Cape Bretoners in the Victoria Sealing Fleet, and beyond

Abstract

Les marins de Cap Breton, dont l'industrie a atteint sa majorité dans les années 1880, ont été confrontés par un fort déclin de la voile dans les provinces maritimes. Par dizaines, ils se sont dirigés vers la flotte croissante de la pêche pélagique basée à Victoria en Colombie Britannique. Beaucoup sont devenus patrons réussis, et en raison des issues diplomatiques, légales et de conservation tourbillonnant autour de la dispute de la mer de Béring, ils ont attiré un grand intérêt de la part des gouvernements, du grand public, des journalistes et des romanciers. Voici, brièvement, leur histoire.On a spring day in 1888 the bustling port of Victoria had its cultural mix enhanced with the arrival of three boatloads of Cape Bretoners. At 8:00 am on Tuesday, 24 April the 113-ton schooner Annie C. Moore under Captain Charles Hackett arrived, having departed North Sydney 158 days earlier. Thirteen hours later the Triumph, a 97ton schooner under Dan MacLean appeared, after a 128 day passage from Halifax. 1 She was followed within minutes by the Maggie Mac, a 196-ton three masted schooner with Captain John Dodd at the helm, having departed Halifax on 9 November. 2 Hackett was from North Sydney; Dodd was a native of Sydney; MacLean was from East Bay. The majority of the crews were also Cape Bretoners, most of them on the West coast for the first time; only Dodd and MacLean had previously sailed out of Victoria. 3 A fourth schooner with a Cape Bretoner at the helm also sailed into James Bay that evening. The Mary Ellen, under Alex MacLean, Dan's brother, returned from a nine-week sealing trip along the coast with the largest catch reported to date, entitling the vessel to "carry the broom" as she sailed into port. 4 The most successful schooner would hoist a broom on the main halyard signifying a clean sweep. 5 1