Cape Breton's Magazine

Burial of the Unknown Sailor on Hardwood Hill. Second from right: George Prosser. That's when I didn't have a job again. So, I went on the Gander Bay. She come in and she wanted a bosun, so I went on her. I was on her all winter anyway. I don't know what time I come off. The fella that was my boss on the Plant then, he come up the hospital to see me. I had a busted finger. And he said to me, "When you come out, don't for? get to come back to the piers again." I CAPE BRETON BRACE LTD. 66 Cornwallis Street, Sydney, NS • 539-5100 • -10% Seniors- Custom Braces & Orthotics 1QT" ANNIVERSARY SAVINGS ! 10% Off ORTHOPEDIC SHOES in Stock First in Nova Scotia CUSTOM ORTHOTICS While You Wait ( 10% DISCOUNT ' I ON ALL PRODUCTS FOR 1999! J CAPE BRETON BRACE: WORKING TO KEEP ACTIVE PEOPLE IN MOTION! said, "Geez, I can't hold onto a job any? way. You fellas lay me off every time I get a job." He said, "You'll have a steady one this time if you come down." So I ?ent down there and I got on and I was a rigger there. A lot of fellas couldn't do the work, so that's how I hxuig onto the job. {George told us that he was always called on to do the dirty jobs. For ex? ample, during the Second World War....) The trouble was with me • I was a merchant seaman. I was thirty-three, thirty-four years old going in. Anything that was wrong on the ships, I was the guy they picked for it. We had fellas what they called "dims" • different fellas for those jobs • but they didn't know the arse end of a ship from the front end. So they always picked me for the job. They brought that one in that exploded over in North Sydney. I went aboard and picked all the bones off of her. Not alone, now. With a bunch of guys, but I was one of the guys to lead them to all that stuff. I knew the ships. I didn't do it alone. That's like that Unknown Sailor. I was one of the guys that handled him. All those jobs used to turn up to me. The St. Croix out there, got torpedoed and the ice was around. They picked six guys off of the ice that were froze solid. Fel? las weighing about a hundred and eighty, two hundred pounds. It was a sin. I helped to undress them. Five of them laying out froze. The boat picked them off the ice and brought them in. They landed in the guardhouse and I was one of the guys un? dressed them. I wasn't alone. I had help. MSWAKEIKHISli ?@i icHM>i-:MiHMmjM: 424 Charlotte St., Sydney 539-6686 specializing in... STEAKS . PRIME RIBS • SEAFOOD Catering to... • BUSINESS LUNCHES • • BANQUET FACILITIES • PRIVATE DINING • Fully Licensed complete with SvDNErs MOST EXTENSIVE WINE UST! Monday to Saturday 11:30 am - 11:00 pm Lunch Menu in Effect until 4:00 pm • Sunday & Major Holidays 5:00 pm - ] Children's Menu Available (Free on Sunday) Fresh Lobster Available in Season Summer Patio :00 pm FINEST IN NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL ENTERTAINMENT '''' 7 nights a week until 3:30 am Falmouth Street (below Joe's Warehouse) 539-0408 Sydney's Hottest %ntertainimnt & Trancing Spot (You feel that it was because you had experi? ence. ...) Every time there was something hap? pened, I was the guy they picked for it. They put that queer thing around the ship for sub? marine detecting. I used to go aboard and examine them, see evezrything was alright. I'd take a Navy electrician with me, and go down. To find all this stuff, you had to know where to go. Chain locker, down the bilges, in the wings. A lot of them fellas in the Navy, they never went to sea in their life. They brought in a mer? chant ship, one of them