Cape Breton's Magazine

hold unloaded, to get at the damage, you see. 'Cause she was right full now, from side to side, and there was just the bulk? head holding her from going to the bottom. Well anyway, my god, my divers went at it. In 3 or 4 days, they pumped her out with their own pumps. I couldn't believe it. What they did • there were plenty of holes. They took plank and they went across, made plank after plank, and then bolted it on there, put canvas over that. And by god, they pumped her out. She came out of the water quite a lot. Took her into the pier, and then discharged that hold so we could get at the damage. And my son, I was just 30 days, and she went across. It wasn't dangerous work, what we were do? ing, no. There's some danger, if you were working down the hold of a ship, and you couldn't see what you were doing, then it would be dangerous. But if you were work? ing on the outside of the ship, it wasn't dangerous • you could look after yourself pretty well there. 'Course there's danger in everything, but I mean there was noth? ing extraordinarily dangerous about it, for a diver. Now, you take a ship, and you were going down to make an examination on the bottom, and she was going back and forth on her anchor chains or something. There was a chance there of getting in trouble, of being squeezed, you had to watch that. But when she was to an anchor, and you were working on the side on a stage • nothing to that. You wouldn't work at that during a storm • you had to have fine weather. You were in a harbour there, wasn't much of a storm going to interfere with you too much, 1 or 2 a year. I've worked outside the harbour, sure • I've worked out on the coasts of Nova Scotia, all around it • sure, that's dangerous. But you're only going to make a survey there. I didn't have time myself for going under? water. I didn't do much after my own son took it over....I did no diving during the war. But I loved it when I was at it. Loved it. (Were you ever frightened?) No. Never once. Well, I wasn't bullied or any? thing, but I was never frightened. I tried to look after myself and always had the best kind of men working with me, depend? able men. I never had an accident with a diver, neither. I was awful careful. (You bought the business in the '20s, and then the depression came. What happened here when the depression came?) When the depression came it was the best years of my existence. We had more work • all we could handle, all the time. And a lot of people here had work. I'll tell you, over in one of our buildings there, one Sunday morning, I noticed smoke coming out of the chimney,' and I went over to see what was going on. There were 6 fellows in there, all from Ontario, and they'd been there for a week. I didn't know that. The boys were feeding them, looking after them, they had no place to go. They were trying to get to Sydney. Well, they were all good fellows, I thought. So I says, "Come on 0- ver, get in the car." One fellow was very scantily clad • "You go down cellar" • it was an old coal-burning furnace I had in the cellar that time • "you take off every? thing there, and then you'll go and you'll have a bath." And I gave him imderwear and I gave him a complete suit of clothes • shoes, mitts, the whole bloody works. I said, "You'll be as respectable now as the rest of them." And the next day I took them over, got them tickets, and I gave them a letter to take to Maclsaac down there • and most of them got something to do, to carry them over • they had nothing. But me, I never had more in my life than during the depression years • the best years of our lives. There was no depres? sion so far as Hawkesbury was concerned, or only very little, because the railway was going full blast, and the Scotias (train ferries across the Strait of Can- so ), and the Marine Railway was never bet? ter. If there were fish plants then, they were working. So Hawkesbury didn't suffer too much. Not too much here. 'Se seillean a'phosas daoine ri Ittsaa Flonining' Hom' Truro and Tatanagouehe. Nova Scotia Choice Red Brand Beef mm Gentleman Jim Fully Licensed Restaurant 7 DAYS A uman at Sydney Shopping Mall iZI lest drive this magnificent nu>toring event EUROCAR SERVICE LTD. Westmoimt, opi?osite Dobson Yacht Club 564-9721 fWfl? PNAinUCY 0NE-8T0P-SHOPPINQ forHMMi&BMttty; 564-8161 Celebrating 75 Years of Servioe