Page 11 - Lobster Factories around Cape Breton

ISSUE : Issue 20

Published by Ronald Caplan on 1978/8/1

'''K. / Dave Forgeron, Main-a-Dieu: There were two factories in my time • one run by Simpson and Roberts • and one by Bur'ham and Mor- rell. When I first worked in the factory I was 11, just clear of school. I wasn't there too long • probably around ' years • when the local fishermen formed the United Maritime Fishermen. Around '29. I was fish? ing lobsters, after the job at the factory and before going to work. Me and my broth? er would have probably 30 to 35 traps. We'd fish and then go to the factory. Fish? ermen were organizing. The one that comes to my mind is a very good fisherman in those days • he was killed in an accident • Jim Walter Burke. I was quite young. Any? how, he told me, "Wellj you might be a fisherman. Will you join the U. M. F.?" I don't believe it cost over 25 cents to join. And I joined the union not knowing any more what a union would do or be or anything. So we fished for a short time • selling to those birds (Burnham-Morrell and Simpson- Roberts). And I believe we were getting three cents a pound for the canner lob-? sters and ten cents each for a ten-inch lobster and over. Markets were bought by the piece. And a market lobster in those days had to be 10 inches from the end of the snout right to the end of the tail. You had a board made like an L with a piece of metal on the end • and you'd lay the lobster on that and if it proved 10 inches you got 10 cents. This went on for probably a couple of years. And by god, the fishermen decided they were going to try to sell the markets to the States them? selves. Live. The firms were bringing in a wellboat from Boston. A wellboat is a boat that the bottom was bored full of holes. It had watertight compartments. And you could put possibly 20 to 25??000 pounds of lobsters in that hold. And when she moved, that circulated the water, aerated it • and the lobsters would go down the States. We decided to hold the lobsters to ship thera ourselves. We contacted Consolidated Lobsters • and they said, if you can get us 20,000 pounds, we'll send a boat for them. And we put our 20,000 pounds aboard • there were lots of lobsters in those days • and we'd be there in the morning, god, 3 o'clock, shipping them before we'd go out fishing. And I don't think there was any price made at the shipping. It depended on how they survived on the way. If they struck heavy gales, back and forth in the compartments • they'd shake the claws and get killed. Perhaps that wasn't the rea? son • but I do know we didn't get a price right there. Old fellows' weri??. standing on Celtic 'odge... right on your doorstep! Why not do something different for a change and come to Keltic Lodge, Ingonish Beach? Come to Keltic for dinner or lunch and enjoy superb cuisine in a setting unsurpassed. Keltic Lodge in the Cape Breton Highlands National Park is adjacent to a superb 18 hole championship golf course, tennis courts and long sandy beaches. Keltic, open from June 8 through October 14, have everything for a perfect holi day, be it a day's trip, a weekend or longer. It's easy driving too. For reservations and rates, call manager Herman Falls at 1-285-2880 or write him at Keltic Lodge, Ingonish Beach, Victoria County, N.S., BOG ILO. miere Better Service Costs No More MacLeod's RNA Baddeck Cards for All Occasions The Card Shoppe Sydney Shopping Centre AIR CANADA SERVING CANADA COAST TO COAST THE UNITED STATES • UNITED KINGDOM • EUROPE • CARRIBEAN For information call your Travel Agent or AID/'AMAr'il SYDNEY. NOVA SCOTIA MIK wMIMMLIM telephone sss-esoo Harbour Restaurant Children's Portions Try Our Butterscotch Pie Open 8:00 a.m. to Midnight 1:00 a.m. Saturday Telephone (902) 224-2042 ChetiCMiip, Cape Breton, Nove ' Take Out and Diet Dishes on request

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