Nova Scotia eider tub

Keith: I love this kind of stuff. Thanks for sharing. Not being from the area(s) where these were used, why are they condidered illegal now? Do your waterfoul regulations dictate the size and shape of your boats?

John: Nice decoy. Tell your wife thanks for sharing.

Mike
 
Philip Finck who was born on East Iron Bound likely knew the men that hunted your tub....for sure his Father and Uncle.s did as that fishing community was tight knit and the two Island sit only miles apart...

East Iron Bound sits just the East of Tancook and can be seen on the google Earth maps....its not labled by name but is the only sizeable island to the immediate East and is recognizable by the single road that runs almost the length of the island....

As the link shows Dani Richey and I had the great pleasure to be hosted by Philip and his Wife, and Sister at their home on East Ironbound for a week in Dec. 2008......I have to tell you as neat as getting to gun out of the tub was being on the Island and seeing the "history" that exists in the "fish store", not to mention several other buildings that were full of Island History was even neater.....exploring in a building that has been the store house for a commercial fishing family since the 1800's turns up treasures beyond imagining....imagine rope bound molasses barrels that were part of the slave/molasses/cod triangle and that ended up on Iron Bound to be used as pickled Mackeral vats...

The tub we used is slightly different than the one you have, and the one in the drawings, (which I thought was really neat since its labeled, "East Iron Bound"), differing mainly in the shape and construction of the gunners box itself....Philip's tub, which was, if I recall its lineage, built by his Grandfather and used by him, his Father and his Uncles. The gunners box on his tub is square in shape and as can be seen by the pictures has a "wedding cake" tiered design...

Philip still has the ballast rocks that were made, as you said, by hand drilling the "perfect" rock, then filling the hole with a plug of oak before driving the iron ring into the hole...one of the stones he had was minus the ring as it had rusted out and the other he wisely felt too valuable to risk losing if used.....he had replaced those ballast stones with cast concrete wts that weighed about the same as the rocks...

You mentioned "how cramped" a gunner must have been in the tub.....I can tell you that is, indeed, the case....When we rigged the tub Dani was first in....the two counter wts slung under the tub were not enough to bring the tub close to water level so a pair of sandbags was added to the bottom of the tub and what seemed like a couple of thousand lbs of stones were added to the lip of the tub.....not sure what size foot Dani has but had the very bottom tier of the tub not had the sand bags in it her toes would have had to be curled to fit in it.....when I took my turn in the tub I had to angle my feet into a most uncomfortable position...That plus the necessity to "squat while leaning back" to get down low in the box makes it pretty uncomfortable.....

We both found the Tub incredbily stable once it was ballasted and we were in it...as in all "deep water" gunning where a tender "leaves" a gunner in a "hole in the Ocean" it was a little disconcerting watching the boat "leave" but I never felt like I was any danger of the boat not being able to handle the conditions....I can tell you that while setting it, (which is, as you can imagine, a pure bitch), that before the ballast is all in and the box "sunk" to its gunning level that it bobs about on the ocean like a cork. That point was the only time that I ever had any concerns about the boat and even then it was obvious that it wasn't going to "swamp".....I will admit that by the time all the ballast had been transfered to me, and by the time the wings and decoys were set I was more than happy to disembark from that particular, "Mr.Toad's Wild Ride" and relax in the more stable platform of the tender.....

Huntiing the TUB is definately something you have to do Keith....I'll make sure that Philip see's your post and will forward you his e-mail address.....the trip to East I ronbound will be worth it for the history alone.....


Steve

Steve
 
Wow Steve and Dani, I just went back and checked the Dani in the tub (LOL) post. Now that must have been an adventure to say the least. Any more pics of the area and such???
 
trip today, (or tomorrow at the latest)....

I sent Philip a link to the post and asked him to jump on and comment on Keiths pictures....I'm confident that he can add some valuable historical information on not only the "area" but possibly the tub that Keith has.....Big Tancook is visible from virtually every part of East Ironbound and as I said I'm sure that Philip is well acquainted with not only it overall history but the history of its Eider Gunners as well....

For my part I count the trip to East Iron Bound and my time in the tub as one of the "TOP FIVE Hunting trips" of over 40 years of hunting......and I didn't kill a duck on the trip....that should give an indication of what a super trip this was....

Steve
 
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Steve,

Did you get into the lobster there? I couldn't believe the size of the claws in the post storm pictures Philip posted.
Scott
 
Keith,
Last time I saw that it was in the corner of your basement. It must have taken several trips up and down the stairs to set that up. It really is a neat item from the golden days of waterfowling. My opinion has not change from the last time I saw it...it would not be my favorite way to hunt, but I can see they were deadly. I'll stick to my Sneakbox....
Talk to you later.....
 
Hi SCott,

Thank you for your welcome, and for your kind comments. Young carvers are our future, and its becoming more difficult competing with computer games, so anything that I can do to help or encourage young carvers to produce art, I'm there!!

I really appreciate the link to the duck tub hunting off Ironbound Island.....that was a great thread! ~ I am printing it out to keep it in my files. I will be glad to call you when I set it up again, most likely in the summer.......I usually get another huge load of carving stock then so I have to move it to load the wood.

Thanks for the comments regarding my book. I have used that printer before for my prints, so I wanted them to do my book. The quality of their work is top shelf. I decided if I couldn't get it printed locally, I probably wouldn't have done it! Thanks again.

Keith
 
Hi Andrew, just drop me an email, you are welcomed to drop by....unfortunately, you will have to go to LOng Island to see the Simmons. But that can be arranged as well. He also has over 500 of my decoys in his collection as well!

Keith
 
Dave, that sounds tempting.....I used to go out after the season ended in Rhode Island and Cape Cod and set up my eider rig.......with a camera of course. YOu can't imagine how many more ducks decoy in when the shotguns have stopped! It used to drive the CO's crazy.....but sooner or later they got used to the fact that it was me. I think the tub would be fun!!

Best,

Keith
 
You are welcome Phil, glad you enjoyed it.

My pleasure Michael. They are illegal for many reasons, a couple being the fact that they are deadly.....for both the waterfowl and the hunters!!

Be safe over there.....I know that I can speak for everyone......we appreciate your brave service!!

God Bless you!!

Keith
 
Thank you Steve, I really appreciate you posting that information, that is one of the best threads I have ever read on a forum. The images are great, and the story alone is priceless....especially since it makes the idea of a nearly extinct classic waterfowling technique come to life for many who will never experience it! I am also printing out your information on this post and including it in my duck tub files.

Thank you again, I appreciate you taking the time to share that with us.

Keith
 
Hey Tom, why don't you come East and take it for a "test drive"!! We could have some fun.....well maybe we will just go out with our cameras instead!

TTYL,

Keith
 
The camera thing sounds like the way to go Keith. I would loved to have seen that in action in the day. Imagine how many ducks were taken from that tub.....

Steve Sutton has hunted all over the country, and I knew he would know about that type of hunting. I have not seen Steve in sometime, and did not know he was involved in this forum. Hi Steve.... There are some great people here and I have enjoyed the week I have been signed up. I will take time to introduce myself and post up a couple of decoy pictures and maybe some of my Sneakbox. Talk to you later..T
 
been looking for some pictures I had of some of your birds, some puppies and a "much" younger Nephew that I took at the Skagit Fair Grounds what I "think" was the last Waterfowl Festival.......show these guys what your decoys looked like 10 years ago.....

Gad to have you on the site and look forward to seeing pictures of your birds.....throw in some hunting pictures as well....some Barnegat shots....tha sort of thing.....

Steve
 
Hi John;

You probably have some `history' on your decoy so you're probably right that it is a Goldeneye. However, Goldeneye aren't common in the outer bay near Ironbound ...... I'm not sure if I ever saw one around the Island. Now Tancook is only 2 1/2 miles further up the bay, but the Levy's may have hunted in the inner bay were Goldeneyes are more common. (I never knew what a Goldeneye was until I moved to the `main' to go to high school when I was 15).

In later years they hunted on shoals and reefs out around Ironbound and even out to the open water at the mouth of the bay.

Where I'm going with this is that the decoy may be a quick and dirty Old Squaw. They were numerous in and around the Tancooks. Of course, you can get a good look at the paint where I cannot. Check out the decoys on Keiths wing boards. Notice the eider hens that are actually white wing coots. They don't even have coot heads. The only difference from the actual eiders is the two small white bars on the back sides. The folks back then weren't that particular about the paint jobs.
 
Hi Keith;

Great tub. The Levy's must have used your tub at some point up to `modern times'. The original rigging would have been grass (hemp) rope tanned with tannic acid (kutch sp?). Prior to polypop. rope they used nylon, linen. During this time they phased out the old cotton rope, prior to which they used the grass rope. The grass and cotton rope all went in a big iron pot. It was full of boiling water with a bunch of crystalline kutch dissolved. They then `made out the fire' under the pot, so as not to burn or cook the rope, then soaked the roap over night. The next day it came out, was coiled on special `hand barrows', that sat across the top of the pot so that the rope drained. The kutch was valuable. Then the rope was draped over drying racks. These were vertical posts, about twice as high as a fence post, that were topped with a series of long poles. We used to `walk' on top of the `net walk poles' when we were kids. Running was even more fun.

Note: In most places what I am describing would have disappeared before or shortly after I was born. However, on Ironbound the men typically mixed the old and new technologies where they could do it. Why not use, were practicle, what you all ready have. The result is that a lot of practices that would have disappeared around the turn of the century was still used up to the late 1970's. So I got to do it, see it, and all that real old stuff still exists on the island in the large fish sheds.

The rope had to come out of the water every three weeks where it was `run out' on the beach to dry. You waited for a rain to wash out the salt and kill the slub. Then when it dried you used an old hemp bag or piece of old net (it was referred to as twine) and hauled the rope through your hands to strip off the `slub', i.e. the marine plant growth. Then back in the kutch..... and away you went. It made for a huge amount of work.

I digress. I can tell that the tub was used `more recently, because I can see what appears to be polypop rope in the rigging. You can also see where the sides of the tub were worn out over time and a second layer of boards were added. It would only have had one layer originally. There may have also been a second set of front wing boards. The tubs usually had a set in the front ... see the diagram. This would help to break incoming waves. If it got real rough the hunters would tie a piece of twine (term used inter- changeably with `string) to the head of a duck on the most forward wing board. They could then pull the wing board up as a shield if a big wave was coming.
 
Hi Sherm and everyone.

In the old, old days I don't know if there were duck `limits' or not. Certainly no one followed them. Prior to refrigeration which came later on the outer islands, sea ducks were the main source of fresh meat on the islands. On the mainland there would have been deer and moose. It wasn't uncommon to shoot a hundred ducks per trip. Then they were shared around within the families. The old folks always got ducks, in turn the old guy would make decoys, etc.

The ducks would be laid out on the ice in the ice house (it was cut from the pond and hauled with ox cart). They also bottled the duck and salted the duck.

They also typically hunted `out of season'. The fisheries officers by in large ignored this since it was food for the table. However selling ducks was illegal. I expect that happened at the same time as the commercial harvest in the US was banned.

Dad told me the story of hunting with Russell on the back of the island from the rocks at the Eastern End. It was blowing like crazy but the ducks were every where He said the ducks were off the shore, with mats going all the way out to Pearl Island, 5 miles to the southwest. They were there quite a while, hoping for a shot to come close enough. Well, he said a few ducks came to the wing half way of to Pearl island. Then a few more, and more, and more untill they all came to the wing..... 10,000 plus. They all came in behind the island and sat just out side the surf out of range. Then they came on the shore. Well, dad and russel got ready. Dad had a Sears semiautomatic that held five and Russel had a pump that held five. Just as they started to raise up a swell broke in the ducks, and they all went together. dad said that each time they fired it looked like a sythe (sp?) cutting through hay.

When they were done they couldn't count how many they killed. Back then, and now, you then had to run to the fish stores to get the boat. By the time they were off and going down along the shore in the boat they new that the ducks would have drifted way down wind to the north east. So, they steamed 17 minutes down wind to the Seal Ledge before they turned and started up towards the island. Russel ran the engine and dipped. When they had one hundred they decided that it was enough, so they never did know how many they killed. (Wonder why the population decreased????).

But on with my story. It was saturday and the Ironbounders never worked on Sunday. Thats not to say that if they were in the fishstore dressing fish that they didn't work until 2:00 AM on Sunday morning ...as long as no one looked at the time. Anyway, home they went. A hundred ducks to clean and most of the other folks were away. So they grabbed the hatchet and off with the wings and started skinning. When they were all done, in the boat and off to themainland to sell ducks. Dad had a car then so they loaded up and up to Blandford to sell the ducks. It wasn't long before the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP ... the guys with the big red stetsons and red uniforms) got wind of this. Since it was illegal they started looking. Dad said they would go from house to house, and they would be hiding in the livingroom when the RCMP would come to the door. "Sorry to bother you folks, but have you seen a couple guys from Ironbound selling sea ducks?" " No, no, officer, we haven't seen them"....and off they would go.... and off dad and Russell would go. Probably got 25 cents a pair. $12.50 was a lot of money back then ! and thats a TRUE STORY.
 
That's great stuff Keith! I also read Philip, Dani, and Steve's posts. I enjoyed all the old stories. The photos were excellent. Thanks everyone for sharing.

I read about the tubs in Barber's book but never thought I'd see pictures of people currently using them.
 
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