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    Our Life on Lear's Room, Labrador
    Our Life on Lear's Room, Labrador
    Our Life on Lear's Room, Labrador
    Ebook175 pages1 hour

    Our Life on Lear's Room, Labrador

    By Greta Hussey

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    “Because of the scarcity of cod in Conception Bay in the early 1920s, my father decided to go to the Labrador coast and try his luck as hundreds of others were doing. He went as a skipper with his own fishing crew. Mother used to go along to save the expense of a cook so, at an early age I was taken along with the family. By the time I was married, I had spent sixteen summers on the coast. Fifteen of those were spent at Batteau and the other one at Five Islands, a distance of five or six miles to the south.” This is Greta Hussey’s account of her early years on Labrador, where Newfoundland fishermen and their families set up shore fishing rooms to prosecute the inshore cod fishery. Her account is simple yet compelling as she describes the trip north on the Kyle, setting up the fishing room, the Labradorians, the typical day of a fisherman, curing fish in the fall, the hard life of a young girl cooking for a crew, native skills, folk medicine, making do with little, and on the lighter side, games and amusements to break up the long days of work. Come along on a journey to a world of yaffles and bawns, bakeapples and scruncheons, and in the stage meet headers, splitters, and cut-throats!
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherFlanker Press
    Release dateJun 24, 2011
    ISBN9781926881164
    Our Life on Lear's Room, Labrador
    Author

    Greta Hussey

    Greta Lear Hussey was born in Hibbs Cove, Port de Grave, the youngest of three daughters to Ernest and Caroline Lear. She received her early education at the one-room school in Hibbs Cove, and also in Batteau, Labrador. In 1943 she married Max Hussey of Port de Grave, and after her husband's death in 1956, Greta raised their five children alone. She currently resides in Port de Grave, Newfoundland.

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      Our Life on Lear's Room, Labrador - Greta Hussey

      En Route to Labrador

      I made thirty-two trips back and forth across the Strait of Belle Isle. During World War II, one of these trips was in a complete blackout when you were not even allowed to light a cigarette on deck. Most trips were made on the regular coastal boat, the Kyle. Two of the captains of the Kyle during these years were Captain Tom Connors of St. John’s and Captain Clarke of Brigus. I don’t know the mates’ names but we had Gus Sparrow and George Serrick of St. John’s as purser and freight checker. Bob Janes handled the winch. Tommy Whittle and, later on, Bob’s son, Ron Janes, were steerage stewards. The fireman, or stoker, was Phil Youden of Georgetown, Brigus. One cook in particular we used to call Uncle John. I never knew his other name.

      If the Kyle was filled before we got on board, there would be other supply boats ready. I made one trip each on the Meagle, the Portia, and the old sealing ships the Imogene and Ungava, and three or four trips on freighting schooners such as the Young Harp, with Captain Bill Rideout of Port Union, and the Young Hood, with Captain Ed Quinton also of Port Union. When I was very young, I was on one trip with a local resident of Port de Grave, E. J. Morgan, on his schooner, the Baden Powell. In 1935, Mother, Father, and I travelled home to Newfoundland on a dry fish collector, the Julie A. Johnson, of Catalina, with Captain Ben Johnson, master.

      Let’s go back to the Kyle, on which most of the trips were made and to the preparations for the voyage. During the winter at home we would spin wool and knit mitts for the men who worked in the fishing stage. We hooked mats to replace the ones that we took on the Labrador with us and helped mesh some of the twine for Pop. Pop would either have repaired or made his two cod traps and barked them by boiling them in water to which cutch and pitch had been added to preserve the netting. Late in May he would pack up the cod traps along with ropes, moorings, salmon nets, and everything else that was needed for the summer down on the Labrador.

      Some of the things that we took were pots, pans, dishes, cooking gear, and most of the rough grub that we lived on, such as salt beef, dried peas, dried beans, hard bread, sugar, butter, and salt pork. All of this was packed mostly in barrels and in what was known as the Labrador box, which was a homemade trunk with a lock. Our clothes and empty bottles to use to bring home a few bakeapples also went into the Labrador box. The tradition was that each crew member would bring along a fruitcake made by some of his family. This too was packed in his Labrador box along with his clothing. All of this was loaded aboard a fishing boat and taken to the coastal boat.

      Some crews took along their hens and goats to provide them with milk and eggs. The animals were not put down in the hold with the other freight but kept in crates on deck where they would be attended to.

      Mother, Pop, we children, and the rest of the crew boarded the first trip of the Kyle, usually at Brigus. This was one of the first ports of call, so we would get a better sleeping berth by going to meet her a bit farther from home. We travelled on a fisherman’s ticket. That is, you just paid for your sleeping berth, which cost about five dollars per person, with children going at a reduced rate. One time the purser asked my father how many children he had to go, and he answered, I got two or three down there the length of my boot and I can turn a washing tub over them all! Pop did not want to pay any more than he could help because money was very scarce.

      There were two other classes of travel. You could travel as a steerage passenger or as a saloon passenger. The latter cost extra money. Steerage passengers slept in the steerage and the ship’s cook sent down their meals.

      A saloon passenger enjoyed all the luxuries that the ship provided, and there was no doubt about it, the saloon of the Kyle was luxurious. For two small girls looking in, it was a real fairyland. Peeping around the door, we could see into the music room, with the piano, and the people gathered around. The brassware was shining everywhere. The long tables in the dining room were covered in immaculate white cloths. The corners of the starched table napkins protruded from shining cone-shaped holders. Stewards in snowy white jackets with glossy, starched collars waited on the saloon passengers. It was a far cry from the fishermen’s quarters in the steerage and ship’s hold. No ordinary fisherman had money for either steerage or saloon passage. It was mostly merchants, members of their family or their summer cooks who used these methods of travel.

      After we got on board and our freight was taken care of, we would seek out the best possible berth. This would be a middle or a bottom berth, because we did not find the ship’s rolling so much nearer the floor. I can still remember the smell that greeted our nostrils as we descended the stairway to the steerage, where about sixty women and children were to live for about a week, as that was usually the length of time it took to make the trip. Our mattresses were straightened and we settled in. After a while we got accustomed to the closed-in atmosphere and we did not mind, but we were always glad to get off by the time the week was up.

      A bottle of water, a bottle of Beef, Iron and Wine to settle our stomachs and, when we were younger, a small enamel pee pot went into our beds. The chamber pot often saved Mother a trip to the toilet at the top of the stairs and it was very handy if we got seasick and needed an extra bedside tin. We supplied our own bedding and food on the trip. We had our own grub-box in the steerage with bread, apricot jam, butter, salt meat boiled before we left home, and a few other things in it.

      All the cooking was done by my father or one of the crew. No woman used the ship’s galley. After the ship’s cook was finished for the day, the galley was open to the fishermen for a boil-up. The meals were usually timed so that they could be eaten when the boat was at anchor, as many of the women were too seasick even to leave their beds. There would be a great rush as everyone was waiting their turn to cook a feed.

      Writing this, in fancy I can see the galley now and smell the delicious aromas which emitted from there. There was salt beef, not cooked too soft, and spuds with the skin on, shiny from the fat of the meat. This was eaten from the enamel pan in which it was brought down to us. Sitting on the edge of our beds, Mother, my sisters, and I, with a fork each, would thoroughly enjoy the meal and we would finish up with a cup of tea that had been steeped in a tin kettle. This was known as switchel. Some of the men loved to have a meal with the women in the steerage. One in particular was Uncle Bob Roach, an old gentleman from Coley’s Point. A person could eat in relative comfort in the steerage compared to a meal served in the ship’s hold, where the men slept with their mattresses straightened on top of the freight.

      There was one particular treat on board. On some occasions after the ship’s crew had eaten, the steward would bring down a boiler of the pea soup that was left over and he would distribute it to all as far as it went. Then, there was a big rush, everyone jostling each other, trying to get their share of the soup. This was during the Depression years and practically everyone was a bit hungry.

      Practically everything went on in the steerage of the Kyle. I have heard that matches are made in heaven but I guess that the Kyle could hold her own with any place. Much courting was done and many a young man found his future bride in the steerage. Some illicit shipboard romances went on also. On more than one occasion, the steerage steward was called on to oust some of the young men who were constantly hanging around the girls’ beds, but it was a futile effort because, as soon as the steward’s back was turned, the boys would be back again.

      One time, I remember, we were travelling to the coast on the sealer the SS Ungava. As usual, the young men were down around the girls’ beds like flies around a molasses keg. Some were singing songs and another had a concertina. There was very little opportunity to get a good nap. Aunt Emily Taylor of Cupids put up with it as long as she could. Then she got up and, grabbing a bed lath, took off after the boys and chased them up the companionway to the deck above.

      Although it could be pretty rough on some voyages and many were seasick, there was also a lot of enjoyment. While en route to and from the Labrador, many pranks and tricks were played. Any young man who was travelling across the Strait of Belle Isle for the first time was in for much teasing that Neptune, god of the seas, was supposed to come on board from the depths of the ocean and shave the newcomer, or so the old-timers were used to saying. Many a young man believed this and was a bit apprehensive while crossing the Strait. Once or twice Neptune came up over the side with oilskins dripping and a mop in his hand. The newcomers really thought that they were in for a shaving but they soon learned that it was only meant as a bit of harmless fun.

      One person from Port de Grave was sure to have his fun. This was George Tucker, a man whom everybody loved. He used to fish in Black Tickle, a distance of three miles as the crow flies from where we fished. I remember once we were up on the deck for a breath of fresh air, about a day’s run from our destination. By then, it was just short runs in and out of harbours as the ship discharged her fishing crews. When we came down, all of our bedding had been removed and tied up in bundles ready to leave the ship. George was up to his tricks! Of course we had to untie the beds and straighten them again for the night.

      On one or two more occasions, my sister’s boyfriend and mine were on the boat at the same time. They would sleep in the ship’s hold along with all

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