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A Word About the Purvis
Fishery
By Mort Purvis
The Purvis family owned and operated a fishing station at Quebec Harbour on Michipicoten Island from 1934 to 1959. In the following paragraphs, Mort Purvis, grandson of the founder of the fishery, provides some insight into its history.
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William Purvis was born in 1830 at Arbroath, Scotland. In 1846 he became an apprentice aboard a merchant sailing ship that would take him to most of the major ports around the world. He followed the sailing life until 1853, when he emigrated to Canada. He cleared land and farmed for 9 years on the eastern shore of Lake Huron at Kinloss, Bruce County, Ontario. He then returned to his sailing life, navigating the Great Lakes from 1862 until 1868 when he became Chief of Police and Roads Commissioner, in Kincardine, Ontario.
In 1856 William Purvis married Anne Frost who had emigrated from Scotland the previous year as a governess in charge of the younger brother of her future husband. By 1877 they had a family of 5 boys and 5 girls, and William Purvis was appointed lighthouse keeper on Lake Huron's Great Duck Islands, South of Manitoulin Island. William's son John Purvis was appointed to succeed William as lighthouse keeper on the Duck Islands in 1898, a post which he held until the 8th of June, 1912, when he has dismissed-for political partisanship.
William Purvis trained his sons in the ways of the sea. This training resulted in the establishment of a commercial fishery by the Purvis family, first at the Duck Islands and then at Burnt Island on the South shore of Manitoulin. Their first steam powered fish boat was the tug Purvis. This was followed by the Elite and the Everret (seen in the above photo). The catch was salted and taken by boat in the spring and summer, to the railroad at Algoma Mills, for delivery to markets in Toronto, Buffalo and Detroit. On one of their trips to deliver fish to Algoma Mills, the boys heard of a First of July Celebration at a place called Gore Bay. They attended the festivities, enjoyed themselves and reported to their father that there was a good town on Manitoulin Island. The family moved to Gore Bay around 1890, returning to the Duck Islands in the spring for the fishing and sailing season.
In the summer of 1898, one of William Purvis’ sons, James began to run passengers and freight across the North Channel with the converted fish tug the Edna Ivan named after his two children. In that same year he also started his first mail contract by horsecoach and dogsled across the ice from Gore Bay to Spanish Station and overland, between Gore Bay and Providence Bay, on the Manitoulin Island. In 1902 he sold his share of Purvis Brothers Fishery to concentrate on the freight and passenger service from Gore Bay to Spragge, Kagawong, Meldrum Bay, Cockburn Island and points as far away as Sault Ste Marie, to which annual excursions would be offered. In 1922, James and his son Ivan formed a partnership "James Purvis & Son." The Edna Ivan was replaced by the new steamer Winona in 1907. During the winter of 1918-19, the Winona was substantially re-built at the Wiarton Marine Railroad.
During the 1920's the price of Lake Huron Chubb dropped to the point where sales did not cover operating costs. A dealer in New York advised my Father, Ivan, that the only way to bring the prices up would be to freeze and store the catch until prices improved. James Purvis & Son made a deal with the Purvis Brothers to purchase all of the Chub catch, at the going price, and share the profit with them. As a result, they took out a bank loan and constructed a freezer building at Gore Bay, on Manitoulin Island. All of the production was frozen, to prevent oxidation. Since there were no such things as ice making machines available, at the time, this was a labour intensive operation. A crew of men dropped crushed ice and salt between the insulated walls of the freezer building, 24 hrs a day. In this way, it was possible to bring the temperature in the freezer building down to -20 degrees F.The fish were spread on shallow tin trays, to freeze, then individually and repeatedly dipped in buckets of cold water to add layers of ice. The thicker the layers the better, since the fish were sold by the pound and the ice added weight to the end product. A few boxes of fish were sent to market weekly to establish the going rate.
One day, the bank manager called Ivan Purvis to his office and announced the bank was calling in the loan. Ivan immediately picked up the phone on the manager's desk, sold 18 carloads of fish at a good profit, and paid off the loan. That was the last time Ivan ever had cause to enter that bank. From then on, the various bank managers visited him at the James Purvis & Son office in Gore Bay. This was a much more pleasant experience, for both gentlemen, since the meeting was usually acompanied by a wee dram or two.
In addition to marketing fish for Purvis Brothers, James and Ivan continued to operate their mail, passenger and freight service until 1931 when Winona was destroyed by fire at Sprague while waiting out some bad wearther. Her engine and boiler were later recovered to repower another tug the 'Captain Jim' that now lays in shallow water in Michipicoten Island’s Quebec Harbour.
By 1933, the Lake Huron fishery had declined to the point that James Purvis and Son moved the fishery operation to Thunder Bay, to take advantage of the herring production in Lake Superior. The plan was to fish for herring and buy the other producer’s catches as well, using the same type of agreement they had made with the Purvis Brothers on Manitoulin. In the end it turned out that the Lakehead fishermen were leery of such a new concept and were reluctant to deal with the strangers from Lake Huron and declined to participate. Nontheless Purvis and Son decided to press on with their own plans to establish a fishery.
On viewing Lake Superior, the first thing James Purvis said was "We'll need bigger boats for this". Fortunately they were able to lease fish tugs from the Booth Fishery, which was in a state of decline at the time.
While travelling up Lake Superior on the passenger-freight boat, Caribou, James and Ivan were struck by the beauty and perfect shelter offered by Quebec Harbour. As a result, they purchased the Booth Company’s fishering station based at the Harbour. They also bought two of the Booth tugs, the Captain Jim and the Flagship. These were large ships in the 90 foot range.
The fleet subsequently expanded to include other boats: the EDM Purvis and the R.H. Dobson, (previously owned by Jack Purvis of Providence Bay), the Rene Purvis, (previously the Peggy M, purchased from Jack McKay of Gargantua Harbour), and the James Purvis, (previously L'Marchal Foch 2nd purchased from Joseph Roque of Killarney). The Harry Purvis was newly constructed to replace the Captain Jim in 1954.
The Booth Company was in the process of getting out of the production side of the fishery, choosing instead to concentrate on the marketing and distribution side of the business, based in Chicago. The Booth fishery had been basically dormant since 1929, due to family and operational problems. The manager resided in Sault Ste Marie, so the fish crews weren't inclined to go out in foul weather or on long trips to the various shoals available to them. They had marketed 86 and 38 tons in 1931 and 1932 respectively, and nothing at all in 1933. James Purvis and Son marketed 328 tons in 1934 and most subsequent years were in the 140-210 ton range.
That first year, the game warden advised Ivan to under report his catch, since he would have to pay a tariff on any production over 300 tons. Ivan replied that he caught what he caught and, if he under-reported, the crew might tell otherwise. "I'd rather run honest", he'd say.
The docks needed rebuilding and the only shore structure of any use, was the cookery. Knockdown, four man, sleep camps were constructed in Gore Bay, and reassembled at Quebec Harbour. A fish packing plant, ice making facility and a small cottage for James and Ivan were constructed as well as twine sheds for each tug and a large twine shed to house a fulltime repair crew. A store to supply food and essential items to the families of the workers and summer tourists was built. It contained all of the type of items available in a typical country store, except for fine millinery of course.
The square timber blacksmith shop was disassembled and moved from the site of the former Quebec Mine property, at the West end of the Island and reassembled at the fishery.
The majority of the men came from Manitoulin or the Sault Ste Marie area including the Native reserves of Batchawana and Garden River. A few of these men such as including Capt. Luther McArthur from the Soo had worked for the Booth Company and knew the area. Most of the Captains were Manitoulin boys-- Lloyd Morden, Bill Sanders, Clarence Purvis, Ab Purvis, Frank Thibault and Roy Teboynt. Louis, Freddy and Wilfred McCoy, J.D MacArthur and Ching Patterson were from the Soo area as well as Luther.
James Purvis fell into poor health, after a couple of years, and had to remain in Gore Bay, leaving the operation of the business to his son Ivan. Varous shore managers from the Manitoulin with prior knowlege of the business were employed over the years while Ivan travelled on Company business, taking care of the markets for the fish. Mac McQuarrie was the first shore manager, followed by Ronnie Gordon, Clarence Purvis, James Purvis Jr. (Ivan's son) and Max Chapman.
Ronnie Gordon subsequently establishd a successful tourist resort, in Gore Bay, Manitoulin that still bears his family name.
Mac McQuarrie's father and sister had both been employed by James Purvis and Son on Manitoulin; the father as the engineer on both the Edna Ivan and the Winona, and his sister Jean Cook as the office manager for the head office, in Gore Bay. Jean was with the Company for over 50 years. Mac went on to be a success in a variety of ventures, on his own, over the years.
When asked if one or the other of his employees had stood out in the organization, all of these people were described by Ivan as good cooperative people.
Since the Booth Company financed the modern ice-making equipment and power plant for the new business, they also expected to have control over fish production. When Ivan and James realized they were obliged to accept lower prices than they could get on the open market,they poured all of their profits into paying off the loan. Then World War 2 came along and they ended up paying 100% income tax toward the war effort. By this time they had learned to be very frugal. All repairs were done by their own men and used parts were sorted, repaired and saved. For a time they literally lived off the depreciation of the assets.
An interesting conversation about the tough times during World War came about while I was telling the story of the Wartime Tax to an American, in Clio, Michigan. He was astounded to find out that Canada was even involved in the 2nd World War let alone find out Canada was in from 1939. This gentleman, a successful businessman, was of the impression that the war started with Pearl Harbor.
In addition to the shoals of Michipicoten Island, the scope of the fishing grounds controlled by the Purvis fishery extended East to Gargantua and Michipicoten Harbour, Northwest to Heron Bay and Superior Shoal (77 miles). One of the retired senior executives of the Department of Lands and Forests (now the Ministry of Natural Resources) mentioned to me that Ivan had a handshake agreement with the Department which provided that the Purvis fishery would stay on the offshore banks to the East of the grounds and let the small operators have the shoreline waters. The south limit of the license was the American border, south of Caribou Island. There was some tolerable drift either way, by both the US fishermen and Purvis nets, and the exact position of the border was no great concern. Whitefish and deep water fat trout were the prime targets, the fat trout getting a couple of cents per pound more than the leans, which sold for about five or six cents to the pound.
The markets for the fish were entirely in the USA and the M.C. Matheson Fish Company, of Sault Ste Marie, Michigan, received shipments, from Michipicoten Island, by one of the Purvis fish tugs, two or three times per week. The shipments were then re-iced and shipped to markets, arranged by Ivan, in the Eastern US, including New York, and Chicago.
It was not all clear sailing. On one occasion, in the 40's the fish tug EDM Purvis, (previously owned by Jack Purvis of Providence Bay) ran into the side of a freighter in deep fog. The crew of the freighter lowered a cable to her bow until she could be stabilized with tarpaulins to hold the water out and get back to Quebec Harbour. A temporary bow was fashioned from lumber and canvas. The tug was then run to Gore Bay, on Manitoulin Island, to be rebuilt on the company's drydock.
Ivan had a fish tug with a gasoline engine, the Superior, which burned in 1936 off Pilot Harbour, on the North Shore. As the crew were stoking the live coals of the wood stove, while getting under way in the morning, the fumes from a fuel leak, in the gas engine exploded and the boat burned. The captain, Louis McCoy, and one of the crew had the presence of mind to get on top of the tug and lash fish boxes together for a raft. He held on until a nearby tug came to their rescue but the other two crew members just lost their heads and kept pawing at the empty boxes, in the water, trying to get onto them instead of just holding on. They both drowned. Lloyd Morden was nearby with the R.H.Dobson and rescued the survivors. Louis was quite badly burned before getting in the water.
All of the tugs took some wild rides through Lake Superior's weather but, as Robert Grunst reported, in the September 1997 issue of The Great Lakes Fisherman, "Possibly the wildest ride of all came as the result of a call for assistance from a tugboat captain with the MacNamara Towing and Dredging Company" in the early 1950's. It limped into Quebec Harbour during a storm, having lost the barge it was towing. Captain refused to go back out again.
Two of the Purvis tugs, Rene Purvis and Harry Purvis were manned and proceeded to battle their way through the seas, south toward Caribou Island. The trip was particularly hard on the Rene due to her full displacement hull, which tended to pound though the waves as opposed to the Harry Purvis with a lighter build and could dance around on top.
Listeners could hear Captain Clarence Purvis, on the radio from the Rene Purvis, communicating with the Harry Purvis and the MacNamera tow tugs. Clarence's Son Blair was on the EDM Purvis, approaching Whitefish Bay . The EDM was on a freight run, with a load of fish for market. The seas were too big for the Purvis tugs to approach the barge to rescue it's crew. The MacNamara tugs, still on the scene, let go their tow lines while the men on the barge dropped anchors, tightened their life vests and jumped into the water, swimming to the war surplus life rafts fed out to them, on ropes, by the Purvis boats. Shortly thereafter, the Rene's radio fell silent. Clarence Purvis' son Blair, and the others listening to the radio communications between the boats, could only wonder why. It turned out that the massive waves had not only bashed in the port bow of the Rene but taken out all of the portholes and windows in her wheelhouse.
Unfortunately, the radio just happened to be slightly smaller than the starboard pilothouse window and was soon at the bottom of the lake. A couple of the Great Lakes freighters were able to run escort for the Rene and Harry Purvis, giving them cover from the seas as they found their way back to Quebec Harbour. When the winds and seas subsided the barge was found and recovered along Superior's South shore.
On one occasion, around 1939, near the Canada/US border, the Purvis tug, Captain Jim, rescued a fish tug out of Grande Marais, Michigan, with a full load of fresh trout on board and a broken crankshaft in its Kahlenberg diesel engine.
Having towed it to the safety of Quebec Harbour they determined it would take a couple of days to have a replacement crankshaft delivered on the next boat. James Purvis offered to re-ice and store the catch until the repairs could be made. Mac MacQuarrie, of Gore Bay, was the shore boss and recognized, from the breed of trout, that the catch had come from the North shore of Michipicoten Island rather than the shoals south of Caribou Island. He notified Ivan who had the boat impounded and taken to Sault Ste Marie, where it was held for the winter, pending court proceedings. We can only imagine what the young captain, Mun Chambers, must have been thinking when he had to notify his father, back in Grande Marais, Michigan.
There was a very colourful trapper, Gus Weiderman, who
lived at Otter Head, on the north shore of Superior. He was quite a friend
of the Purvis family and was always a source of amazement and entertainment
by his rugged lifestyle and endless supply of adventurous stories. Gus
was also one to take advantage of any good situation. Having befriended
the boys from Grande Marais, he would sometimes take a trip to the USA
with them for a night on the town. On one such occasion, they were spotted
on the North side of the border, near Michipicoten Island, by one of the
Purvis tugs which took chase. When it looked like the Grand Marais boys
were about to give in, old Gus said to the Captain, "I rely on the Purvis
boats too much for my supplies to be caught on your boat. I've got a gun
and will shoot the man that gives up". Apparently they escaped, since this
story only surfaced in the last few years.
The main complaint, other than taking fish from Canadian waters,was that the Americans were accustomed to setting miles and miles of lines, with baited hooks on them, that were not only illegal in Canada but also very painful when they came aboard our boats, tangled in the gill nets. They were very hard to spot and were usually discovered only when imbedded in one of the crews' hands.
The invading lamprey continued to expand their populations into Lake Superior, adding to the pressure of the fishery and the damage to the fish species by chemicals dumped into the lake by industry.
In the mid 50's, Mort Purvis, once asked, Frank Thibeau, the captain of the Rene Purvis, about the source of the smoke on the distant shoreline. He replied that it was produced by the paper mill in Marathon. He also pointed out that it would be the end of the fishery one day, with the chemicals going into the water.
John Budd was a fisheries biologist with the Federal Department of Fisheries. By 1954, he was able to assure Ivan Purvis that the decline in populations of whitefish and trout would render the fishery unprofitable within two years. Ivan started to wind down the business by fishing shorter seasons and repairing rather than putting up new twine for the nets.
The fish tugs Harry Purvis and EDM Purvis were sold and the Purvis Fishery discontinued operations in 1957. The Rene Purvis was used as a means of transportation to the family cottage, at Que Harbour, from the winter quarters in Gore Bay, on Manitoulin Island, and eventually sold to Laugheed Fisheries in Geogian Bay. In 1959, the fishing station at Quebec. Harbour was sold to Ferroclad Fisheries, owned by a group of men from Port Dover, on Lake Erie. Jim MacDonald subsequenly sold Ferroclad Fisheries but retained ownership of the fishing station.
The Purvis Family still maintain the cottage, on the South
shore of Quebec Harbour. William Purvis Died in 1914 aged 84 years. Captain
James Purvis in 1947 aged 77 yrs. Ivan Purvis in 1983 aged 87 yrs.
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