Monday, April 27, 2009

Interview about Factory Designer

September 14, 2007
Meeting/Interview with Bill MacDonald
- son of Maurice MacDonald, Maritime Packers foreman & designer
- Bill’s brother, Winston, is currently working on the family genealogy.


• Maurice MacDonald’s parents were Maude & Charles.
• Maude was one of the first real ‘women lib’.
• She owned her own contracting company (built houses) in New Glasgow, Stellarton, and Westville.
• Maude also owned General delivery stores in New Glasgow and Westville.
• Maude’s mother, Lib, was (and had) the venture capital for Maritime Packers. She gave Sam Broidy the money to start the factory.
• Sam Broidy was a fish monger, and he could not make his payroll and expenses, so Lib funded his business.
• Maude went to work for Maritime Packers; mostly in charge of the women in Nova Scotia, PEI, and New Brunswick.
• Maude died of colon cancer in 1940, at the age of 42; she predeceased her mother, Lib, by 3 months. Lib was 107 years old when she died.
• Lib was a “grand lady” – as in wearing large, fancy hats and extravagant dresses. She was carried around in a covered carriage. (“always dressed to the nine
• Lib’s family was business people; and ship builders.
• Lib was an entrepreneur & a real ‘women’s lib’.
• 1833-1940.
• Lib was originally from Scotland – but it was never truly known where her fortune/money came from. If she got it from her life in Scotland or earned it here when she came?
• Lib came to Nova Scotia on the first steam locomotive from the United States.
• Lib lived in Welsford, (outside of River John) and her house was ironically, very small. (The size of a shanty – maybe eight hundred square feet). Welsford at that time was a very remote area and only had one or two houses.
• Her son, Dewey, built his home on her property.
• Bill can remember the story of how Indians at that time often came onto her property and would help themselves to anything in her home. During the 1840-50’s the Indian’s often camped on her property.
• Maude’s husband was Charles; Charles was Maurice’s father.
• Charles was a farmer, and served during WWI in France – after he returned home from the war, Charles went out west and became a rancher, leaving Maude to raise the family. Following the war, he became ‘nomadic’ and never returned to his lifestyle before the war. (Went out west with his brother, who also served in the war). He was 89 when he died in Calgary.

• Sam Broidy owned a small factory in River John and a small processing plant in MacDonald’s Cove and Skinner’s Cove.
• Bill spoke about someone remembering the zinc tables that once worked there. Cleaning the tables and the plant after a days work was a big, hard job.
• Maurice MacDonald was educated to Grade 8 at the Bigney School (outside of River John). After Grade 8 he moved to Westville and graduated first in his class and was a very good player of the varsity basketball team. After high school, Maurice worked for the Coast Guard as one of the youngest deckhands in Canada. Over time, he had planned to become a deep sea captain.
• Bill can remember his father meeting an old friend who was dressed in white, with brass buttons and had become a captain (hydrographic survey captain) and he remembered Maurice’s true dream was to become a captain. However, his mother, Maude, (who was remembered as being a domineering woman) pushed Maurice towards a career with Maritime Packers.
• Eventually Maurice did earn his captain’s papers and he did Captain 2 or 3 ships for Maritime Packers, the Billy R., and the Samuel B.
• Sam Broidy, and Maritime Packers, including Maurice MacDonald were close friends to Stright MacKay and their circle of friends consisted of many of the business owners from that time.
• Bill’s mother, Orphy, was from Magdalene Islands and he remembered the story of how his parents met: his father was the Captain of a boat coming into Amherst during a big storm, and it was rumored that this ship was in big trouble and may not ever make it in to shore. People were preparing for a rescue but the Captain managed to bring the ship into shore. His mother just had to meet this “stupid captain” and through her business family was able to do so.
• Maurice was convinced by the Broidy’s to come on as Foreman for production and transportation for Maritime Packers, and eventually designed and was the construction foreman for the Caribou and Magdalene factories.
• Bill could remember as a young boy, seeing blueprints laying on the floor of his home and often with pencil marks of the changes being made to them.
• Most buildings on the Caribou site were built and supervised by Maurice MacDonald; as well other sites in the Magdalene Islands, Prince Edward Island, and Newfoundland.
• All Maritime Packers buildings look the same – they have a distinctive trait in the design for all the buildings - “a fingerprint.”
• Approximately when he worked: at 22 years for the Coast Guard; at 24 yrs for Maritime Packers – he worked for MP’s for 35 years, and died at age 59.
• Maurice had inherited high blood pressure and died of a stroke. He had two strokes in his lifetime, and the second one killed him.
• Maurice was 6’1” 240 pounds healthy and at his death weighed 105 pounds.

• Living in bunkhouse, men were usually skin & bones because of the long, hard days and heavy work load. They often were lifting 50-150 lbs every other minute. A man usually worked for twelve hours, and over that twelve was over time. The most common thing the men wore were wool pants; heavy and warm.

• Ronald Landry was also foreman of the Magdalene Islands plant and eventually came back to Pictou and lived on Martha Street with seven children, while he worked at the Caribou plant.
• Charles Landry was also a foreman for the Caribou plant in the late 1904’s and 50’s. Prior to that he could have worked at the Magdalene plant, since he was originally from the Magdalene’s. Charles had a large family of 20-21 children.
• Maurice would often travel to the Magdalene Islands and Newfoundland to make sure that everything was done and ready at each plant before they started each year.
• Magees, and Burnell & Morrell were competitors to Maritime Packers. Although the were competitors, they were still friends in the business community.
• The Maritime Packer’s accountant was Jean Mellish (male).

• Around the turn of the century, Factory Cove, at the entrance to Caribou had at least 20-30 little operations set up. It was a very busy, popular fishing area.

• Lobster Carnival
• Before Maritime Packers got involved in the Lobster Carnival, each community had their own Lobster Carnival and their own community’s boat races.
• Maritime Packers saw what all of these communities were doing on their own and decided they should try to get all of the communities to come together for one event and one big boat race.
• Maurice took the idea to Bill Broidy some time between 1932-34; and he thought that it was great opportunity and chance to market Maritime Packers.
• Maurice ran the boat races and acted as the Master of Ceremonies for the Boat Races; he built a float and stood on it, anchored in the water and spoke through a bull horn.
• The Boat Races were a “big deal” – like a good football game today, with a lot strategy involved. There were boats of every conceivable size.
• Lester Turple was always a big winner – “he had a big boat and big ego...and he was hard to beat.” (He always won his class – 4 or 5).
• Maurice was also in charge of inspecting the boats and making sure that the fisherman didn’t change engines; they could change the propeller but not the engine. Fishermen were known for stripping their boats for races – right down to the wooden floors, often removing the cabins.
• The Free-for-all was a fierce competition. The boats went around 4 buoys, just 100 yards off the wharf; they were noisy with no exhaust and no manifolds – which were great for the audience, and it being so close to the wharf, often waves, and sea spray would soak spectators.

• Maurice MacDonald was once the Grand Master of the Masonic order, and was involved in the burial of a Nova Scotia premier. He was well known as a mason and a life long member of the Oddfellows. He was heavily involved in a number of Pictou County activities.

• Bill MacDonald (interviewee) got his temporary drivers license at age 15 and often drove for his father, especially at Christmas time, when Maurice would deliver Christmas trees and gifts to Maritime Packers families in need. The truck was rounded full of presents and Christmas trees and at every house, they were also offered a drink – which Maurice had, while Bill drove. Not only was this a Masonic deed, but Maritime Packers were good to their employees.

• Maurice sat on the School Board for Central Caribou for 5 years.

• Maurice also designed and built herring fillet machines – which were built at the Pictou shipyards/foundry.
• Bill can remember the welding of the machines (when he was 12 or 13 yrs old) – before the machine, they were done by hand. “This machine made such an impact that it was truly remarkable, the amount of work they could do.”
• The barge (4x6 planks –caulked – about the size of the viewing room) had “bottom dumpers” (where all the guts/bones went inside of)’ and the fish went onto the herring conveyor belt. The cured fillets were stored in the ice house tanks. Pickled herring was made with vinegar from Chester, Nova Scotia – (Bill remembers 50 gallons of cider vinegar being used). Maurice created a formula of vinegar and salt to use (using a hydrometer).
• 100 pound bags of salt came from the Pugwash area; known as Malagash salt (rock salt). When the bags would be thrown onto the floor, Bill remembers a huge, white cloud of dust billow up into the room. Throwing salt bags worked like a chain-gang; and the men would unload car loads of salt at a time (train car). The salt was used to make brine.
• When fish was being cured, they used the same tables that they used to process lobster. Anywhere from 30-40 women skinned the fish and then the fish would be put into 30 gallon wooden barrels; usually a layer of salt, layer of fish, layer of salt, etc… then brine would be poured into it stopped bubbling. The top would be tapped down with wire metal and ready to be shipped.
• Alex Glover was a night watchman at Maritime Packers, and he also put the barrels onto the railcars. The fish barrels were shipped to New England and Maritime Packers were labeled onto each barrel, however once the fish got to their destination the middle company would rebottle the fish with their own company labels.

• Floats
• Lobster floats held live lobster under the water. There was a 25% kill rate because there was often not enough current. When they would pull the floats up, they would take the weak and dead lobsters out and bait them. (He remarked about the memory of the smell – unique pungent smell).
• Lauren Hemlow designed system that allowed for a controlled environment, where you can pump seawater through the floats and keep the lobsters cool.
• Lauren Hemlow had a college degree, and entered the priesthood, then became a teacher, and finally moved onto working for Maritime Packers – and loved it.
• Lauren was often known around the plant for being an avid reader; and shared that love with Maurice. He was always seen with a book and often recited poetry – he died at 94/95 yrs of age.
• Maurice was designing glass tanks to hold the fish under the water, but died before he had the chance to see the project through. Meanwhile, someone else designed glass tanks about 5-7 years after Maurice’s initial idea.
• Maurice later built and replaced the Caribou and Tormentine floats.
• Mac Heighton was the “engine-guy” on Munroe’s Island – he had a Chevrolet engine and drove a big drum to full the floats in. “He would pull the lever to engage the clutch, and the drum would open wide, almost so hard that it would quit … heavy/water logged/steel mesh.”
• The biggest lobsters were always at the bottom of the floats.
• The good lobsters were always in the float holes and the weak and smaller lobsters were used for processing.
• Small crates were used for the fishermen and the larger crates were used for shipping. The shipping crates were 25-30% larger.
• Fishermen had their own crates, and would take their fish out of their crates and dump into the Maritime Packers crates. Fishermen often gave the weigher grief over the crates because the Maritime Packer crates weighed more than the fishermen’s crates. Sam Smith often made the weigher prove the weight of the crate before weighing his fish. Cecil Shaw was a weigher (?).
• Shipping crates weighed 40-50 lbs; and held 100 lbs of fish – therefore the men had a crate weighing 150 lbs to lift.
• Long lines of fish would be held underwater together; the floats would be roped together.
• “Runners” were the men that worked on the floats – in order to run on the crates, you had to be quick; and had to wear rubber boats. As the trucks came, the runners had to take the floats out of the water and onto a washboard and then onto a dock boat (pointed at both ends, steered with sticks). “To work on the floats you had to be very quick.”

• Maurice would go to breakfast was at 6:00am at the cookhouse. At 7:00 the whistle would blow for the workers on the dock to come and eat. The dockboat would be brought up to shore to bring the “dockers” in.
• The cook was Bill Woods (related to Harold Russell). Annie Turple was the cookhouse assistant. Bill remembered the smell of the freshly baked pies.
• The “bunkhouse reach” was referred to as the reach across the tables in the cookhouse. The tables were 6’ wide and the workers sat on benches along either side.
• Workers always received a full meal with big helpings. You could always eat whatever you wanted and always had enough. The meals were served in 6 large metal pots and you ate off metal plates – Bill remembered the tinkering of the metal plates, utensils, and pots.
• A crew of women would always clear the tables when crews of workers were finished eating.
• The Sea Hawk was a popular cookhouse in Caribou.

• Orphy, Maurice’s wife deserves equal credit – because she was the leader of the house while Maurice was working or away, and often for long stretches of time.
• Orphy ran a boarding house for the shipyard workers.
• Maurice and Orphy left a very energetic and successful family:
• Emma Lee: named after Bill Broidy’s wife. Her son is one of the top marine biologists in Canada (PHD); studied at Memorial University, studied abroad in the Amazon, and was immediately offered a professor position at the University of Alberta when he graduated with his degree.
• Dewey: has two daughters – Jill and Kathy.
• Winston: son is one of the top software engineers in Canada; works for a major technical consulting company and is stationed out of Toronto, but his work takes him everywhere.
• Wayne: served in the Navy.
• Bill: named after Bill Broidy. Vice President of Finance of the largest college in the Oregon (approximately 40,000 students and he was in charge of a staff of 280+). He also was in charge of building the campus and all of its buildings. Bill has one daughter, Paris Chanel - who became an international model after high school and earned more money than he did at that time.
• Bob: has a son who became Mr. Universe and played on the Canadian National Rugby team.
• Maurice Holmes: is a half brother to the MacDonald family clan, and is the oldest member.

(Provided by Northumberland Fisheries Museum)

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