Your Dad’s Story, 1958
I would say we must be about one of the oldest families in Sailortown. I was born in 1895 at 51 New Andrew Street but moved to my grandmother’s, Sarah Cushnahan, 51 Pilot Street.
It was a small street but they were great people. It had great and interesting people, from captains to professional boxers like Jakie Quinn and John McGuigan, who both won the Lonsdale belt.
I belonged to a seafaring family who were the main stevedores for timber in the dock area. In fact, we were always connected to the sea. My uncle owned the Sunbeam, which was a fishing smack. They would arrive at the quay, sometimes I would wait from 9 p.m. to 1 a.m., then I would have to help to put the fish into big sacks for carrying on our backs to be sold to wholesalers who would distribute them to the shops.
This would be about 1905. I used to carry my uncle’s breakfast to the Grab Bridge before going to school.
I joined the Bee Orchid when I was about 12 years old and stayed on it for about four months. It was towed to Musgrave Channel for moulding sand for Irvine in Scotland. It had no engine.
Then I worked for a blacksmith in Pilot Street named McCartan, working the bellows and drilling the machine. I worked there for about 10 months, then I started in a shop next to him as an apprentice moulder. I worked there for over one year. I then worked in Milewater. After that I worked in Workman Clarkes for 4/6 a week, 2/- of it “blood money” (catching rivets).
It was after this I worked on the Bee Orchid, after which I joined an old Welsh schooner called the Ellen Harrison. It was a sailing boat which had to be towed to Carrick, where we would drop anchor and wait until the wind changed.
We would get 30 bob a month plus food.
I remember my father and Uncle Stephen taking me to the deep water wharf at Queen’s Island to see the Titanic being launched. Having an eye for business, my uncle took about 20 anxious sightseers on the Sunbeam for about 2/- a head, so they could have a clear view of the Titanic in the water, which made it a memorable and profitable day for us.
Not long afterwards my father and uncle had the good fortune to get a trial run on the Titanic on her maiden voyage to Southampton. This [made] them about £2-50 each, which was a lot of money then. When they were in Southampton they were both offered jobs on the Titanic on her first trip to America, which they refused owing to having jobs of their own at home.
They done another run, but this was years later. She was a sister ship to the Titanic called the Olympic.
I remember stowing away on a coal boat to Cardiff. I was about 16 years old then, and what an experience that was. I was stranded in Cardiff for a fortnight. I would go down and stand at the quay in Cardiff waiting for a boat to come in, hoping to see someone I knew who would help me get home.
Finally I saw a chance to get home and hid in the alleyway of the S.S. Monarch. I was found and was put back on the quay again, but being determined I saw my chance again just before she moved out. I jumped into one of the lifeboats and remained there until the seamen had let go the ropes. Then I sneaked down the alleyway again and wasn’t found until next morning, which was too late to turn back.
Having had a taste for stowing away, my pastime was hiding in any ship I got a chance to. All I needed was about tuppence to get soup, two slices of dip bread and a cup of tea.
They were hard old days but very full ones.
James Cushnahan
James Cushnahan
