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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Goderich Signal-Star, 1975-03-27, Page 9°butt Big Bill Forrest dies "The clan MacDonald of mingham found 'them, "were honest, sometimes a bit wild, likable -almost lovable --and men .one was proud to call friends." "Spike" Bermingham got into the construction industry, with hiS father and Big Bill Forrest, as soon as he left college. He gave distinguished service in World War II, and after the war, in 1947, reorganized Bermingham Construction, -now headed by his son, William. - Col. , Bermingham's notes record a few of the many stories told about "Reddy" MacDonald, whose given name, John, has almost been , forgotten. In this ch4ter, also/ he pays a final tribute to Big Bill Forrest. felaVS:mher crew had to find other employment well as her sails, She looked for and were not long in getting all the world like a miniature of o., Q .p 31De.0. 30957654 Public Library,. 52 Montreal St., Goderich, Ont • N7A 2G4 1 t. • 128 YEAR - 3 THURSDAY, MAR,/cH 27, 1975 SECOND SECTION Ashes'spread -in Hillsgreen ceme'tery A great leader ot men is gone breakwater for a 25 -cent- fee. Bert was also a boat builder, and since both his brothers, Mac and Reddy, wanted to become independent fisher- men, Bert with the help of all tlie brothers, built them each a fishing boat during the winter _ months. The commercial fishing was excellent between 1910 and 1920, before the lamprey eels destroyed the beautiful fresh -water salmOn trout which abounded in the lake, and had pink flesh, delicious to eat. They brought the higheet prices on the New York market, where they were shipped almost daily, packed in ice. MINIATURE AZOV "Reddy, who 'had lived most of his life 'in sail,' had his boat built With a cliPper bow, two maks and a stub of a bowsprit, engine installed' beloW deck, as established_ in other -means-of livelihood. Captain John became mate on the newly built tug W.L. Forrest, and his son . Paddy was officially captain of the little harbor tug Edward Blake, but as Paddy was also a first-class ship's carpenter he was .generally so employed, and almost anyone who hap- pened to be handy would take the wheel of the 'Teddy,' -as she was affectionately called. "John's sop Bert became harbormaster and • also - established a soft drink and hot dog concession on the south pier, near the town bathing beach. He rebuilt the Azov's yawl which brought them all , across the lake, installed a modern gasoline engine, decked her in and used her as a work l5oat, and to take perch fishermen to and from the the_old. cliooner, and was -just— as seavvOrthy. She was decked in solid; fore and aft; no cabin, but a large hatch giving access • to the engine, and she was steered by a hand 'tiller in the stern. "Reddy shipped a crew of two high school boys tb helP yards of gill -nets which he set daily, and he would go out in - almost any weather, .though it kept other fighermen ashore. One day while he was out at his fishing grounds, a gale from the north. sprang up, and Teddy, who usually returned to port about 2 p.m., was,long overdue.. Fear' for his safety and that of °the two boys ran high. Word reached the town that he was still out in the lake, and py 5;30. an anxious crOwd had assembled on the south pier,, Where the fish shanty was located. All eyes wefe scanning the northwest horizon, and finally, about 6;30 they spotted the two masts, but little of the hull, due to the size of the waves and the northwest breakwater blocking the view. Finally Reddy's boat rounded the end of the breakwater, with bare ,masts and only a small storm jib set, and doing about 10 knots 'before the wind. There was no sign of the two boys, but Reddy was crouched in the stern, in his oilskins and "sou -wester' hat, with one leg and both hands around the tiller, "He brought the boat in to within 100 feet of his moorings, ran forward and dropped the jib and* ,coasted into- his COPYRIGHT W.E. ELLIOTT re d bottle of whisky, and some ' glasses. Teddy sPotted the bottle from the park across the street, and also the fact that the ' telephone cable to, the Bell Telephone office next door was carried on poles only a few feet from the open window. He climbed the nearest pole on the hand spikes, went hand -over- hand along. the cable to the window, reached out and grabbed the bottle, tucked it in his pocket and went , monkey fashion to the next pole, descended and yvas gone. "Such-epiSodes often ended in If appearing the next day in agistrate's Court, where he moorings headway. might be sentenced to from Willing hands made fast the thirty to sixty days in jail. mooring lines. The deck was "I visited hirn once during loaded with boxes of fish, one such a' sojourn and asked: 'abbard7Wheii-all Was Secure -ReddS7? Ile said, "I Sure -hope Reddy unfastened the locks. on they gdt anti -freeze in them the hatch, lifted it and said, rad,iators, cause if they haven'A fYou_can-come-out now' to the—theyll--bust-and-fl-ood-the-plaee— wretched youths who had spent as sure as God made little the whole of the voyage lying in apples. 'How is the food?' I greasy bilgewater, one on each asked. 'Oh,' said Reddy, side of the engine. Reddy had 'there's enough of it such as it is, but the tea! You could see a, nickel in the bottom of twenty fathoms of the dammed stuff, it's so weak. ordered them there for their own safety when the going got tough, and sailed his boat in alone. , "Reddy worked several times under Big Bill Forrest, but he was never" much ,of a hand at steady employment for . someone else, unless as a sailor at sea or on the lakes, where he couldn't get ashore for a session with John 'Barleycorn. The ,story goes that one hot summer night; very late, some of the boys from the local banks were having a poker 'game in the rooms above one of the banks. Being such a warm night, they•had pulled the card table over next to the open window, on the sill of which 'There were several other MacDonalds who wOrked around the ,harbor, besides Captahi John's immediate family. They were mostly cousins, or some relative. One was ;Mutton MacDonald, who was a derrick scow operatrl: working for .0me in 'the early 1930s. Another was Angie MacDonald, who was chief engineer (there was only one) on Bill Forrest's dredge - tending tug Dorothy Mae. I fact, there were so many MacDonalds working around the harbor at • one thing and another, some wag expressed it this way. *"If someone with a foghorn voice like big Bill's went down to the docks and ye lied 1VIACDONALD ! there would bea general stampede. "Big Bill towed one of his dredges, and "one dump scow, from Goderich to. Oshawa in 1936. He sent the tug VV.L. Forrest to do the lion's share of the towing, and theThbrothy Mae, much smaller, to fulfil the insurance requirements that two tugs should bp in at- tendance in case of emergency, and also .to take charge of the single dump scow on which was loaded the dipper arm, the two spuds, and all spare gear, so as, JighterOth&dredge- 11 -as-: much as poSsible. The Dorothy Mae was strictl a harbor -tug -with -little- or no accommodation aboard her for double shifts of the crew, and the voyage was made in fine weather with little opportunity for sleep for the crew. Upon arrival at Oshawa, Bill turned the Dorothy around and sent her back to Goderich for the other dump scow. Upon he arrival at Goderich the cr were pretty well "beat" ith fatigue, but Bill's order were to "coal -up" .and ge started down the lake aga with .the Second dump,sco chief, wh hadn't lost his Scottish accent, approached *Bill an said, Bill, cood I have twen -five dollars advance On m monthly pay, as I left all Bill asked 'What do you want twenty - five dollars for?", knoWing full well that a trip to town and possibly the purchase of a bottle or two was the real. reason. Angie said, "Well, ye see, I'm all out of smoking tobacco, and friends for a week now." "Bill said, "What do you smoke?". Angie replied "None other than MacDonald's cut plug". . Bill • reached for the telephone, called Craigies poolroom and smoke shop and said '$end down twenty-five dollarS 'worth of MacDonald's cut pliig smoking tobacco right away and I'll pay for it when it gets here.' Angie said later, to the rest of the crew, 'Good losh, mon, I'll be .smokin' the do stuff for the next twenty year • BIG BILL RETI - "Bill Forre sold his dredging plan oon after Dad died, and ecause he' was getting ol and feeble he went back to his first farm (in Tucker mith)' where his sisters and is niece Margaret and her s apping big husband, who ow ran the farm, looked after him. "I used to visit with him when. the opportunity offered, and at Christmas in 1951 I took him one of those giant -size bottles of Scotch whiskey that hold four ordinary bottles. , Bill was delighted, and when he broached it for the two of us he said, 'Now that is what I call a man-sized bottle 'of Scotch, and I know there'll be a wee drappie left for the morning.' But it lasted a long time, as his heavy . drinking days were over." (In a will drawn eight years before his death, Bill Forrest . • Q. shack, pro bly to fire 'someone e e, and when he ' returned found a newspaper clippin pinned prominently to the c tre of his desk. • directed that his Wily. be cremated and the ishes deposited in Hillsgreen cemetery, Stanley township. An account in *the Huron Expositor, Seaforth, on Sept. 19, 1052 is in part as follows: 'A private service was held at the home of his sister, Miss Alber Forrest, Tuckersmith, an the remains were taken ,to .St: James' Crematorium, Toronto; interment took lace in Pallbearers • ere David McLean, Jo C. Cochrane, Seaforth;/ ale Pressey, St. Thomas • Robert Williams, 7 God rich, and Col. C.J. Ber- ngham, Ancaster. Rev, A.W. ardiner, Egmondville, of - Bermingham records in his notes, "and -while he was' dressed in his customary blue flannel shirt and modest tie, I felt it rather a shame that the funeral clothes could not have included his ' high Stetson hat and his buffalo hide fur coat, both of which Were a part of a great individualist. , "He left me a legacy which his. sister gave me . at .the funeral service. . It Was a framed document written by Elbert Hubbard, signed by the author, and it carried a story. "During the conStruction of a wharf in Morrisburg in 1919, Bill became more and more „frustrated by the availability, or lack of it, of 'efficient labor following World . War One. There were three crews - one coming, onp going , and one working, and Bill kept cussing and firing right and left. After one Rich very voluble session, Bill stormed out Ot the office "It read: The man who Is worthy of being a leader of men will never complain of the stupidity of his helpers, the ingradtude of mankind, nor the inappreciation of the publia. These thhigs, are .all a part* the great game of life, and to • meet them and not go down before them In -discouragement and defeat is, the Final Proof of Power.' . "After Bill read it he told 'Dad, 'Mr. Bermingham, I never got such a ticking -off in my life.' He was. SQ iMPIT$Sed Ahat: he' -wrote, the atithbt--and' told ,him the circumstances and received the Signed copy . done in Old English print. I have it now, hanging-below— Bill's picture in my office as a . reminder that I was privileged great leader of men.'' . KNEW BIG BILL' Jack Videan, writing to say he enjoyed this series, addS: "I knew Bill Forresti-he had a, turkey dinner for some of us veterans when we returned from overseas after the last war. Joe Webb was .cook. I don't reinember if the shack, aS • he called it, was, still on the island at that time or where it is now. I visite& him at his farin, near Seaforth in his later years and his large living-iliom was full of beautiful antiques, lamps, dishes, silver, etc - and a mahogany bar which was once in the Ocean House at the dock, when Babb was proprietor." 11111111111111111111111111111 1111111111111111111111 otoy 4 Godellich HI arboi irt 1 9 I 6 inimimmillimmifi'iimminiiimillimmimailiiiiiimoniim,