factory crews came in May and June. Every packer had a cookhouse 
     
     where meals from the fishermen were made and eaten. The factory 
     
     crews stayed in large buildings that each packer build for their workers. 
     
     They had a partition in the middle, with men on one side and women 
     
     on the other. The fishermen all lived in “shanties” that were built on 
     
     farm land close to the shore and near whatever factory they fished for. 
     
     The independent fishermen built their own, but those who fished the 
     
     packers’ gear were supplied shanties to live in by the packers. The 
     
     shanties were small wood-framed buildings similar to small cottages. 
     
     Some were tar-papered, but most were shingled and had asphalt roofs. 
     
     They had one room with a cook stove for heat, and would have either 
     
     two or four bunks. Large jute bags filled with hay or straw were used for 
     
     mattresses. 
     
    

    
     At least once a week, the old log school house became a dance hall 
     
     where men and women came from all of the factories for the old time 
     
     dances. 
     
    

    
     Fiddling was mostly provided by the O‘Connor and Kemp families 
     
     from Sturgeon, but the Island also had its own extra good musicians. 
     
     Frank MacCormack was a real good fiddler, and his brother Daniel 
     
     played the mandolin. As kids we would watch through the open 
     
     windows from outside. The small school would be packed. I recall a 
     
     woman but the name of Mrs Uigg (Guick) who came from Launching 
     
     where she and her uncle, Jim Hayter, ran a small grocery store. She 
     
     sold homemade ice cream at the dances. A large cone sold for 5 cents, 
     
     but as a child you often didn‘t have that. I remember a cook for the 
     
     Hewitt’s by the name of Mabel Kemp, buying me ice cream. 
     
    

    
     Quite a few love affairs came out of those fishing and factory days. 
     
     My sister Beulah met her husband Newton O’Connor, who fished there 
     
     for a short while and bought bar clams. Alva Allen met his wife Sadie 
     
     Clarey, who was a cook for one of the factories. My wife Catherine’s 
     
     parents (Henry Martell and Mary Moore) also met there. Mary was a 
     
     cook’s helper for the Southern Packers and Henry was a fisherman. 
     
    

    
     Although the Island was a very active fishing community, I recall 
     
     only two boats that were ever built there. They were built by Lem Allen, 
     
     completely by hand using just regular hand tools. One boat was used 
     
     by the Gotells for fishing-she was called “The Commando" The other 
     
     was built for Camille Lanteigne from Cardigan. Joseph Gotell Junior 
     
     had left the Island but came back for a while to help Lem build these 
     
    
   
   
    
     boats. Joseph Junior later built a boat himself in Georgetown. He fished 
     
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