A Scaler

The year 1951. In November I was transferred to Hare Bay operations, to work with Wilson Moores in the Brig Bay section. I found myself in an unusal situation, where a year ago I had admired a position six month ago that seemed far from my attainment, and now I was working at the same job, with the same privileges, and in the same location. Al I could say is that I appreciated my fiend, James Humber, and the Lord.

Wilson and I served five camps and a number of sub contracts. When I arrived, the camps were at their busiest and we were hard put to keep ahead of the demands. Many times we worked past midnight to compute the cubic feet of the wood we had measured (scaled) for each man. Early next morning we would be back in the woods, scaling again.

The Second Hand would accompany us as guide and to provide the cutter's name and other necessary information. I generally held the measuring rod, which was a heavy duty four foot brassbound double lath hardwood ruler that extended to eight feet for working. We generally measured the length of the brow first. Wilson usually stood in the center of the "road", and noted the figures as I held the rod against the brow. Sometimes he called out the measurement, for my benefit, which I observed; often he asked me to give the measure, for I was still a student. We measured along the length, and also the height of the brow at four-foot intervals, and would tabulate these figures to arrive at the average length and heightof the brough. This was usually done on the front and back of the brow. The Scaler would then enter this information on the scale card under the man's name. Occasionally Wilson passed the scale cards to me for a few brows, and he held the rod, while I figured the averge lengths and average heights.

The first time that I scaled pulpwood on my own, was a windy, stormy morning in December. Ken Wells from Brig Bay, the Second Hand, was my guide, and we were to scale a section of, maybe two hundred cords of wood that were separate from the main block. I depended on Ken to provide the names of the cutter and to lead me to the occasional small brow on the fringes, and I concentrated on the measurements and infractions, etc. That night as we compiled the wood we had scaled for the day, Wilson picked up one of my cards to process and complained, "I wonder who has been scribbling on our cards", with a smile. Ken, a veteran, commented, "He did a good job out there today." I think Wilson was proud that his student had started out on his own and was doing well.

At various times throughout the winter I would go to scale wood for small parties, such as when I would walk across Round Pond to the Northeast side, to scale wood for a sub contractor, Bill Genge, from Anchor Point. One winter day at the southern-most, camp 11, I scaled some wood that was cut, hauled and piled on the bank at Kelly's Pond. The men who cut the wood, came to the forepeak in the evening and asked how much wood I had scaled for them. I told them the amount of wood I had scaled for them, and they were not satisfied with the scale. I think the total amount was in the vicinity of seventy cords. I told them they could request a re-scale and they asked that this be done. Wilson Moores came from another camp to re-scale their wood, and his scale revealed that there was only a couple of point's difference between his and my measurements, which was minimal. The Company confirmed my figures as the amount of wood they would pay for, and the men agreed to it. The leader of the group later came and apologized, saying that they didn't mean to distrust my work, but that they had been hoping for more than the scale indicated. Which I found happened often when the hard-working men estimated their production. The men, generally, had reckoned Wilson as a Scaler who dealt fairly with the wood cutter and the incident served to put me, right along with him, in a favorable category, and I was proud of this distinction.

In the latter part of the winter I assembled and completed my first camp Settlement. The regular settlement was when the men got paid, usually monthly. But this one was different and more complicated, in that the "Haul-off" at Camp 11 was finished and the camp was clueing up its winter operations; the men would be laid off. The camp would open up again in about three months for "The Drive", when all the pulpwood would be herded down the swollen brooks to the ponds, on its way to the shipping point. I had participated with Wilson in compiling Settlements for the other camps, and knew how it was done, but to be wholly responsible for it and to be working alone was quite different. In those days we had no calculator or adding machine, so the myriad calculations had to be worked out with pencil and paper, and payroll entries made with fountain pen and ink. I remember working all through the night of the last day, for the men were planning to leave for their homes soon after breakfast. But they wouldn't leave without their checks. I made every effort not to delay them, for they would be walking all the way, and it would take the whole day to reach their homes. So it was sixty happy men who heard from the foreman at breakfast, that their checks were ready, and they expressed their appreciation as they filed in and were paid-off.

One morning at Camp 8, I lit the fire in the office and went to the cookhouse for breakfast. Returning to the office, I turned on the radio for the 8.30 news, and on the first item the announcer, lowering his voice slightly in deference and respect, announced the death of King George the Sixth. That was February 6, 1952. He had died from complications of a lung operation. I remember feeling devastated at the loss of our king, for in those days we felt a bond of loyalty for the king and queen that many may not experience today. It was to him, as ruler of the British Empire, of which we were a part that we had looked to for protection when the scourge of Nazism seemed to be sweeping across the world. Now, sadly, he had died at 57, having reigned only sixteen years.

Camp 8 was the headquarters of our group of five camps, and had a staff house and a office, equipped with a crank-type telephone, with which we could contact the other camps and the main office at Hare Bay. The office was also equipped with a typewriter and various aids and supplies. A portage truck would bring supplies to the camps, and in winter a Bombardier snowmobile would perform this service. Occasionally there arose a reason for me to take a trip to the Depot at Hare Bay, for a weekend or a few days. I would stay at the staff-house and worked at the office, so I became acquainted with the other workers. This site was also well built and equipped, as it was at Hawkes Bay. The main street was lined with impressive dwellings for the staff with families, plus the staff-house, and a cookhouse where the workers ate. On the opposite side of the street was a substantial general office building and a large store, warehouse, office complex, called, Hare Bay Stores. Beyond that was a well-equipped garage, and farther along, a blacksmith shop.

Especially in the two or three summer months of the "Loading" season, this would be a bustling community. Large ships would come into the anchorage, and the versatile "winch-boats" would be continually towing "booms" of wood from the "holding ground" to the sides of the ship. A large crane was mounted on a barge and anchored securely along-side the ship. It would reach down into the bed of floating pulpwood and with its huge fingers, grasp a giant "handful" of wood, lift it dripping, into the air, and swinging the load toward the ship; deposited it neatly in the hold. Down below, men were waiting to stow the four-foot logs in place. When the hold below was full, a deck load would be stowed and secured for the shipment overseas. Loading would be under way in mid-summer.

In the spring and early summer my job involved the inspection of the "cut-overs", to note any brows that had been overlooked. We also visited several areas of forest, noting the assortment of insects, observing and carefully collecting certain specimens that were harmful to the local forests, recording the number in a measured area. I enjoyed it all.

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