Gus Dalton was born on Colinet Island. He lived there for 28 years before moving to Admiral's Beach. He tells about two very interesting and unusual experiences.

A DIFFERENT DAY IN A FISHERMAN'S LIFE

On August 11, 1986, myself and a crew of three left for the fishing grounds. It was a very foggy morning when we started hauling our nets. To us it was a regular day, but around 1:00 p.m. things changed. We were still hauling our nets when we heard strange noises coming from the other end of our net.

When the fog lifted, to our dismay we saw two life boats full of people. They were holding on to their nets shouting, "save us". We knew they were from some foreign land. One guy could speak broken English. We questioned them about their ship. They said they came from India trying to get to Canada. It was hard to believe this story. Some were in good condition, but some were in hard shape. They were all cramped up in the boats. They were wet, cold, hungry and crowded. There were 152 men, women and children in two 30-foot life boats. They were adrift for five days, praying for someone to rescue them.

I didn't know but they were going to take over my boat. I didn't think about that until after it was all over. My only thought at the time was of their safety – trying to save them. We gave little thought to our own safety. Anyway, we did our best. We took them on our boat, fed them and then called our neighboring long liners to come and help us. They quickly came to our rescue. We then called the Coast Guard and told them our dilemma. We had a job to convince them it was true.

They were soon on their way. It took them five hours to reach us. They took them from our boat and the other boats that were standing by. They brought them to St. John's where they were questioned and on August 14 were sent to Montreal. I had a couple of thank you cards from them. I haven't heard from them since, but hope some day soon to see some of them. I thought someone would come and help me clean out the boat, but noone came. I had to throw things overboard. I could have been paid for my lost day of fishing, but I refused it.