Arnold MacMillan Archives - The Pictou Advocate

A boat SO big …

January 26, 2020January 22, 2020Jim Turple

It was the autumn season of 1960 and my father was preparing to build himself another boat. The planking for his boats had to be of perfect choice and without any knots. He knew of a lumber yard in Merigomish that would provide such materials and he took a load of this planking in his...

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The storm of 1957

October 2, 2019September 17, 2019Jim Turple

It was a beautiful sunny plus 75 degree fall day on September 25 1957. Herring fishing had been underway since August 19th. There were a few fishermen from the mainland and probably about eight-island fisherman including my father who had been setting their nets around Pictou Island. Melvin MacDonald, Arnold MacMillan, Harold Bennett, Duncan, Lauchie,...

Arnold MacMillan and Jim Fraser

September 25, 2019September 13, 2019Jim Turple

My wife Joann and I are fortunate in knowing Jim Fraser from Broadway Pictou County. Jim has lived and worked his entire life in Pictou County and at one time had visited with Pictou Islanders. Jim has shared some memories of his past years with us. The following is one of his experiences of working...

Sinking of the Tonka

August 14, 2019August 14, 2019Jim Turple

It was on a clear morning of August 21, 1959 when Scott Falconer’s boat Tonka, loaded with herring, was accidentally rammed and sunk by another boat. The lucrative herring run had just begun and Scott was then without a boat. Scott’s good friend Arnold MacMillan from Pictou Island felt really sorry that such a thing...

The winter of 1955-56

July 3, 2019June 25, 2019Jim Turple

Winter set in early with about three inches of snow falling on Nov. 11, 1955. My father and Arnold MacMillan had been setting their smelt nets together in coves around the Merigomish area but had returned home to Pictou Island on November 12 because of the unstable weather. It was still blowing hard and was...

Shrieks from monsters in the woods …

October 9, 2018September 26, 2018Jim Turple

Far out in the Northumberland Strait lies a tiny island where maybe even today imaginary monsters roam in its woods … I recall my earlier years living on Pictou Island when monsters supposedly lurked in the woods behind our homes. You see every Pictou Island landowner had their own woodlands. Just about every islander would...

Ice, fire, a race and a brawl …

August 24, 2018August 17, 2018Jim Turple

The Northumberland Strait was full of ice on May 1st 1965. It has been eight months since we moved off Pictou Island. My parents, however, were going to stay in our house on Pictou Island during lobster season. Four days prior on April 26th there was a lot of scattered ice. Nevertheless, my father and...

Pictou Island Christmas 1959

August 17, 2018August 17, 2018Jim Turple

The weather during the month of December 1959 remained mild, middle to high 30s Fahrenheit, the wind blew hard from the south nearly every day and it rained a lot. Jimmie MacDonald and wife Viney were found deceased in their burnt out home on December 10. Consequently, over the next several days, Arnold MacMillan kept...

Ferry boats and storms …

March 29, 2018March 22, 2018Jim Turple

I wrote this story approximately 17 years ago and much has changed over those years … My grandfather Elias Turple twin brother Charles ran the Pictou Island Ferry Service from the island to the mainland during the early years off the 1900s. Charles Turple’s first boat used for this ferry service was called DOT. That...

Summer of 1964 …

October 12, 2017Jim Turple

Probably my first experiences in seeing changes taking place within the local fisheries was with rope in the late 1950s or early 60s. Fishermen up to those years used a cotton rope for all purposes. Around the late 1950s or early 60s, a much lighter plastic rope was introduced. Lobster trap trawls usually require a...

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