TRANSCRIPTInterviewer:
So, what year did you start working for the Bairds?
Mr. Docker:
Oh I guess the first time I got on one of their tugboats I was still in school, I was fifteen.
Interviewer:
Oh, ok.
Mr. Docker:
1955.
Interviewer:
1955. Ok. So what kind of work did you do for them?
Mr. Docker:
Deckhand. Until I..when I got out of school, I worked for 5 years in the sawmill, and then I went to work for them full-time in 1963 and I was captain on the boats until about '73.
Interviewer:
Ok. And-
Mr. Docker:
I ran just about all their boats from then on.
Interviewer:
Oh, ok. So did each boat have a specific captain, or different people ran..?
Mr. Docker:
No, it was usually myself, Bus, and Bill Baird. And then when they bought the 'Service IX', which none of these pictures show it, they used to hire another skipper from Vancouver to run that, from the guild. But, I ran all the other boats, this one, that one, that one, that one. We had a split shift, I worked one week a night shift, one week a day shift, and those two brothers split the other weeks and the shifts or whatever tug. If we needed all of them to push a shift in at the dock, well, we'd all be working.
Interviewer:
Oh, ok.
Mr. Docker:
So didn't matter who was on one boat.
Interviewer:
Sort of circumstantial?
Mr. Docker:
You just went down and did the job.
Interviewer:
Ok. So, ok, so do you know which one was the oldest ship? Was it 'The Best?' Was that the oldest?
Mr. Docker:
Well, I know, 'The Best,' was built somewhere in 1930. The, 'Myn Best,' was built I think in the 30s, the, 'Our Best,' was built in the 30s, the, 'Does Best,' was..they were all from the 30s. The, 'Sea Best,' was built in 1960. The, 'Service IX,' of course I, I don't remember when she was built because he bought that from Escot Towing.
Interviewer:
Oh, ok. And that was the last one that he bought?
Mr. Docker:
That was the last one they bought. Yup, yeah, they bought that so that he was..I guess at one point in time he was looking for a contract to tow the B.A. oil barge up and down the coast to the logging camps.
Interviewer:
Oh, ok.
Mr. Docker:
And um, I don't know, we never really got that contract. But then they used it, they towed for Wellwood, they towed logs for Wellwood from..up in Desolation Sound, down to Vancouver here.
Interviewer:
Ok. So now, the Bairds, they had a contract with Flavelle Cedar?
Mr. Docker:
Oh yeah, that was their lifeline.
Interviewer:
That was their main contract. Ok.
Mr. Docker:
I can remember one year, 1966 or 67, you could walk across the inlet down here on logs. I had that bay so full of logs, `cause that was my job, I used to keep the mill running. And I`d be out there by myself at 3 o` clock in the morning bringing logs outta there and putting them in the mill. And I had that whole bay full from one side to the other of logs, you couldn't chalk another log in there.
Interviewer:
Oh, wow. Ok.
Mr. Docker:
And then they stopped you from doing that after awhile, you couldn't do it anymore. `Course the mill didn't get that much wood. Once Indian river logging camps slowed down there wasn't..there wasn't much, `cause I used to tow the logs down from Indian river too.
Interviewer:
Ok. And where would they be coming to?
Mr. Docker:
The mill here. Either here or Bestwood Shingle Mill.
Interviewer:
Oh, ok.
Mr. Docker:
Yup, yup. Big cedar logs.
Interviewer:
Ok.
Mr. Docker:
Oh yeah. And then we handled all the ships up here, into the terminal dock. And we towed oil barges up and down the harbour and chip scows up and down the harbour for Seaspan, for years and years and years. Yeah.
Interviewer:
So that was what the main barging was..was done for?
Mr. Docker:
Well, actually they were, at the start they were tug boat people..log, log people for the longest time. Then when Pacific Coast Terminals opened up they got into the ship work.
Interviewer:
Oh ok. So what kind of work did they do for Pacific Coast Terminals?
Mr. Docker.
Pushing ships in.
Interviewer:
Oh, ok.
Mr. Docker:
And at one time they used to load chip scows there.
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