Page 34 - A Letter Re: Fr. Jimmy Tompkins and Fr. Moses M. Coady's Relationship, mentioned in Issue 32

ISSUE : Issue 34

Published by Ronald Caplan on 1983/8/1

our last day, an37way"--supposing our last day. "I don't know, boy," he said, "I be? lieve there's a breeze of wind outside." And you could hear it roar, like sometimes you could hear the wind on the mountains down there, you know, roaring over the mountains. And by and by, the lop struck in, heavy lop, and then the snow struck. One of the worst days I ever was on water. He made a sign. There was a fellow in the dory with me. I was hauling the trawl in. And I had a new tub of gear, brand new tub, and I wanted to get to the end. And the fellow said to me, "The skipper made a sign to put the tag on and leave it here." Getting so bad, you know. You had to take it over on the stern of the dory, and keep her bowed to the breakers coming and break? ing. And when the snow struck, you could hardly see anything. Well, we were that long out--everybody thought that there was something had hap- A Commission on Canada's Future The Royal Commission on the Economic Union and Develop? ment Prospects for Canada will begin a first round of public hearings starting in Vancouver on 6 September, isss. In advance OF these meetings a guidebook HAS been prepared WHICH PRO? vides additional information with respect to the mandate of this inquiry, the background of individual commissioners and important details to assist those who may wish to submit briefs or papers to the Commission. Interested persons wanting to obtain a copy of the guidebook should complete the coupon below and return it to: Director of Communications Royal Commission on the Economic Union AND Development Prospects for Canada P.O. Box 1268 Ottawa, Canada KlP 5R3 pened to us. And when we came in to the wharf, to the breakwater, the sea was go? ing right across over the breakwater. And we had to take a tackle that we used to have for hauling the boats up. We had to take it and put it into the wharf and fas? ten it to the boat, and pull her in to the wharf--there was that much of a suction. I'll never forget it. Just when I got to my new tub of gear, he made the sign to put the keg on. I put the keg on and we left it. And the next day, it was out from the nor'- west, blowing a gale of wind, and it wasn't fit to go out. So the second day, we went out. And when we got out to where we left the gear, there was no sign of it. But everything was frozen over, it was freezing, freezing hard. He was up forward, my father-in-law, and he was looking like this, you know, with his hands up over his eyes. He said, "I see something," he said, "outside there. I believe it's our keg." And we went out. There were two tubs of gear, and the two buoys, the two anchors, everything, were all afloat. And there was a shark on; he was as long as a horse. I'll never forget it, I looked it over, and I said, "I don't know what's on the gear, but there's something awful heavy," Well, I looked over, and I saw this great big white thing coming up. This was all that gear, three tubs of gear--you have six lines in your tub, 50-fathom lines-- all that, and the fish onto it--this was what we were pulling up. Everything else was lost. And a shark onto it long as a dory! (And that was the end of the season for you.) I was glad it was. (But a storm like that--wouldn't it change your feel? ings about being out there?) Not a bit, not a bit. No, you'd forget all about it after awhile. And once you did it--I don't know--everybody, I think it's the same, that likes the water. It doesn't make any difference what kind of a time you get in? to like that, you just forget about it. It never bothered you. It never bothered me. I just like it, just the same, .4 J Our thanks to Allan Henderson, Sydney,

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