Man on the Ice Read Online Free PDF Page A

going
     around, so I put her in reverse. Nothing happened, even though the shaft could
     go around, both in forward and reverse. By this time it was dark. I tried to
     make radio contact with some of the boats that were still out there, but Belle
     Isle is not a good place for radio frequency unless you are up on the high
     hills. The lighthouse keepers only had CB, and now here we were with no response
     from anyone on Belle Isle, drifting farther offshore.
    We were just about ready to throw over our anchor when we heard over our radio,
     “ Trudy Irene , this is 2970 Belle Isle Northeast. Dave Taylor calling.
     Over.”
    I got back on our radio and said, “Dave, we’re in a bit of trouble. I think we
     lost our blades.” Or propeller, as some call it.
    He said that he could see the lights of our boat and he was sending Francis
     Snow and his crew on the Mona Leslie . As soon as we saw the lights coming
     toward us, we knew we were safe and sound. They fastened us to their boat and
     headed back to the little cove called Black Joe. We were thankful for Francis
     Snow and the crew on the Mona Leslie , and David Taylor,
     the lighthouse keeper on the northeast end of Belle Isle.
    The following morning we checked everything out. The transmission was okay. It
     was going in forward and reverse, so we thought that the blades must have come
     off the shaft. Derrick put a rope around his waist and jumped over the side. He
     wasn’t gone long before he came back up with news the blades were still there.
     He double-checked just to make sure, and I put my hand on the blades and turned
     them over on the shaft. I didn’t think the nut had come off the shaft. If it
     had, the blades would have come off and would have been lost for sure. Before I
     could tell him not to go down again, Derrick was below again for the third time,
     to ensure the nut was secured. Sure enough, it was so tight that he couldn’t
     move it. We couldn’t figure out what the trouble was.
    We waited a couple of days. Our speedboat that we had in tow was okay. We
     always stored the motor on board the Trudy Irene in case something like
     this were to happen. We saw the same thing happen to a longliner before. They
     lost everything—boat, motor, and all—but we were okay. Mrs. Roderick Cull, God
     love her, kept us going with the big lemon pies she baked and gave to her
     husband to take aboard our boat for us. Thank you, Mrs. Cull.
    One of the boats took us in tow to St. Lunaire. Weput our
     longliner ashore on a sandy beach by our house in Joe’s Cove at high tide. When
     low tide came we put on our long rubbers and walked around the Trudy
     Irene , and soon we learned what had happened. Somehow, the brass key
     that keeps the blades from going around the shaft had worn down smooth with the
     shaft. There wasn’t enough left to hold the blades tight. We had to take off the
     blades and replace the brass key, then reassemble everything again. The tide
     came in and the Trudy Irene was afloat. She was all ready to go back to
     Belle Isle. We went and got our cod traps on board and came back home to put
     them away for the winter. With our gillnets aboard, we left for the
     Labrador.

Chapter Three
    Boats, Boats, and More Boats
    WE FISHED EVERYWHERE FROM Twillingate to Port Saunders, Belle Isle to
     Labrador’s Indian Tickle, Black Tickle, and Domino. In the fall of 1985, we had
     some nets on deck and several in the hold of our boat. My boys and I reached
     Indian Tickle just before dark. The wind started to blow from the northeast and
     we couldn’t get the anchor to hold. We had to travel up to a small area called
     Fox Bight, where we tossed out our anchor.
    We were having a cup of tea while the motor was stillrunning. I
     opened up the hatch to the engine room and all I could see was smoke. I tried to
     get down to take a look, but the smoke was too thick. We extinguished the fire
     and sprayed all over the engine, but it only took a minute