Buccaneer Bay Remembered

By Pat Barton (Kerr)

 

 

My father and mother Mr and Mrs. James Kerr owned our cottage from 1926 - 1960 at which time Mr. Simson gave my mother $200.00 as payment in full for the cottage. Our red and white cottage with a sleeping porch at the side was a marvel in construction.  It had four foot centers for the walls and ceiling and a very thin ridge  board to support  the roof. Fortunately, the surrounding trees caught any snow that might have fallen because the roof would not have lasted all those years.

 

It was constructed by a Mr. Dick, an engineer on the Union Steamships. He was asked by Mr. Simson to leave, so had to sell out.  Another engineer by the name of Smith, who was our next door neighbor in Vancouver, told Mr. and Mrs. Kerr about this oppor­tunity.   They made a trip up to the Bay to check things out and found it to their liking.  It was  sold with everything as it was.

 

It was amazing how everything could be left at the end of the summer and was not even dusty when you opened up the following summer, even the paint on the cottage did not seem to fade. In the winter the high tides would come up the slough and be pushed by the winds to spread out over the field nearly up to our front step.

 

Every year, when the cottage was closed Labor Day weekend, the row boat was loaded on a wheel barrow and wheeled up to the cottage and maneuvered onto the front veran­dah. At the beginning of the summer the boat was taken down and put in the water. It would leak because it dried out over winter, so it was rowed to the long slip over by the first gap, tied up securely, then sunk up to its gunwales so the wood would swell to seal the  leaks.  It would take at least two or three days.

 

We carried our water by the pail full from the pump in front of the store.  It was very good water and a dipper full was really appreciated after the job was done. The minerals in the water turned the insides of the buckets brown.

 

Mr. Simson looked after his island like a country squire. He kept his eye on what took place, such as, we shipped a prefabricated wooden outhouse up on the Union Steamship, and as soon as it was unloaded onto the float, he wanted to know who owned this lum­ber and how it was to be used. When he realized it was for a new outhouse, he said, I will be along to see where to dig the hole.

 

In September 1959, my father fell off the roof while trying to put a pail over the chimney. In November of that year he passed away. Mr. Simson asked my husband George and I if we would take over the cottage. We wanted to find someplace closer to town so declined.  We spent a number of years on the waterfront at Keats Island.

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I was told when the cottage was torn down it was done plank by plank because lumber is so scarce at the Bay. It was great to know the items in the cottage were put to good use by whoever needed them. One piece of lumber I wish I could have kept was the front door post, where my father used to mark my growth year by year.

 

The many years at Buccaneer Bay are treasured memories and I have considered it a privilege to have been able to learn over those years to appreciate the beauty of forest and  the sea at Buccaneer Bay.