HomeMy WebLinkAboutX2023-013-042SMILEY BEATTIE GUIDE
FRENCHMAN'S BAY NOW MUST TAKE THE PLACE OF
OLD ASHBRIDGE BAY
Frenchman's Bay. I do not know where it got the name, but it is
very similar in lots of ways to Ashbridge Bay.
We would often get in our rowing skiffs and row the 18 to 20 miles
down to the bay for a few days duck shooting. With camp, guns, and a
bunch of decoy duck we had a fair load, and if it got too rough we would
have to pull ,in at the Bluffs or Highland Creek and make camp.
Johnny O'Brien* was brought up and raised down there, much as I was
at Ashbridge's Bay. Johnny is a fisherman, trapper, guide and also has
a boat livery there. If planning a fishing outing, he can tell you where
and when they will bite.
A few years ago there was an old stone hooker, owned by an old
fellow by the name of Black Jack. The boat about on its last voyage, pulled
in there in a storm. He beached her, got off and disappeared.
Johnny used to use it for a duck hide. He used to set a flock of decoys
out in front of it, and get in behind a railing —about all that was left out
of water. He claims many a good shoot from that same spot.
One day one of his pals came down and got aboard her, and as they
were talking they decided to peer through the openings and port holes in
the old ship. Finally they got an old long pole, rigged up a bit of bent
wire for a hook on the end of it, and before long they had resurrected
some pretty rare treasures.
Johnny said: "Let's have that pole 'til I see what is under these bunks."
Sure enough, he pulled out a good meat grinder and, best of all, he hooked
the wire ,into the trigger guard of a very old musket. He made a mold and
cast bullets to fit it and it really could shoot. From the description he
gave me, it could have been a rare old Kentucky squirrel rifle.
Johnny is a man after my own heart. He actually has picked up one
of the old original ice -boats from Art Dawson of Keswick (son of the late
Frank Dawson who used to be one of the old-time sailors of the old Ash -
bridge's Bay gang.
I am invited down for a run when he puts that boat on the ice and I
am not going to miss that. I think, next to a plane or jet, that is the fast-
est means of transportation one could get. I remember going across old
Ashbridge's Bay balancing on two skates. The fastest ride I ever had.
I went through the bullrushes, up through the sand on the race track, the
wind so strong, my back skate a bit dull, I could not make the turn.
Toronto Skyline from Toronto Bay
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