Page 11 - Wishie Rose: From 50 Years at Sea

ISSUE : Issue 29

Published by Ronald Caplan on 1981/8/1

the rumrunning on the boats. You're always waiting, nothing to eat half the time. You'd smashed the windows out, you know, be cold and wet and everything else. You're always wet. I didn't like that. The skipper, from out of St. Pierre--hell of a fine man. The poor fellow, he got drowned afterwards. He said to me one day, 'I don't think this is for me--I don't mind rumrunning on the big boats, but not this.' So he quit, and I quit too." (Wishie went for a little while collecting swordfish for an American outfit, and worked 8 years for the Bras d'Or Coal Com? pany, taking coal to Newfoundland, up the St. Lawrence River, Madeleines, P.E.I., a- long the Nova Scotia shore, and down to Labrador, He was on a water boat in Sydney Harbour before the War--taking fresh water to ships. And he was in the Navy for two years, on re-fit jobs in Halifax--"That's another thing you didn't need qualifica? tions for. They'd damn well skin you if you knew anything about an engine." Then he went with W, N. MacDonald, the Margaree Steamship Company. This brought him to Bad- deck as engineer on the ferries in the Bras d'Or Lake. "We had a spree, anyway. It wasn't a bad job." In among all that, he worked on herring seiners and tow-off boats--"keeping the seiners off the rocks"--the cable boat patrolling the transatlantic cable, pleasure boats, and then 8 years as variously engineer, mate, and skipper on smaller Irving oil tankers. And he did coastal work on his own vessel, officially called the Mudalhapladu. The word means "carrier of heavy loads." But the vessel was always called the Muddy.) ENTERTAINMENT CENTRE OF CAPE BRETON Joe's Warehouse The Food Emporium Cape Breton'-s Newest and Largest Restaurant SPECIALIZING IN AGED PRIME CUTS OF ROAST BEEF & STEAKS & ONE OF THE MOST UNIQUE SALAD BARS IN THE MARITIMES! & Smooth Herman's Lounge You will be sufrounded by a collection of some of Cape Breton's finest antiques. Live Entertainment Nigiitly 424 Charlotte Street 539-6686 539-0408 RESTAURANT LOUNGE BANQUET FACILITIES ARE AVAILABLE Wishie Rose: I had the Muddy 18 years-- that was all coastal work. I got that from the Margaree Steamship Company--(W. N.) MacDonald of Sydney. I was on the ferry down here then, the old Shenacadie from Baddeck to lona. I saw this thing adver- tised, and I went down to see him. "I see you've got the old Muddy for sale." "Yes," he said, "want her?" He was going to sell her up here in Baddeck, anyway. I said, "I wouldn't mind having her." I said, "Having her and getting her is two different things, Mr. MacDonald." He said, "She's no good to US--I don't know what good she is Mi mmsmmm M Pil??ILI iii?yi??i 999 NOVA SCOTIA'S GREAT OUTDOORS is part of our provincial birthright and is something more and more people are accepting as a recreational re? source. Near the seacoast or in the woodlands, over mountains and down rivers Nova Scotians are appreciating and wisely utilizing a source of enjoy? ment and exercise as inexpensive as it is priceless. Outdoor recreation is somethin wisely. j everyone can experience. Please l Department of Culture Recreation & Fitness Honourable Greg Kerr, Minister (11)

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