Page 7 - From Visits with Capt. Michael Tobin Coastal & Gulf Ferry Captain, Ret'd

ISSUE : Issue 73

Published by Ronald Caplan on 1998/6/1

in the bottom. And then tied three pieces of rope on the mouth of it. They lowered her over the side, and pulled it up. And it'd take three of them to haul up the her? ring- -the full sack. And we put six or sev? en barrels of herring on the forecastle deck there that day. We filled what barrels we could get from the cook. Then they made a pound. And we gave them to the fishermen next day down in Francois on the way down. Oh, they used it for bait, the fishermen. But down there there was none, probably. So we gave them all we had--it was six or seven barrels. They were tickled to death. But I never saw herring like it in my life, now. Water--you could walk on it. Drop an old onion sack down and haul it up full.... You can hardly believe that they're gone, you know. Even the masters on our coastal boats--now most of them are all gone. They have roads now around most of the places. Every outport. We had thirty-three, I think, from Argentia to Port-aux-Basques. Take a week to get one way and a week back again. Sometimes you'd lose a day (to the weather), you know, probably on the coast you wouldn't be able to move. You had to try to make it up then. If you had a moon? light night or something, you'd run in the nighttime and pick it up again. Oh yes, it was hard going. I made the quickest trip I think we'd ever made on the south coast--72 hours, 33 ports of call. It was a moonlit night and the weather was pretty good so we ran day and night. You know, it was hard to get home, then. You were glad when you could get a chance.... 'Cause once you go away, you were on the go all the time. You might get a weekend in, or something like that. And there were i? Cape Breton Newfie Bullet ff PASSENGER VAN SERVICE Sydney to Halifax & Return • 'Daily with connections to Northeast Highlands Shuttle GLACE BAY DOMINION NEW WATERFORD SYDNEY NORTH SYDNEY SYDNEY MINES l/e Go the Extra Mile for You and Pick You Up at the Above Locations at Your Home Local: 567-0313 1-888-567-0313 Stay where you're to . . . ril come where you're at! no cars on the go. To go home from where I was on the boat, I had seven miles to walk, one way. It was fourteen miles to go home for one night! When I left that, I joined the Glencoe. She used to run from Argentia to Port-aux-Basques. That was the whole end to the South Coast. And I stayed on her until I joined the Burgeo in 1940.... After I left the coast, and after I was finished with the William Carson and the Ambrose Shea and the whole lot of them, I went ashore in the office down there. So they bought a couple of those fast boats they have now on the coast. So I went down to Burgeo and Ramea. I stayed in Burgeo all night while they were trying them out. My God, I met more people down there. They came down and wrapped their arms around me! I wasn't down there then for, I don't know, thirty years. And one old fellow I met down there, he's Northeast Highlands Shuttle DAILY from Bay St. Lawrence to Sydney with connections to NewHe Bullet to Halifax Route goes via ... • Cape North ' ' ' • Dingwall A brand new Yi -15 u i' year-round service * NOll S HarbOUr for our neighbours, * Ingonish businesses and visitors! • EnqllshtOWn • AND ALL POINTS IN BETWEEN • OWNER / DRIVER: Melvin Burton TO BOOK YOUR SEAT, PHONE: 383-2856 "Support your local Van Line!**

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