Interview #18

Name: Clyde Sutton

Sex: Male

Age: 77

Place and date of birth:Milltown, January 1, 1922

Education: Grade four

Religion: Anglican

Occupation:

Number of children: 1 Adopted

Names of children and where they live:

Guy Cornish - Head of Bay d'Espoir

Phone: 882-2101

Place of interview: Milltown

Date of interview: February 9, 1999

Interviewers: Dale Willcott and Kerri-Ann Snook

Clyde Sutton was born in Milltown, on January 1, 1922. His father, James J. Sutton, was born in Head of Bay d'Espoir. His mother, Myra Kearley was born in Partridge Harbour. Clyde has seven brothers and sisters. He has one adopted son living in Head of Bay d'Espoir.

Clyde spent five years overseas, from 1941 to 1946, working in the woods and in sawmills. "My first job was not a job as such. You created your own job by going in the woods with your father." Clyde said. His father had an ox, and he worked with him for a couple of years.

Clyde and his brother George, went to work with Island Timber Company. The company came to the bay to cut pulpwood. In the summertime, Clyde and his brother would cut wood, and in the winter they would pack the fall logs. "There were no wages back then, Island Timber would give $1.60 a cord. Dollar was worth a nice bit back then." Clyde said.

Clyde was nineteen when he went overseas to Northern Scotland. Thirteen people signed up for the Navy in March and in June they still never had a call. They then joined the forestry because they were also looking for people. There were only three people who didn't bother with the forestry, they were Henry Snook, Ralph Collier, and Wallace Collier. Ralph and Wallace went to St. John's but got turned down for some reason. Henry Snook went on into the Navy.

Clyde left here on the 25th of June 1941. He arrived at the British Isles on the 28th of July. He left St. Alban's and went to Burgeo and then directly to North Sidney. From Sidney they traveled to Montreal by train. Clyde was in Montreal for nine days, and then went aboard the ship Mendosa. He sailed down the St. Lawrence River to Halifax. That is where they joined a convoy of ships. The Atlantic was full of submarines, which sank many ships. However, all ninety-eight ships in the convey did make it over. They arrived in Liverpool on July 28th. "The boat wasn't crowded on the way across. Everyone had a Birth, which is another name for bed." Clyde said. The food was provided, but they had to bring their own clothes. The Forestry provided the rest. "The food on the boats wasn't that good but we had to put up with it." Clyde said. Then they went to Northern Scotland and on to their camp. The men stayed in camps, five bunkhouses in the camp, close to 100 people stayed in one camp. Going across the Gulf was rough, almost everyone was sea sick. They were entertained on the way across with concerts and dances.

There were eighty-four men from Bay d'Espoir went overseas. Nineteen of them joined the forestry others joined both the army and the forestry. There were almost four thousand people in the Forestry from all over Newfoundland. Canada had a Forestry Unit as well. The Newfoundland Forestry was under Military rule because they needed the men right away. There was an urgent call for timber.

The Forestry Unit was trained for home guard. They had Military training. They were issued riffies, respirators, bants, ammunation, and uniforms. Saturdays and Sundays were for training, then we went out on with the movers.

Most materials were sawed up by the sawmills, and used for the mines. The tops, that were called "props" they were sawed different lengths 2 1/2, 3 1/2, and 5 feet, they were used in the mines. All the material was used for the mines. They had to keep everything going because Britain was in a desperate situation. You had to cut wood and drive a truck for a couple of weeks.

"It was better working over there because it was all planted timber. The land and gound was mostly good because it had no under brush. You would cut your timber and burn the brush in the season and everything was cleaned up." Clyde said. There was only one main road, the small roads were used for horses to haul wood down the main road. They used a buck saw and a simon saw. A simon saw is like a cross-cut saw. It is a big long saw with a handle on each end and had drags on them. A John knife was used to rhine the bark off of the logs. There were canteens overseas, which was camp three and camp six. They also had billards, darts, and card playing.