PRINT SOURCE: Thomas Raddall Fonds, Correspondence. From Thomas Raddall to Colonel Thomas Cantley, 15 February 1937. MS-2-202 37.55.
Subject HeadingsOne by one T. H. Raddall answers questions posed in a letter from Colonel Thomas Cantley. Cantley questioned specific details about ore transportation by steamers in Raddall's short story, "The Road to Fortune", published in Blackwood's Magazine, December 1936.
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February 15, 1937 Colonel the Hon. Thomas Cantley,The Senate, Ottawa. Dear Colonel Cantley: The editor of Blackwood's Magazine has passed to me a letter from yourself concerning my story "The Road to Fortune". Criticism is the reader's privilege, of course, but I trust you will permit me to correct certain wrong conclusions you have drawn. First, let me say very emphatically that the "Malagash" is an entirely fictitious steamer, and "Merkel, Abercrombie, Fourchu, Somers" and others of her crew are, with a single exception, entirely fictitious people. The exception is myself. I was "Rutherford". The names were drawn at random; if there is or was a marine engineer named Somers it is pure coincidence. The central incident of the story is fact, a drama I witnessed personally. I was a member of the crew of a ship bound to Wabana at the time. My ship was not the "Wobun" as you suggest. I cannot recall ever seeing the "Wobun". My own skipper was a middle-aged man with a happy family at home. His name was not Mickle or even "Merkel", and in appearance, manner and fact he was the antithesis of the mythical person I have described as master of the "Malagash". I once sailed with a skipper named Mickle, who may have been one of the three brothers you mention in your letter. He was not a communicative man, and of his private life I know nothing. Your point regarding the speed of loading at Wabana1 is a just one. My intentions were good, however. I once described it to a seafaring friend who shouted "What! Do you mean to say they shoot that heavy ore 200 feet into the hold of a ship?" I had to explain how the ore was brought down to the ship's level before entering the loading shoots. Consequently in my story I was at pains to avoid the impression of tumbling ore over a cliff into the ship. My choice of an adverb was, as you point out, unfortunate. "Steadily" would have been better. In referring to the lack of amenities at Wabana, you must remember that I was describing it from the viewpoint of a sailor ashore for a few hours. The company boarding houses you mention were unknown to me; in any case their comforts would not be available to a casual seafarer like myself. The available delights of Wabana were confined to a pool-room or two, and that sort of thing, where I can assure you I have rubbed shoulders with miners in rusty working rig just as described in my tale. The "barn" of course is fiction. Your statement about growlers is correct. I did not say that a growler2 was seen. In the actual event my captain did mistake the icy derelict for a growler, and so did all of us for a time. It did not seem possible in the light of all experience in those waters, but there it was -- a lump of ice south of St. Pierre in December. Closer inspection cleared up the mystery as I related in my story. Incidentally, perhaps you can clear up a Wabana mystery for me. While on a stroll ashore there I was shown a well in which the water was covered with a thick scum of oil. I was told that the oil seeped into the well in a regular flow,3 and the house-holder assured me that he had refined some of it with a crude still and burned it in his lamps. I am not a geologist, but the juxtaposition of oil and iron ore seemed odd. Did this circumstance ever come to your attention while you were head of the N.S. Steel & Coal Company's affairs? I assume that the engineering staff at Wabana were aware of it. |
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