Cape Breton's Magazine

Bill's father, Frank Forbrigger; mother, Elizabeth Ellen Malcolm Forbrigger; & grandfather, William Malcol I was in school till I was about 19 years old, going in the winter. Go away in the summer, and go to school in the winter. I was only getting a few months. (When you were 19....) I just stopped. (You were on? ly getting half a year.) Just about, yeah. (Did you know then what you would like to do with your life?) Yes, schooners, go to sea, yeah. ("Schooners," "go to sea"--you like the words, don't you?) Yeah. I loved schooners. I did that till '29. I had 2 schooners of my own. (Did you stay with your father?) No, I worked with my older brother after that. He had schooners, too. He owned them and sailed them. The same as I did--coal and lumber and potatoes and salt and brick-- everything you could get. (Where would you get the coal?) Sydney, Pictou, Little Bras d'Or, Kelly's Cove. Carried railroad coal from New Campbellton to P.E.I. Only place you shovelled was when you took a load to the Madeleine Islands. There was no one to shovel it over there. Fishermen wouldn't shovel it. They'd give us a horse to hoist. We'd shovel it ourselves. In Charlottetown and all those places, they always had free discharge. Had a horse to hoist, and 3 big tubs, and 3 men in the hold, shovelling. And all we did was tend the guys, one on the gaff and one on the tub. 250-pound tubs. They'd fill them and hoist them up. In the Madeleine Islands, one trip I was there, they were hauling with their cows. Milk them in the morning, and then put a half ton of coal in them and haul it up. We'd take coal all over Prince Edward Is- land--Souris, Georgetown, Summerside, Char? lottetown, Crapaud, the north side, Mal- peque--that's where I used to go. We took potatoes back. Not always. We came back light most of the time. Spring and the fall, we'd take potatoes. (Did you go to the farms?) No, no--merchant. The merchant would get them from the farmers and we'd buy them from him. All loose. In later years they were bagged in 90-pound bags. (So you'd fill your hold with potatoes.) Right. Wash l;ier out (after the coal)--wa? ter and buckets--sweep her out, and then wash her down with water and a broom, and then slack lime all over to dry her up. It wouldn't take long. Splashing a bucket of water, and then a fellow with a broom, eh? Then you pump it out, pump the dirt out. Slack lime. (Powdered.) Yeah. Just throw it around. That'll dry right up. Sometimes we had the potatoes on freight, chartered, and sometimes we owned them. We'd go where we could sell them--Canso, Mulgrave, Hawkesbury. We had to go to Syd? ney, or all the way down through the lake, Baddeck, right through to Louisdale. Just go in, and go to shore and see if they wanted them. Wherever we went, we always sold some. (Where did you pick up lumber?) Oh, Buc? touche, for the Island, and we went in the Lake for Sydney, North Sydney, New Water? ford. All up above Whycocomagh, up to St. Treasure Cove Gifts and Handcrafts BRASS Q GLASS U HANDCRAFTS fn CHINA IN tzm ''''' KSKI WOOLENS iSagJ LEATHER GOODS ZSSSi 'TARTANS A SELECTION OF QUALITY BOOKS Phone 564-8158 Corner Charlotte St. & Townsend St. Sydney 199 Townsend St., Sydney American Red & Black Plaid Lumber Shirts Women's Amber Capes Ladies' & Men's Pea Jackets Wool-Lined Mountain Parkas Gor Tex Parkas Royal Robin Ocean Pacific Ditrani Vasque Hiking Shoes & Boots New Balance Hiking Boots Phone 539-7165 Ski la (59)