Codfishing with Uncle Kippy

 August 1955

On holiday from Ontario. Uncle Kippy Shaw and 3 friends took my mother and I cod fishing off of Louisbourg. We were also rigged for swordfish and i spent some time up the mast on the lookout but never saw any. first, we went to Shag island and then a huge whale surfaced beside us. it was twice the size of our 40 ft boat and most exciting. I remember seeing the ten-mile buoy and we stopped and fished. We were hand lining and soon filled the bottom of the boat. We then cleaned our catch and watched the gulls gather as we threw the gurry overboard. Kippy tried to start the engine but it was no go. the engine was a car engine in a hatch on the floor of the boat. It was somewhat and the theory was maybe some fish gut had got into the carburetor. Kippy and the men took some hours of stripping the engine and rebuilding. It would start and then stop after a couple of rebuilds it seemed to work and we headed home. it was about 11 o clock when we were passing Cranberry cove and the engine stopped and would not start again. The sea was up by this time and we were being pushed to the outer cliffs on the east side of the cove in 5ft swells. Kippy says we got an anchor. he did a small anchor we would have called a lunch hook. but then there was no anchor warp. he did have harpoon warp but not practical for an anchor. the cliffs are coming closer. Strangely there are about a half dozen wooden barrels from somewhere breaking up on the rocks. an eerie forewarning of what fate awaited us.  Kippy has a plan,he will take mother and me in the dory and row in to shore and we will run to Little Lorraine for help. As we prepare to put the dory in the water we discover there is only one oar. Kippy goes into the cuddy and returns with a hatchet and rips up a floorboard and in a few minutes has shaped it into a oar like paddle. Mother gets into the bow I get in the stern and Kippy gets in the middle with oars. No mean feat in the rising seas. Off we go in about 5 or 6 feet swells on the rise, mother yells "the whale!" then no! no! It is the rock we are headed for the huge rock at the entrance of the cove. Kippy paddles the jury rig oar like crazy. We get around the rock and somehow make it to the beach fumbling in the darkness. we can see the breakers and Kippy rows hard. Jump he hollers to Mother but fortunately she waited for another swell and only went in to her waist. She pulled the painter furiously and we landed wet but safe. Kippy pointed out there is a trail to Little Lorraine. Mother somehow found it with her cigarette lighter. Thinking of the three men left on the boat we ran like phantoms in the dark. Kippy led us to a Mr Gallant's house who he knew and blurted out the story. They quickly ran to his boat and chugged out the harbour into the night. As mother and I had tea and cakes. she got on the phone and got her father Charlie Shaw and told the tale. In Louisbourg a search party had been organized and they were relieved to hear from us.  They got to the boat in time and towed it back to little Lorraine and the final word was from Grandfather Charlie who chided mother."I told you I wouldn't go across the harbour with Kippy.'

Gary LeDrew