Adrian Allegretto and Shin Nakade
Interviewers: Marilyn Clayton and Marie Bannister (for the Britannia Heritage Shipyard Project)
Recorded at Britannia Heritage Shipyard, Richmond, B.C., October 2, 1991
(Project) Tape No. 114:1
EXCERPTS FROM INTERVIEW
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Adrian started running a seiner for the company at Jesse Island Nine. He started fishing in 1937. In 1938, Adrian was on the Kinkasan A.
Todds bought by Canadian Fish Co. in 1969.
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Re: Ed Ljunggren
AA: He'd always walk around with his coveralls with a hammer hanging on the side but I've never seen him use it. Well, he was here for years I guess but he lived in the shed there, just behind where the little winch is.
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Re: Adrian's Dog.
AA: Jiggs.
MC: Did he come to the site with you?
AA: Everyday, he used to ride, whenever he seen me putting my jacket on in the morning when I left the house, he was right at the basement door ready to go out. He used to sit in the back. I had a little station wagon but as soon as we'd got close to here, he'd get up in front and wait for me to open the door. I didn't have a chance to get out myself first. He'd jump right out before me. We used to park our cars right there by the shed.
MC: Did he get on the boats?
AA: On the boats, he was at my feet all the time.
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Re: Union
MC: Which union was it that you belonged to? S N &
AA: Ours was the Boiler Makers Union. (Everyone in Britannia belonged to the Boiler Makers Union.)
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Re: George Shorey
MC: What do you remember about George Shorey?
AA: Well, I remember if he ever got a hold of you around 4:30, you couldn't get away from him. He could talk a blue streak. And if you dared walk away from him, he'd get mad at you. He got mad at somebody here, I forget who it was now. And he told me. ""What ever you do Adrian"", he says, ""don't ever walk away from me."" And he held me there, and I had a long ways to go. I lived in Burnaby and I had a long ways to go and I thought, ""God all mighty, I'm gonna be late for supper."" I said, ""George,"" I said, ""I'm sorry I've gotta go. I've got to go out tonight."" And he kept talking and talking and talking and finally I says, ""I'm sorry George but I've gotta go"". But he was alright. I got along good with him.
MC: What kind of things would he talk about?
AA: Machinery most, you know.
MC: As a group of men working here, were you pretty good friends?
AA: Oh yeah, we got along god, got along good. There was the odd one, like.. But we all got along good together.
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Re: work
MC: How many boats would you work on in a winter?
AA: Well, they had quite a few seine boats and them private boats as well. At first it was just company boats and then they started doing repairs on private boats.
SN: Quite a few Todd's boats.
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Re: Pilings
MC: Shin, you helped Allen Steves and Jack Weinrauch do some repair work underneath on the piles?
SN: Oh yeah. Where you got to go knee deep in crud, in water, sink down.
AA: I think the last, it was two years before they closed or the years before it closed that you and I were working on that.
SN: A major big repair yeah.
MC: There was a new surface put on out here?
SN: That was about a year before finished here, maybe two years. Anyway we work every year so much you know.
AA: Then they put the roof on. You, you were on the roof there, you and Jack.
SN: All summer.
MB: How many men would they keep on during the summertime.
AA: Well, they used to try and keep them all.
End of Excerpts
