Norman Iverson
Norman Iverson lives in Dodge Cove and has worked all his life
in the fishing industry. He learned boatbuilding in Oona River from his father
Krist Iverson and also from John Group. He has his own boatshed in Dodge Cove.
He spoke with Sparrow Taranov on January 14, 2006.
Fishing and Boatbuilding
Sparrow: How did you get into boat fixing and
repair, and boat building?
Norman: Well, you see my dad was a boat builder
and when he was building boats, I use to have the wonderful job of putting in
the floors. That's all I got to do- and puttying. Plugging the nails. And I
just hated it. But anyways, I guess I wasn't learning fast enough or whatever
so I kept getting that job over and over and over again, which I really didn't
like. And I thought, well this is no good. John Group was building boats and I
thought, well, I'll go see if I can get a job with John Group. And of course, I
asked old Group and he said, 'Well sure if your dad says you can, you can.'
What I didn't realize was that my dad had talked to John Group or that John
Group had talked to my dad. So when I went to work with John Group, guess what
jobs I had?
Sparrow: Floors and puttying?
Norman: So I swore I would never do that again!
But it just got more and more interesting to me. It's been good, it's been very
good. I worked at Cassiar for three years - not three years but three springs.
I was fishing in the summer time, but I was there when they opened up. I ran a
seine boat in the summer for Cassiar. Harvey Robins was the cannery
manager.
I built the boatsheds in Dodge Cove right from scratch. I built
that main shed there all by myself - ALL by myself. I didn't have help, at all.
Winter of 1973. It was a lot of work.
The Alpha Bay was built in there, and the Northern
Spirit was built in there. And I've repaired, oh I don't know, dozens and
dozens of boats in there. On the wall in there, just as you walk down the
stairway, there's a bunch of boat names and whatever - actual pieces of the
boat that the name was on - nailed up on the wall.
The first boat in the shed was the Stellar Queen, a
little gillnet boat that I towed up from Vancouver. The year that I built this
shed I had made an agreement to go down there and tow that hull up. And when we
went down, the boat wasn't ready so I worked for Wahls down there in North Arm
Fraser for a month and a half while the thing was being built. Then we hooked
onto it and towed it up here. And then, the day that we finished putting the
roof on the shed - well I had it all built and the strapping on the roof. I had
Gerry Malin, myself and another fellow, we put the roofing on it. That night we
slid the Stellar Queen into the stall and did the wiring and the engine
hookup, all the water, put in the tail shaft, all that stuff. That was the
first one of many.
The first boat built in the shed was the Alpha Bay, my
son Krist's boat. We started building October 22, 1978. It went halibut fishing
on the twenty-second of June 79, the first year it went fishing.
I was seining herring that winter too, the year I built that
boat. I was on the Kristav that winter. We started building the Alpha
Bay in October, the latter part of October, and I left here in
mid-February. I went down and seined herring in the Gulf and the west side of
Vancouver Island, and ended up on the fifth of April we hung the net up over at
the Co-op - in the net loft there. Krist, meantime, was doing what he could. He
was painting.
Anyways, we finished it on the twenty-second of June. We went
fishing. We left here and got out as far as Melville Island, the outside of
Melville Island, running up to Hudson Bay Pass, when we decided it was time to
start getting some bait and gear. We were fishing snap gear and we didn't have
the bait tub on board -nor did we have any bladders. So we had to turn around
and come all the way back to town!
Sparrow: Forgot a couple of the essentials?
Norman: Well, remember the tide went out on us,
when we were tied up out in front here. We had to move the boat, either that or
go dry. So anyway, we left here, went down to the float out there. We had the
recipe in our head, that we had to have the bladders and bait tubs - but by the
time the next morning had rolled around, with the other thousand things we had
to do, we just got on the boat and left.
Repair Work
Norman: I remember we had one boat down here
that decided to fall apart on us, when we were supposed to be repairing it. We
were supposed to be fixing the stern. I went to take out the bulkhead, to put a
proper bulkhead in - put something more substantial in - and the thing decided
to crumble. We managed to save it but it was pretty bad. I asked my partner at
that time, Gerry Malin, if he would like to go up to the house and phone the
guy that owned it, and ask what he wanted, the engine wet or dry, he could have
it either way! Yeah, and a lot of good things happened in there. I also worked
in Prince Rupert Boatyard, over on the other side, for quite a long time.
Then there was the boat that I was given the job to make it
float. It was run into down here, next to Watson Rock. Somebody hit her. It
went like stink that boat. It cut in on an angle and cut in enough that it got
hold of some solid meat in there. And the weight of the boat just pulled the
stern off. There was no rot in there. It was absolutely sound. Anyway, after a
week on the mudflat, it decided it would rather turn upside down. They had to
get a pile driver there to lift it up, to straighten it up. So we had to put
something on to get it to float, so we could get it to go up on the carriage.
The Wahl's had the job - Prince Rupert Boatyard's job - and they
brought this thing in, towed it in. I can't remember who towed it in. Probably
it was Armour Salvage; I think it was in business at that time. Anyway, they
towed it in and dropped it on the beach there and said 'Do something with it.'
Wahl's main shop was going great guns at that time. They had
more work than they knew what to do with. So Bobby Wahl, the manager at that
time, asked me if I would consider making it so it would float. I said what are
we going to do and he said anything you would like to do. We had to have it
done within - well, you can't spend forever at it. So anyway, we nailed a bunch
of stuff to the stern there and put canvas on the outside of it - plywood first
then canvas on the outside of it. They towed it to Vancouver like that.
Koskimo was the name of the boat.
Changing Times
Norman: Matsumoto's shop in Cow Bay stayed for
many, many years. I actually did a job in the Mastsimoto shed - put covering
boards and rails around the old Sidette, which used to be the Mother
III. The boat belonged to Sid Dickens. Later she was lost somewhere around
Cape Fox. Then Rodney Pearse and Dicky McDonald bought it. Well, they were
going to fix their boats in there. But sometimes there would be nobody in there
for a month, maybe more. So, vandals got in there and lit a fire in the back of
it, in the office part of it. Well the fire department got the fire out, but
Dicky and Rodney didn't have the interest in fixing it up. The main shed was
still vital and it is all they needed or wanted. So finally it got so decrepit
that it would cost too much money to fix it, so they just tore it down. And
that is where the big bandsaw I've got came from. When that Matsumoto shop went
down, Dicky McDonald and Rodney Pearse had to get rid of all that stuff there.
So I got the big bandsaw - just 'come and get it' - which was pretty nice.
Sparrow: I guess any of the shops would have
had the tools: the saws, the steamboxes, all the standard boat shop tools.
Norman: That's right - everything.
Sparrow: There should be a surplus - because
there are so many boat shops, but you don't see them.
Norman: Well, who's going to use them, Sparrow?
The trade is gone - there is none anymore. There's very few people left in the
country that can change a plank.
Sparrow: I can do that, change a plank. I think
my skills are not too much beyond that though. But you're right. There are not
many wooden boats left at all.
Norman: No, there's none. Well, I shouldn't say
none, but they are disappearing at a tremendous rate of speed. You know that
all the old wooden seine boats that used to be in the country... They were
excellent boats, handsome wooden boats. But the companies threw them away and
built steel. Because they were too expensive to maintain them. You haven't got
any shipwrights anymore, you haven't got any lumber anymore, you know, decent
lumber. So, that's the reason for it.
Sparrow: Well, lumber could still be got, if
there was an industry for it. It's a matter of selecting lumber and putting it
aside.
Norman: The thing is, you see, the lumber
industry is gone into more value added. A really, really choice piece of wood
you can get way more money for it than cutting boat lumber from it, and drying
it, and all the rest of the stuff. You can't use the kiln to dry boat lumber;
you've got to air dry it. Economics is all it is.
Sparrow: What parts did you like most about
working on boats?
Norman: Parts? When the stern of it disappears
around the point. That's the nicest part! Oh, there's all kinds of nice parts.
