Page 50 - Eddie Barrington: Early Diving Years

ISSUE : Issue 59

Published by Ronald Caplan on 1992/1/1

it, and went out in the rowboat, one fel? low diving at a time and the other fellow tending, sort of thing. And picked up some scrap brass and so on. And there were some condensor tubes which were broken up into short little lengths. These condense the steam after it leaves the steam engine (of the ship), and turns it back to water, and it's re-fed to the boiler again, recircu? lated. So there were a lot of these broken pieces. And we put them all in a 5-gallon pail, for the sake of making it easier to handle. That was one of the first things we put on the scale when we arrived at the junkyard. We got--I think it was $5 2 for that pailful of scrap. You know, here we are, about 15-, 16-year-old kids with 52 bucks. Back then, that was like $200 to? day. So, we were hooked then! So the wreck diving led to--you know, it was fairly lucrative back years ago. There was still a lot of wreckage around, and the brass and copper. And lead too. you'd pick up some lead. Most of the diving weights we have even today around the shop are made in our own moulds from lead from wrecks. (This first wreck that you found, the Ave? rill- -did you know it was there before WE CAN HELP YOU REALIZE YOUR DREAM OF HOMEOWNERSHIP! FOR A MORTGAGE TO BUY, BUILD OR RENOVATE, SEE THE LOCAL EXPERTS League Savings & Mortgage 235 Charlotte St., Sydney, N.S.B1P6H7 Phone: 539-8222 A . / you...?) Oh yeah, fishermen told us that there was a wreck there. Some of it was in fairly shallow water, and the wreckage could be seen on nice calm days in the spring when they're lobster fishing and the water's so clear, they could see it quite easily. (Was there any story about how that wreck got there?) Not at the time, nobody seemed to know. But there was a story about on the northern point of the little cove that it's in, was called Boiler Point. And that's because one of the ship's boilers was actually right up on the point. In war? time, I guess, when they were searching high and low and ever3rwhere for scrap, a firm from Sydney here, or North Sydney, went up there with a barge and picked the boiler up. So that was within living memo? ry, you know, some of the older fellows could tell us about that. So we naturally assumed if there was a boiler there, there's got to be a wreck there. (And what did you learn about the wreck later?) Well, we found out later that, as I say, there was a ship called the Averill that was wrecked in.... Just shut down for a second and I'll give you the story. (Ed? die went for a book, the Dictionary of Disasters at Sea during, the Aee of Steam by Charles Hocking in two volumes. 1824- 62. I'll bet that's your Bible.) This is from Lloyd's (of London) records, it was researched purely at Lloyd's.... She (the Averill) was owned by a Christopher Fur- ness. built in 1878. for a firm W. Gray & Co. She was 1690 tons. She was 260 feet by DON'T MAKE A MOVE WITHOUT US! ' • LOCAL • LONG DISTANCE • OVERSEAS LARGE OR SMALL - WE MOVE IT ALL MOFFATT Moving & Storage SAFELY, EFFICIENTLY & INSURED CALL THE PROFESSIONALS • OVER 40 YEARS EXPERIENCE I FREE ESTIMATES ir/'/> fr%nrk so marine dr., sydport *)nX"lJ/// Weekends & After Hours ''''' • " %'"?-*??' 564-0963/562-1978 -' Atlas VAN LINES / AGENT Centre for International studies • DE60UDCE CENTRE • Over 3000 Books, Magazines & Periodicals on • Development • Environment • Economic • Other Critical International Issues ~ Available Throughout Cape Breton - Phone 562-6090 Or Visit Us at 390 Charlotte Street 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday to Friday COFFEE • VIDEOS PHOTOCOPYING For SCHOOL & COMMUNITY PROGRAMS call 929-2063 or 539-5300 ext. 267 50

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