Haul-up Time!

Good morning Breezers;

Every fall in our villages of DH and SH a ritual was performed
called "haul the boats up". Most of the boats in DH were in the thirty
foot range with the exception of a few, and thus were quite easily
handled. The bigger boats were a different story.

The first stage of the rite was go cut green skids. Where, was a
matter of choice. The western shore was good, because good stands of fir
stood near the beach and the skids could be hauled to the shore in a
very short time, loaded on board or towed home.

Three main haulage areas were found around the cove in DH. One was
in the lower part my field, the second in uncle Ned's(Fanning) field and
at the slip that lay between Charlie O'Hara's boat shed and the old ice
house. This was used to haul out the larger boats such as Lu Langleys
and Ray Luddingtons. Charlie O'Hara launched his new builds off this
slip as well, before building a new boat shop between his house and
Gammons store.

On the chosen day, all hands would assemble at high tide, ( full
tides were a must ) tackles were rove and run out, and hooked to the
"dead men." The first boat would be run ashore on the skids that had
been laid on the preceding low tide, their ends held down by large
rocks. This was mostly the case at uncle Neds, because fixed slipways
existed at the site at my field and where Ray and Lu hauled out.

The boats keels were bored near the forward end close to the stem
scarf to facilitate the placing of an iron bolt, the purpose of which
was to hold a wire rope strap for the hook of the bottom tackle block.
After the hook up was made, all hands would grab on and the boat would
slowly make her way up the skids, which as she passed across them would
be carried forward as she made her advance.

Sid Burke introduced a new word to the English language during a
haul up at one point in time.......swiddle ( her ) the meaning of which
is turn the boat at a pivotal point while still moving forward, so as to
align the boat on the skids.

After the boats were hauled out, the engines would be taken out, the
floor and gang boards taken out and stored; then on a mutually agreed
upon day, the smaller lobster boats would be turned over. At the
present, one would be hard pressed to get enough help to turn over a
skiff in DH, but in those days man power wasn't a problem.

When the turn over was completed, posts would be placed at intervals
between the sheer and the ground to prevent "hogging" (going out of
shape) There they would stay until the last of March when they would be
uprighted, painted and otherwise prepared for the coming season.

It was great to be around the shore in the spring of the year, back
in those by-gone days. There would be a high level of activity in the
trap sheds with the mending of traps and the smell of turpentine andlead based paint, going on the wooden buoys combined with the smell of
tarred rope ( no synthetics back then, ) all of which was mixed with the
pungent aroma of spruce bow ends crackling as they burned in the stoves,
( probably a Quebec Heater that had served its time in the home,
although some of the shed stoves were more unique, Will Fannings was
made from a smoke marker canister picked up at sea during WWII.

Painting the boats was put off 'til April provided the weather
co-operated. The main topic of conversation wherever one or two would
gather, was THE ICE, that is to say the Gulf ice which was a frequent
visitor to our shores before the Canso Causeway was built. ( and
sometimes even after it's construction) this could cause heavy trap
losses, especially if it came at night or with gale force easterly
winds. My dad lost the majority of his "gang" in 1962, when the ice went
as far south and west as Sambro Island.

Only three boats fish out of DH today and I wonder what the old
timers would say about today's type of operation; diesel powered boats
of undreamed of proportions, equipped with coloured depth sounders,
radar and the latest innovation.....moving chart software that allows
one to follow the edge of the bottom no matter how 'black thick' the fog
comes in, and to replicate the boats track to within three meters the
following day. I wonder too, what they would say about catches of five
hundred pounds @ $6.00 per!

Best regards,
Don