Escaping Customs
(Walter Payne & Wilson Payne)
Before 1949, Newfoundland was a colony of Great Britain, so any schooner that sailed across the Gulf of St. Lawrence to the mainland was sailing in foreign waters and to foreign ports. Anything that was brought back from across the gulf had to go through customs and duty had to be paid on those items. Walter Payne of Winterhouse Brook remembers his father (Wils) making numerous trips across the gulf carrying lumber to Nova Scotia and often returning with a load of coal for the merchants of Woody Point.
As a boy, he’d watch for the masts of the schooners to appear over the rooftops on the Woody Point waterfront. He could usually tell, even from a mile away, which masts belonged to the schooner his father worked on. Upon knowing that his father had returned home, he would walk to Woody Point hoping to find out what he might have brought back from across the gulf. He remembers his father bringing back boxes of grapes and other fruits that would excite the children, as well as other food items that were not easy to get in Woody Point. He would roll those items in the canvas (sails) so they would not be detected by customs officers, and the night after they returned home, he would row in his dory to Woody Point under the cover of darkness and bring it home.
Another story Wils used to tell was about the time they were returning home from North Sydney with a load of coal when they came upon a very large, sleek looking schooner who, like themselves, wasn't moving very fast because the wind was very light at the time. Both schooners were powered by sail only.
Rum running from the French islands of St. Pierre and Miquelon was quite common in those days and the large vessel looked like she could be a rum runner. The skipper decided they would go up to her and find out. By this time the wind had dropped out completely, so they put a dory overboard and a couple of the boys, including Wils, set out to row to her. When they got along side, they shouted out to a fellow on her deck and asked to see the skipper. They were invited aboard and taken below to the captain’s quarters where they found the skipper sitting in a big armchair, loaded drunk! He looked them over and asked what they wanted, so someone asked if he might have a drop of liquor aboard. He said, “We got whatever the son of a bitch can hold”!! They then made a deal to buy some and counted up their money and bought what they could afford before leaving to row back to their own schooner. Liquor wasn't that plentiful around those small communities in those days! When the wind finally picked up, they headed for home!
It wasn't only the children who got a treat when the schooners got home from across the gulf!!
By Charlie Payne
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