Cape Breton's Magazine

There's the Dufferin Belle, down at Four- chu with a load of !'.ulphur. That's one I was successful with. The Dufferin Belle was a ship loaded with sulphur from the West Indies. She was going up to Quebec. And they wanted that. They said it was worth a million dollars a ton to them. They couldn 't make paper in their pulp mill without it. She went ashore at Four- chu. She is in among the rocks and in a hell of a place where you can't get in to her, and she's an awful mess. So anyways, they got after me. They didn't want the ship, but they wanted the sulphur. They couldn't get satisfaction by phone, and I had to go to Quebec to talk about it. I said, "I haven't got the equipment to go in there." And I said, "You may spend a week or two weeks there before you can get a day to go in, and before the day is o- ver, you may have to pull out again. Among the rocks, and the sea coming in." I said, "It's a great risk. You're liable to spend 50,000 dollars and not get 50 dollars worth of sulphur." "If we can get 50 dol? lars worth of sulphur it's worth the try. That's worth a million dollars a ton to us right now. And we've got everything you'll want for equipment." I told them I wanted a shallow draft boat that would carry at least a thousand tons. "We'll give you something that'll carry 3OOO tons and a shallow draft." And they had something with a clam on it to clam that out. "Well," I said, "that's great." And it's got its own power. It was one of those LST boats built during the war, and they had several. They only drew about 4 or 5 feet of water light, and probably not more than 15 or 16 when they were loaded. The first one to come down, she anchored in the har? bour overnight. Got me and my diving e- quipment put aboard. I was going to try to do a little patching if I could, while they were unloading. I remember staying a- board of her at night, and I thought that'd be the end of us--thought she'd be shook to pieces when the seas would come in and hit her. But she stayed there till we got off her. And I stayed aboard her. The shore wasn't very far from us and I had a lifeboat. Anything happen, I could jump right in her and the sea would push right up on shore. They got down there in the morning and that night she was almost loaded. With 3000 tons of that sulphur. Clammed her out. They got that and away she goes to Montreal. I suppose they would have given me 500,000 dollars if I had asked them. They gave me twice as much as what I did ask. They were so happy. Cauldron Restaurant Fresh Seafood a Specialty Our Licensed Dining Room is Open 7 Days a Week from 11 AM till 10 PM We are located on Pitt St., Sydney Mines near Princess Colliery We feature Cape Breton Devco Trout 736-6823 OPEN ALL YEAR ROUND *'**''''''' Year Round Service to Cape Bretoners and their Friends.