Interview #42

Name: Theodore Cobb

Sex: Male

Age: 67

Place and date of birth: Fogo Island, September 5, 1931

Education: Grade 5

Religion: Anglican

Occupation: Fisherman, Lumberjack

Number of children: 1

Names of children and where they live:

Christopher Cobb - St. Alban's

Phone: 538-3478

Place of interview: Voyce Cove Road

Date of interview: March 10, 1999

Interviewers: Curtis Hoskins and Colin Pittman

Theodore Cobb was born at Barred Islands on Fogo Island on September 5, 1931. His ancestors came from southern England. At first, they would come across during the summer to fish. The fish and the birds were plentiful, so after coming over for a few summers, so they built their houses on Barred Islands. They went back after to get their families. Theodore's father was a fisherman and his mother. His mother also raised nine children, tended the pigs, sheep and goats, and looked after the garden. In the garden were turnips, beets, onions, and cabbage. That was how they survived. There was no money. If they saw ten cents or five cents, they were lucky. His family couldn't afford much. They would eat a lot of fish.

When he was growing up, he worked on the wharf for seven cents an hour. He would salt the fish and dry the fish. Theodore remembered once when he went out on the ice without his mother's permission and got a 50-pound seal and sold it for five dollars. "Growing up back then, five dollars was like a million dollars today." Ted said. When he was around eight years old, he went out on the marsh and cut willow trees to make willow brooms. They would be sold to the merchants and the fishermen would use them to scrub down slub and blood. They would get ten cents for each broom. He would also sell pickets that would be used to make picket fences. He would go in with a dog team that his father owned. The pickets were five dollars for every 100 pickets. Usually, he would get fifty pickets a load.

Theodore was a middle child. His youngest brother is fifteen years younger than he. Theodore was away in the lumber woods when his brother was born. Theodore recalled, "Mother almost had two families." He helped bringing his younger brother up. Theodore learned more when he came out of school and started traveling around, then he did while in school. He went into the lumber woods two or three years after he left school. He was in the woods until he was seventeen or so.

After he left the woods, he went to Toronto. Only the odd man was leaving to go across the gulf. He got on the main train from St. John's to Port aux Basques and then the ferry to North Sydney. On the boat, you would get your fingerprints taken to discover the World War 2 spies. This was right after the Caribou went down. Then Theodore got on another train and went to Toronto. The trip took about four or five days and it cost thirty dollars from Fogo Island to Toronto. Theodore didn't have any money to go so he drew out money from his life insurance company, Sunlife, for the passage money. He was in Toronto for two years. He had a little room on Parliament Street that cost five dollars per week. He bought his own groceries and cooked for himself. At first, he worked in a furniture factory for seventy-five cents an hour. Theodore preferred to work outdoors so he left the factory to work at construction. He knew a guy from home who got him the job. He received $1.25 an hour ($40/week) with lots of overtime in the summer.

In Toronto, Theodore met Art Scott. He was an old man compared to Theodore. He was from Bay L'Argent and he bought a big ocean going yacht. He was in Toronto for a long time. Art Scott worked for a millionaire who had retired. He used to be a fisherman on the Grand Banks but went to Toronto to get a job sailing these boats on Lake Ontario for the millionaire. The bottom of the boat had fifty tons of lead but the millionaire sold the lead before he gave the yacht to Art Scott when he retired. Theodore knew Art Scott because he worked in his yard. Art wanted some help sailing this boat back to Newfoundland. Theodore agreed. Art had a house and family in Toronto. He took all of his belongings and loaded them on the yacht. He also sent his family down. Art went back to Bay L'Argent but Ted got off at Port aux Basques. They had no motor and it took eighteen days to sail across. When they got out at the gulf, they struck a bit of wind, maybe forty or fifty miles per hour. With the lead gone, they had to use the sails three quarters of the way down. It took them twenty-four hours to get from Gaspe, Quebec to Port aux Basques. They went into shore at Quebec to get some groceries and an odd case of beer for coming down the St. Lawrence River.

In 1951, while in Newfoundland, he went to see his family and then to St. John's. He needed to get a job for the winter so he got one in a stove factory. It was too smoky so he left. After this, he helped on the construction of Holy Cross School in St. John's. In March of 1952, he gave up construction and went to the seal fishery. It wasn't much money at all. There were fifty-four sealers that slept in a compartment in the head of the boat. The sealers had to work shifts. They went from Cape Bonavista to the Straits. The boat iced up going out and coming back. When they were well down in the straits, it was very cold. The boat iced up but they didn't have to chop any ice off the boat. The sealers knew where to look for the seals. Wherever there was a patch of ice, which is where the sealers would go. They struck the seals but they were very small with white coats. The seals were taken anyway. The sealers would ice down the seals that day and during the night there was ice in the nets. After a good breakfast of eggs, the sealers were put off in the morning at sunrise and given a grub bag containing hard bread and water. They were picked up in the evening and given a big supper consisting of flippers. They were sealing for seven weeks fromMarch 5 to April 19. They got 56,000 seals. Theodore made $75 in the seven weeks.

On May 20, 1953, Theodore came to St. Alban's where he met Anne Collier. A year and a half later they were married. He and Anne went to Toronto where he worked in a shipyard. After they came back from Toronto, they built their house in St. Alban's. After this, he went to Labrador City to work. A company called, Javelin was doing an experiment on iron ore Theodore drilled with a little diamond drill to take up the rock. He worked there for two or three summers in a row. Next, Theodore worked at Goose Bay. A new runway was built there. They put a big concrete block right over the old one and made it bigger. He worked there the summers of 1957 and 1958. After this, he returned to St. Alban's to build and sell boats. He only built ten boats and the most he got for a boat was $900. When Hydro came to Bay d'Espoir, Theodore worked at surveying. He got $400 every two weeks.

Today, Theodore enjoys life relaxing in St. Alban's with his wife Anne and building things.