Page 43 - A Visit with Trueman Clark, Gabarus

ISSUE : Issue 62

Published by Ronald Caplan on 1993/1/1

shipped. I don't know where I went that time. Sent somewheres, anyway, for train? ing. I didn't get in it, anyway. I went in the army.... on. And I still had the kettle in the oth? er hand--I never let go of it when I went overboard! (You never lost your kettle!) No, no. (.Mrs. Clark: What boat were you on when you were washed overboard while you were sailing, and where was it going to?) Truejnan: Oh, that's before I went in the army. Yeah, that was the Lord Strathcona. I was onto her. I went to Montreal, I guess, and then back to Sydney, and start? ed across (the Atlantic). And out off of Cape Race--about halfway across to Ire? land, pretty near, and struck a storm there. I was on watch, then, from 8 to 12, I guess it was. Half past 11, I started aft with the tea? kettle, to call the watch. And when I got down to the midship there--a little more (near the) engineer's quarters there. Sea struck me and put me overboard. And I could see the old boat going along--I was looking at the lights up there, at her side, the lights. The first thing she rolled down again, and came over towards me. And when she rolled down, the water went in over the side--I went in with it. Another--oh, I suppose another 10 or 12 foot, I'd have been out underneath the stern and gone. I went and called the watch and went back up and back down. Never bothered me. I re? member I kept on going just the same. There was over I went on another one. Some fellow said, "If it'd been me, when I got back aboard--when I got my feet on the land--I'd of never went off it again." So I don't know how he'd have got home, if he had of! He either had to come by water or go by air. Trueman laughs. (Let me understand. You were walking along with a teakettle in your hand.) Yes. (And the sea came in.) Sea came and struck me and put me right overboard. (What did you think?) What did I think? I didn't think of nothing. I was thinking whether I was going to go in underneath the stern or not--that was the most that was in my mind. But I could see the lights and all. But when I came in over the side and I went to go out again, I guess under the ladder going up on the poop aft, the poop --I gripped that with my hand and I held (Did everybody believe you when you said you were washed over and washed back on?) What in the hell could they do?... (Mr. Clark, was there anything you wanted to do, other than fish? When you were a kid, did you think maybe you'd like to be something else, or do something else?) No. No. Not when I was a kid. But after I got up, I suppose, 30 or 35--tell you what I'd like to have got in--the undertaking busi? ness. I used to be a lot around the dead ones here, dressing them up and shaving them. It was just another job, as far as I was concerned at that time. An old fellow down the road here, used to have it. Some of the caskets and stuff--he was the un? dertaker. And I used to help him out some. (Were the people here buying caskets at that time?) Oh yes, yes. Sometimes we'd make them. I helped make one. Up the road here, the poor old fellow, he had nothing. No cheap caskets, I guess. So we made what you call the coffin. We made one of them and ASmtefor'PriceqfaRoom. Discover the Suite advantage at Cambridge Suites Hotel, where you can enjoy a luxurious twcvrcxmi suite, complimentary continental hre;ikfast and the finest hotel services, all for the price of just a rcxim at other first class hotels. CAMBRIDGE SUITES' HALIFAX (902) 420-0555 1-800-565-1263 = [HOfEL] = SYDNEY (902) 562-6500 1-800-565-9466 TORONTO (416) 368-1990 1-800-463-1990 Stores To Serve You CAPE BRETON SHOPPING PLAZA SYDNEY RIVER mH' Featuring AW?? MPANTMtNT STOMf • The Crossroads of Cape Breton' Sobeys & Shopper's Drug Mart "'''w''' *??"?= open "nllOp.m' tonty OI Fn Parkins

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