Cape Breton's Magazine

went at it. It was quite a trip, you know. As good as a vacation. And you could go anywhere. And the boats came down from everywhere. Right from Digby, right around down Nova Scotia and all down the shore. And they'd all get down here at one time. They wouldn't fish all the time down here. They'd fish at Louisburg, Scatari. Then probably they'd be in Glace Bay, depending on where the fish were. Later in the sea? son the fish come down this way • the whole works would be down here. I've seen 500 in Dingwall, that was strange boats. They started coming down here around the 1930's and it was pretty near 1950 when they quit that. The swordfishing continued, but then they got different boats, bigger boats, and they went on the banks and they got catching them with trawls. Here we kept doing it all on the darts, you know, the spears. Everybody caught them that way, schooners and all. There was not too much taking swordfish here until the 1920's. Ingonish was the first place they started. They had bigger boats in Ingonish. I know the first fellow was a Dunphy. He was telling me one time he went and caught some swordfish kind of late in the season. The swordfish was inshore, up around Smokey there • and he salted fhem and sent them to The States. Salted them. That's the only time I hear tell of that. Get about 12 dollars a barrel he told me. John Dunphy. He's dead now, old John. A lot had to do with the market, you know. Somebody to buy them. They were buying swordfish first up in The States, and when the fleet started moving • when they found out there was swordfish down this way • a lot of the buyers had somebody to buy from down here. Some company went to work and went into the swordfish busi? ness and put on boats to go where the fleet was at and collect the fish. The rum- running days were over and they had lots of those rum-running boats • just the thing for it, you know. They'd go in the harbour and bring a load of ice and take the fish and ice them aboard and when they'd get a load they'd go to Boston with them. And another one would take their place. There wasn't much swordfish when I started. Wasn't looking for swordfish at all, catching codfish, handlining • we would see an odd swordfish pass by. So we started to get a pole aboard and see could we get one. That's how it was. I don't.know if there wasn't many fish or people weren't so good at it and didn't understand it. We VOGUE FURNISHINGS LTD. 267 Charlotte Street Sydney "The Busihess Service Built" James MacDonald Building Supplies Baddeck, Nova Scotia 295-2903 STONE'S We feature (beside what you would find in any complete drug store and souvenir center) these items: Mukluks Staplers Toys Foot Rot Remedy Brass Cuspidors Rubber Worms Cow, calf, horse, pig China and chicken medicine Ant Traps Records 10' Ice Cream Salmon eggs Cones Muskrat Pelt Stretchers Insense Kerosene Lamps Horoscopes Fishing Gear Hunting Knives PRESCRIPTIONS FILLED WHILE YOU WAIT Cape Breton's Magazine/2