Photo courtesy of PANL VA14-94

So I said, "Yes, sir."

He said, "Where's Skipper Jim?" So I told him. He asked me where we came from and how much fish we had. I told him handy about as I could. Then he passed me the mail. He said, "When Skipper Jim comes in you tell him the fish is at the Queen's Lakes now. It's very good fish too. Tell him that if he was there now, he'd just about be in time." When I told the skipper, he never said anything. He had his breakfast and the next I knew we were getting on our way. We never stopped until that evening. The next morning they were up and set out the trap, and ten days from that they were finished.

You usually got back home from Labrador the middle of September. Then the fish had to be taken out of the schooner and washed and dried in the sun. There were lots of flakes to spread the fish on a sunny day. All that work was done by the crew, which meant there was plenty of work for the cook. She'd go to the skipper's house to cook the meals. His wife helped out and we usually decided between us what we were going to have for the meals - you worked to and fro like that.