Page 27 - Ferries in the Strait of Canso

ISSUE : Issue 20

Published by Ronald Caplan on 1978/8/1

tain's bells from the wheelhouse, all the lights would get out • and we'd have to work around till we could get the conden? ser clear • and in the meantime the ice would grab the boat and shove her way down the strait on us. Oh yes, we've gone down there as far as Bear Island lighthouse • that must be a couple of miles or more down the strait. We'd be drifting, help? less, all the trains on, the passengers in the cars. (The passengers stayed on the train?) Yes. Or they could go down in the lunchroom, have coffee, tea, or a lunch. They wouldn't have time for a real dinner. The crossing only took about 15 minutes. And at one time they used to charge any? body that was going across on the train ferry • whether you were a passenger on the train or not. Used to charge them 10 cents. At one time they went through the trains, collecting the fares; but in later years they didn't bother with it. Anyhow, one morning I saw the ice grab the Scotia and take her way down the strait, and she didn't get back till 3 o'clock in the afternoon. That's from early morning. You could never plan on getting across. So we often wondered how the Mulgrave would tow that scow over through ice. And they made their trips all right. The Scotias weren't diesel, you know. We were burning coal. Those boats, when they came here, they had the Welsh coal aboard of her. Well you couldn't get anything better for steaming. It was lovely coal. Then they got using the Cape Breton coal. The Old Sydney coal was the best coal that ever Canada put out. Old Sydney coal, that was the name of the mine. And then they got around to the Bras d'Or coal and the Inverness coal. Well, Inverness coal was lovely steaming coal because I know it, I've used a lot of it and I know what it is. But it was bad for ashes. But no trouble to steam with the Inverness coal. And another coal from Stellarton, the Old Acadian mine • that was good steaming coal but oh my god, the ashes, they were flying up like flour, fine and almost white. It was an awful job getting your ashes out. TJien there was Springhill coal • oh my god, that was all rocks • clinkers, clinkers, clinkers. You couldn't get steam out of it. The Bras d'Or coal wasn't too bad, but it wasn't hot enough. But the best coal we ever had was the Old Sydney Mine coal. And oh, you take all the women around here, when they were burning coal and burning wood. They praised that Sydney coal up so high. No ashes to it, you know. Burned right out fine. And you had lovely heat. We worked right up till 1955* the year the causeway was finished. We saw it coming. There was an awful lot of down lips. In? cluding myself. I didn't know what I was going to do and I had handy onto 30 years service. But most of the crew went up to work on the Bluenose. The last run was on a night shift. We took the Express over and we came back light and we docked her. Number 1 Scotia was up at Prince Edward Island then. Tied up a- bout 3 or 4 o • clock in the morning and that was it. We had all had it. Put her in, did some cleaning up, such as got the boys to shovel the ashes, clean the fires out. And the next day the next train com? ing in would cross over the causeway • and that was the end of it. Flowers for All Occasions Ashby Nurseries Sydney: 174 Ashby Road 564-8162 Glace Bay: Sterling Mall 849-6292 New Waterford: Plummer Ave. 862-3374 Florists Telegraph Delivery Association Op6fited by iMfwora. 564-8161 Celebrating 75 Years of Service INVIRNISS • MIONI2M-1400 • NOVA SCOTIA "Turn left at the Causeway • Route 19 • It's a lovely way to go." D. GOLDMAN & SONS LTD. • Tilt HOME OK KINK SKAFOOD" ??Gallant Street Glace Bay • Terninal Bldg .9 Sydney Airport Cape Breton's Magazine/27

Cape Breton's Magazine