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Deep Gulch was home to several families, including the Husseys, Taylors, and Walshes. With steep cliffs, it does not look like a good place to build a boat, at first glance. But that is exactly what Patrick Walsh did.
Born around 1853, Patrick Walsh was a ship captain and boat builder. His family land did not slope nicely down to the water, but that did not deter him. Patrick built the Little Mary, an approximately 25-tonne schooner.¹ Without gently sloping land or a nearby beach, Patrick reportedly launched the Little Mary off the side of the cliff.
Moving a boat the size of the Little Mary would have been no easy task, and launching her off the side of a cliff an even harder one. Runners would have been put under the boat to help move it, while men hauled it along on ropes. To help motivate the men, the song "Jolly Poker" (also called "Johnny Poker") may have sung.² Men would haul on the ropes in time with the beat of the song: when the last word was sung, the men would heave with all their might and move the boat a little further along the runners. Listen to James Bishop Dawe remember the singing of the "Jolly Poker":
"Tis now my Jolly Poker, let us rock and roll together. And 'tis now my Jolly Poker, haul." They'd haul then, you know. They'd "haul on the bowline, and haul and burst the towline, haul on the bowline, haul, boys, haul." All hands haul. And they would be haulin' too.'
It's a wonder the boat survived being launched off a cliff, but apparently the water was deep and the boat was sturdy, so it was not damaged. Patrick Walsh likely took the Little Mary with him the next time he went to the Labrador fishery. He died, a local legend, on July 9, 1923.³
Another Deep Gulch family, the Taylors, built a ship on their property which was presumably more favourable for launching a boat. Augustus Taylor, with his brothers James John, Jake, and Don, built the Louie T, a boat of around 23 tonnes. Named after the brothers' younger sister, Louisa, the Louie T was launched in 1915. She made the trip to the Labrador for several years. Enid Abbott, daughter of Augustus Taylor, remembers sailing with her father on these trips. The Louie T's last trip was in 1937. She was dismantled in Labrador sometime later.
² James Bishop Dawe, interview with Victor DuPree, August 27, 1967, Memorial University of Newfoundland Folklore and Language Archive.
⁴ Mary Enid Abbot, interview with Tanya Edmunds, July 12, 1999, Cupids Historical Society, Cupids Legacy Centre.