Word: floundered
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America has plenty to sell. American food, from salted New England cod fish and flounder to Carolina rice, is much needed in Europe and the West Indies. American shipbuilders, using cheap lumber from nearby forests, can turn out high-quality ships for 20 percent to 50 percent less than their European competitors. As a result, almost one-third of the 7,700 vessels in Britain's merchant fleet were made in the Colonies. American ironmakers, centered in Pennsylvania, New York and New Jersey, have also proved that they are as good as any in the world. Already, America produces...
...foreign competition, particularly from Russian trawlers, for drastically declining catches and soaring fresh-fish prices. In 1957 more than 1 billion lbs. of fish were caught off New England; by 1974 the catch had been chopped about in half, to 521 million lbs. As late as October 1971, yellowtail flounder (commonly served in East Coast restaurants as sole) brought 6? per lb. at New Bedford's daily fish auctions; last week the price was 85?. Now, says one New Bedford fisherman, "with the foreign invaders gone, perhaps our industry can grow a little." Seven spanking new steel-stern trawlers...
This sort of vapid speech demands to be performed as parody. Yet Guckenheimer has not delineated the humorous moments from the serious ones. The characters flounder in search of a voice; some scenes lack dramatic viewpoint to the verge of soap-opera tedium...
...general, the rest of the cast flounder uncomfortably in their roles, unable to do much with such a bad script. Mark O'Donnell as Fritz, the student who makes the mistake of leaving his betrothed alone too long, is even more inept and ineffectual than the part calls for. Derek Pajaczkowski is no better as the loud and boorish Buttress, straining too hard to produce minimal comic effects...
...Louis catch flounder in Gill nets. April through September; then it's cod season and they alternate between the nets and trawling with baited hooks. Hooks are a last resort since the bait is expensive, the method laborious. A day often lasts from five in the morning until seven at night, and they must go out every day. Nets are left out for a day, then hauled into the boat and reset. A day only lasts until one in the afternoon, and the day in between they mend nets or work on the boat...