Cape Breton's Magazine

tanker ran ashore (the Arrow) , they buoyed it off from end to end. I was down to an old icebreaker we had-- she was down in North Corner Brook, and when I got down there she was up on the ice. Not a drop of water. If he had wanted to change the propellor he could change it if he had the equipment. The propellor, you could walk around it, not a drop of water near it. The ice threw her right up onto.... And what I had to do is--say she was here. I cut a hole. I started out like that and I come in till I got a piece of ice small enough that she was on, that she broke it. (Oh, you circled her, breaking around....) Until I made the pan that she was on small enough that she broke (it) with the weight of her, she fell in. Then I started to come up with her. That's why I think now the greatest mis? take of anything is the causeway to Prince Edward Island. I think that'll be one of Canada's greatest disasters. Nobody seems to understand that, with the moving ice, that bridge wouldn't stay there.... I was off of Corner Brook, and five-and-a-half or six miles away I could hear the ice roar--and there's a pile up on that. And it went up fifty feet and then toppled back on the ice again. Lots of pressure. No bridge would ever stand if it was there. And you will get that northwest gales with the loose ice drifting around coming down from the Gasp6--and hits that bridge, that's it. It'd be one year, maybe two years, or could be three years--but it'll happen. It'll get the right condi? tions.... I was going to write a letter in the paper about it, I don't know if I will or not. I won't be around when it happens, but it can happen. I can't understand it. There's a scientist from Halifax now--well, he was working in Halifax and different places--he's from Newfoundland--but he come with me several trips. He come to me the first time about this P.E.I, bridge and I said to him, "Don't worry about that," I said, "they'll never build a bridge there. "OO" SUPERIOR OPTICAL LIMITED Owned & Operated JAMES DEAN Optician COMPLETE OPTICAL SERVICE Dolores Fifield Optician 2nd Pair FREE Check in store Mon. - Tues. ' Sat. • 10 am - 6 pm Wed. ~ Thurs. ~ FrL * 10 am ??10 pm They're not crazy enough to do that," and he didn't bother any? more about it. But he come to me again and (then) he was with the Navigation School in Newfoundland --and he said, "We're thinking about putting a telegraph and a bridge in the school so (the stu? dents) can work with it." I said, "You're just throwing your money down the drain. If you want to do anything like that," I said, "buy an old dragger that's just about rust? ed out and put your men on her and let them dock in weather conditions like a gale of wind or a heavy current or something like that. If they do damage the old ship," I said, "it's not a big loss." And he turned right around and that's where he went--and they have it today in the old school down there. It's in St. John's somewhere. And then he had the old dragger tied up down there and he put his men aboard of it and let them dock in all kinds of weather con? ditions. Take her off and dock her and, you know, go arotind in her in bad weather con? ditions and everything else. If you do dam? age her, no big loss. He died since. But the dragger's still there at the school. Icebreaker John A. MacDonald 564-8486 Sydney Shopping Centre Delicious, Fresh SUBS and KAISERS (choice of 8 toppings) • Daily SOUP Specials I Wonderful | SALADS I You Always Get a Break at Robin 's 519 Grand Lake Road, SYDNEY OPEN 7 DAYS A WEE K