TRANSCRIPT

Water Street always fascinated me because of all the coves and there was always something for a kid to look at or watch and get into difficulties at times too. I remember you know gangs of men going here and there and just off on the north side of the harbour where the piers and wharves were you wouldn't see too much on that side in the way of military shipping, most of the military shipping was as far as I can remember was out in the harbour or over on the Southside, but I remember the blackout very well, a lot of places you couldn't go anymore I never been there before, the military were filling in like Bannerman Park, I just barely remember being around Bannerman park and there was construction going up everywhere and all kinds of troops and soldiers walking around. downtown on Water Street. There was soldiers there for days and the big riot on New Gower Street, this is when the Americans supplied the 50 old destroyers to the British and the British Royal Navy sent crews over. These things had been brought up from the states and moored in Halifax and they brought the crews over from England to pick them up. Well amongst the crew that they sent over were 40 Newfoundlanders who hadn't been home since 1939. Course the place was crawling with sailors from the Royal Canadian Navy, and the two didn't intermix too good during wartime that was a different world altogether. Anyway that's when the Newfoundlanders and a lot of the Newfoundlanders were from St. John's from the old part of St. John's, I'm talking now the area between Empire Ave and the Harbour, they come home now and all of their girlfriends are going out with the Canadians. Up she goes. Anyway they cleaned out New Gower Street and my father was on duty at Buckmaster's Field with one of the Army units. He was the orderly officer for that 24 hour period. His orderly sergeant came in and said "Sir we better get the MPs down to New Gower Street". Took them, it started roughly around 8 o'clock that night and they finally cleared it up about 8 o'clock the next morning. It was a knock down drag out, and father said when him and his group of two or three got there the Constabulary were on the scene, the shore patrol were there, every military police in Christidom was there you know it was just a knock down drag out riot.
Hubert Short