Page 12 - Wishie Rose: From 50 Years at Sea

ISSUE : Issue 29

Published by Ronald Caplan on 1981/8/1

to you, she hasn't got enough power, what she has is broke down now." He said, "You can have her, but I don't see what good she is, Pay for her when you like or how you like." He said, "Let me put a bigger engine into her, a new one." I said, "It's gonna put the price of the boat up some? thing awful. I might not make enough to pay her insurance." He said, "Take her as she is--as far as that's concerned, she's yours--I don't want her, she's no good to US--I don't see what good she is to you like that, but you can still have her." I said, "I've got no money to give you." He said, "I know, I don't want any money, take her out of my sight--you need a new crankshaft for her--take her," So that's all right, then. No money involved at all, not a cent. So I did coastal work. We used to haul coal, wood, whatever the devil we'd get to haul, anything there was money in. I had three men with me. You had to give them as good a wage as you possibly could, and then your food, and your oil. Anyway, in the last few years, you couldn't make it. If you're hauling coal, you'd have so much a ton. You'd pick it up in Sydney and take it to Newfoundland or wherever the devil they wanted it, the North Shore there some? where, all over the place, the Madeleine Islands. When the gypsum people were in Dingwall, we used to haul a lot of coal down there. Haul coal to Canso. So much a ton--the further you had to go, the more you'd get for a ton. (What would you pick up to bring back?) Nothing. Nothing to pick up. Unless you'd go to Halifax with a load of fish, sometimes you'd get a load of salt back to Cornerbrook or Bonne Bay. You might--then it'd be a paying trip all the way. But if you couldn't do that, you wouldn't make anything, you know. You'd pay expenses, all right, but when you had a house and a family to keep, you want more than expenses paid. It was some bad weather on that thing, but she was a good sea boat. We were out in Hurricane Hazel. We were taking up coal to the Madeleines a Friday, I guess. A fellow came down, said, "What about going to Cara- quet for me--we got a truckload of fish boxes." I said, "We got 50 ton of coal in the boat yet." He said, "That's all right-- good ballast. And the man who owns the coal, he's satisfied if you go, if you want to." He said, "A few dollars in it." I said, "That's all right. Tomorrow morn- .ing, we'll leave." So Saturday morning we left and went to Caraquet; we got over there Saturday night. And Sunday afternoon we had everything aboard. We had 250 empty fish boxes, lengths of 3-inch galvanized pipe on the back deck. We left. We got the forecast--they wanted sou'west 15 that night, sou'east 25-30 the next day, and then we'd be over on the Madeleines by that time, anyway. We left at 4 o'clock that Sunday evening. About 10 o'clock I was in the bunk--by god, I heard the water going back over, you know--rain--spray water going back over DON'S FLOWERS p. 0. Box 179, Port Hawkesbury, N. S. BOE 2V0 Serving Port Hood, Judique, Inverness, and sur- roundirjg areas. Telephone 625-2215 or 625-2717. yarns 'crafts Yarns and Needlecrafts Light Industrial Park, Phone 625-2400 Local Handcrafts Many Other Items Port Hawkesbury, N. S. BOE 2V0 AIR CANADA Vjjy SERVING CANADA coast to coast THE UNITED STATES * UNITED KINGDOM EUROPE * CARRIBEAN ??For i7iformation call your Travel Agent or MR CANADA NEWLY ENLARGED, LICENSED RESTAURANT OPEN ALL YEAR 'ROUND Harbour Restaurant OiUdren's Portions Try Our Butterscotch Pie Take Out Telephone {902) 224-2042 ' • j ??>,-g, Dishes Cheticamp, Cape Breton, Nova Scotia '' request cottages and golf coarse Located on a particularly beautiful site overlooking the Bras d'Or Lake, Dundee Golf Course is a' new professionally designed nine hole public golf course. DUNDEE GOLF COURSE AND COTTAGES are located In: Dundee, Cape Breton, just 17 miles East of Port. Hawkesbury. Adjacent Dundee Golf Course Fully Equipped Housekeeping Cottages One & Two Bedroom Units Heated Swimming Pool - Natural Play Area Dining Room - Lounge Tennis Courts - Pro Shop Golf Car Rentals - Golf Cart Rentals (12)

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