotte Wright will officiate with a Masonic service by the Oriental-Martha’s Vineyard Masonic Lodge. A reception will follow at the Chilmark Community Center; please bring a dish to share.

Arrangements are under the care of the Chapman, Cole and Gleason funeral home in Oak Bluffs. A complete obituary will appear in a future edition of the Gazette.