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Captain William Downey he was running the boat. I'm not sure but I think he was born in Minudie and then he went to sea and then he became a captain. Then in later years, he started running this boat, and no doubt there was boats running across there before.
Well, from what I was told, there was the old King Seaman ferry. I believe your sister was telling me that the scow they towed behind this boat was from the old King Seaman ferry and there was the old Acadian ferry before that. She had a bit on the Seaman ferry and it came from Barronsfield there and Glennies operated it from Barronsfield there.
Yes, there's no doubt there had been a ferry there a longtime before the little dan, because they didn't have cars, and the roads to Amherst with a horse and wagon or a pair of horses, took quite a while to get there and back. They used the boat quite a lot I know, because they used to bring feed across,or bring shingles or anything the people down there needed. They'd buy it in Amherst and have them shipped down on the boat. I never was at the wharf in Amherst, but they had a weigh place, there I guess, a freight shed and they had a pair of horses that used to go to town and bring back passengers, or feed or whatever they had.
There is a story in the Sir Charles Tupper story about when Reverand Tupper, (this would be on the old Seaman ferry) was going across on his horse. The horse reared and Reverand Tupper, horse and all went into the basin. Did you ever hear that?
I never heard that one, but I heard about them driving a horse and wagon on this scow and just sit in the wagon until they got to the other side and just drive the horse and wagon off.
When the tide was running right, maybe the boat would leave in the morning at 7'o clock. Well then it would come back and that would be around the evening, maybe 6'o clock or 7'o clock, and they'd go up and back the same day. But sometimes, they'd have to go up and stay overnight because the tide see would be a difference in going across.
These photostats are from the books that he kept, James Doncaster, 1858, that would be on the Seaman ferry. And I notice that there was a different fee for high and low water and he had it marked. I think in the beginning it was pence & shillings, and he marked high and low water. I suppose low water would be when they had to stay overnight.
Yes. See the tide is what an hour difference every day. So when it come around to night the ferry couldn't run. Like I say, some mornings they got away early the could come back early evening or late afternoon.