from Frank Murphy The Steel Plant Was Family
Frank Murphy:
I'm going to tell you a story. The first Black that ever worked on an Open Hearth furnace, I had him - he came with me. During the war, I was short a man on the electric furnace, and I went in the shack, the labour shack. And I wanted one man. There was a black fellow sitting down there. And I said [to the foreman], "I'm short a man," I said, "on the electric furnace. And I want a man." He said, "Frank, there's no more men in the yard. General Yard," he said, "got all the men out. Can't get a man for you." I said, "What's wrong with him?" He looked at me like I had horns. I said, "Come on, boy, come on with me." And that was the first Black that ever worked on the Open Hearth furnace - Jerome Gibson. After that, we had Blacks. I said, "Boy, he got two arms and two legs and he can shovel - that's all I want. I don't care what his colour is." I never did.
(So when we say there were all kind of ethnic groups in the....) Yeah, but the Blacks were barred.... For some reason or other, the Blacks - I don't know how it started or where it started - but I know there were no Blacks on the Open Hearth furnace. Never saw one on it till I took that Jerome Gibson.
(Were most of the people the same religion in the Open Hearth?) No, no, we had every religion. But it was predominately Catholic. Although we had quite a few other fellows, the majority of them- in those days, the Open Hearth was known as "the Vatican City." Because Peter MacIsaac was superintendent. And in the Blooming Mill it was known as the "Orange Lodge" because Bob Moffatt was there - he was an Orangeman or something - he ran the Blooming Mill. And then, in the Rod and Bar Mill, MacKay ran that in my time, and that was "the Masons." The Masons worked there. It was pretty well broke down. Although there were some Catholics and Protestants in all departments, predominately your religion decided where you got your job. Yeah, that went on here. Yeah, religion played a part in it....
Now, for instance, on the backshift. Now, it'd be nothing to have a big feed of herring and potatoes. We'd bring out the potatoes and the herring, have a big bucket.... Between the furnaces, we'd just pour the hot metal on the ground, and put the bucket on it and boil it, and have a big feed - or corned beef and cabbage. And a bottle of rum'd be in the cupboard, and you'd have a drink of rum or something. The oldtimers are more so for the rum, you know.
You'd take your furnace shovel and you'd just wash it off, and then you'd put the capelin on it, and put it in front of a peephole. In the furnace, where you take the test out. And you'd fry your capelin there, right on the shovel....
(Have a meal together.) Oh, yeah, they'd sit down. The furnace crew would do that. Whatever crew - like, if I was on Number 3, we'd have herring and potatoes, probably, and next night we'd have corned beef and cabbage. But you still bring your lunch out. Because we worked the long hours. We were working eleven by day and thirteen by night. We'd go to seven o'clock in the morning and come home, and then the other shift would come out at five o'clock and stay till the next morning. And on Sunday, if you were changing, going from backshift to dayshift, you went out on Sunday morning at 7, and you came home Monday morning. Twenty-four hours you never came home at all.
Frank Murphy's story appeared in Issue 52 of Cape Breton's Magazine (out of print.) It is now available in the book Cape Breton Works.
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