Page 5 - The "Aspy" at Breton Cove

ISSUE : Issue 13

Published by Ronald Caplan on 1976/6/1

D.B.'s Store; Out to meet the "Aspy" (view from the motor vessel;the scow is along? side the ship); the wharf at Breton Cove seen from outside; Janie MacLeod." for him. This time they were working at the foundation of the mill and the dog came with a shingle • the Harlaw was coming, get to the shore. So they all made for the shore, took the boats and went to the Har? law. (They met the Harlaw as they later met the Aspy?) Oh, yes, but there weren't so many travelling in those days. But you knew when the Aspy was coming. She came on Mondays and Thursdays to Breton Cove and St. Ann's harbour. If it was during the lobster season, of ' course, all the men would be at the shore anyway • they'd be there working the lob? ster factory. And my father had boats. First it was just row boats. And then he got a motor boat and he towed the big scow that carried the frieght back and forth. Like in the fall of the year they got their winter supply • they'd be there all day. That boat would come in the morning • it'd be after dark some nights when she'd leave there. Passengers on board; it was a ter? rible day. It'd be rolling and they'd be sick • waiting on the boat for it to go in? to St. Ann's. They'd perhaps have two scows and a motor boat taking thera back and forth • a crew on shore and a crew on the boat loading. They'd use two when they got their winter supply or when they got the first load in the spring. There was a lot came. There were big families. The first year I went to school at French River, there were 65 on the role. This was just a 4-mile dis? trict. There was a school at Wreck Cove and one at the Plaster. Of course all the neighbours chipped in. No? body got paid for anything in those days. We never got paid for landing freight or any? thing in the early days. And they never charged to take passengers ashore in my father's day. It was after that they started to get paid • some places charged 10 cents • but nobody ever charged passen? gers to take them ashore at Breton Cove. If the boat was late and it was noontime they landed, my father took them in and they had dinner at the house • and in those days you would never charge anybody for a meal like that. People came from Afreck Cove, Indian Brook • came to get the Aspy at half past 10. If she was delayed, perhaps didn't get there till 1 o'clock • these people would have dinner either at our place or if they had friends around the district they'd be there. Till they'd see the Aspy coming • then they'd go to the shore. And they had to go out in the boats, (/tould you go a- long?) Oh, yes, I'd go out in the boat with them, with permission. Of course you never went without permission. Cape Breton's Magtoine/5

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