The stories below appeared in a series of articles by Forrest Frank in 1920 in the Scarborough Daily Post - This page features some amusing stories from that time
Joe Salmon kept a little public house on Quay Street near his shop (He was a cooper). It was frequented for some reason by French fishermen and sailors. There were always long clay tobacco pipes provided for the use of the customers. Joe had reason to believe that a party of these Frenchmen were taking these pipes away with them up their jacket sleeves. So he stepped out of his shop and hailed them heartily in his breezy way, slapping them each on the arm in turn and asking them how they did - with disconcerting results.
Mr William Tindall, who was a nephew of Mr Robert and Mr James Tindall, the shipbuilders, was a master mariner, like most of his family, and had been Captain of their Snow 'Archimedes'.
He was happily married, and there had been quite a romantic touch about his wooing when he was a sea captain in the thirties. One day the Archimedes came into Scarborough Bay. She had an apprentice on board named Allen, the son of a Scarborough fisherman, and Allens mother and sister went off in a boat to see him. Captain Tindall fell in love with the sister at first sight, detained both mother and sister on board, and sailed for London, where, having successfully won the fishergirl over, the young couple were married, and afterwards came to Scarborough to live. (William Tindall unfortunately died in the lifeboat disaster of 1861 when he attempted to help the upturned lifeboat but was dragged into the foaming seas)
When the gold rush was on in Australia the ships had great difficulty getting crews at Launceston. The men deserted one by one. Captain Wyrill coped with this by hiring men at Melbourne and transfarring them by steamboat. They were a mixed lot though. There were all manner of men who were certainly not sailors eager to get home. Perhaps they found Australia too hot. The Captain read them the articles but when they heard that no spirits were allowed they all refused to sign. Gradually they did sign except for one man. He swore that he was not even a sailor but a sheperd. He had gone on holiday to Melbourne and remembered no more. He had spent or lost his advance. Finally he gave in and his work was so useful that this discredited his story of never having been a sailor.
