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The F. Smeaton mentioned [in the article about the S.S. Digby]
is my grandfather Frederick William Blyth Smeaton,
originally from Edinburgh, Scotland. His memoirs say that he was a member of the 'Society of Mechanic Drivers Club' in London, England, and through this organization he signed a 3-year contract to work for Mr. Fred. W. Ayre as chauffeur/mechanic. Mr. Ayre's brother, Charles Ayre (C.P. Ayre in the article) conducted the interview and arranged for my grandfather's passage, and hired his own chauffeur, Jimmie Fascini (J. Facine in the article). J. Dolman in the article is Jimmie Dolman who was going to Newfoundland to be chauffeur to Mr. Eric Bowring. H. Warby was Harry Worby hired to be chauffeur to the Hon. John Harvey. My grandfather said there were two other passengers in the second class cabin. One was a girl named Dingle who was "going to a relative in St. John's". He describes the other passenger as a Russion Jew, from Minsk. He was over six feet tall, and "was a rather extraordinary looking old chap. He had on a long coat reaching from his neck to his feet, and wore a bowler hat and had a long straggly beard. He would walk slowly around the cabin with his two hands tucked into the opposite sleeves of his coat, and now and again he would speak to us in broken English". With regard to the heavy ice the ship encountered, my grandfather said "We were called out of bed one morning at 5:00 AM to see a huge iceberg, it was about two miles away, and appeared to be about three hundred feet long and about fifty feet high and perfectly flat on top, before we had reached St. John's we saw many more icebergs, and many miles of ice flows". The other chauffeurs eventually returned home, but my grandfather stayed and has many descendents in Newfoundland and across Canada and the USA. |
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