Captain Joe Ciaramitaro was born in Detroit, Michigan on January 6, 1915. He was two years old when his father died. His family then went back to Sicily where he learned to fish. At the age of fifteen he returned to the United States and settled in Gloucester, Massachusetts where he fished on several trawlers.
Captain Joe met and married Felicia Curcuru at the age of 23 in 1938. With the help of Ben Curcuru, Captain Joe had his first boat built - the "Ben and Josephine". The Ben and Josephine was launched in March of 1941, however the vessel was sunk off the coast of Maine by a German U-Boat.
The next boat built for built by Captain Joe was the "Benjamin C". The Benjamin C was launched in 1946. He fished the Benjamin C from 1946 to 1952. The boat was then sold to National Sea Products of Nova Scotia.
In 1953, Captain Joe bought the former Slade Gorton property on East Main Street. The property was used as a smokehouse, salted fish house, fillet house and flakeyard. It was then that Captain Joe & Sons was formed.
In the 60's and 70's, Captain Joe & Sons, Inc. was known for processing whiting and the company supplied A&P grocery stores throughout the United States. The company was run by Captain Joe and his two sons, Benjamin (Libby) and Charles Ciaramitaro.
In the mid-70s Joe & Frank Ciaramitaro joined the company to form the third generation. Joe and Frank worked summers until they graduated from college to work full time along with their fathers.
The company in the 80's and 90's mainly shipped fish and lobsters to Boston and New York markets. It quickly built a reputation for honesty and quality at reasonable prices.
The Captain Joe & Sons fleet grew to handle the fish and lobsters of 37 fishing boats and 39 lobster boats.