RECORDED: [location unknown], [1962 or earlier] SUMMARY: TRACK 1: Captain Douglas talks about his early years on the sea; his impression of the harbours in Vancouver and Steveston in 1897; a concert at Steveston; and the Klondike Gold Rush. He describes Vancouver in the 1890s, streetcars; roads; the fire; and transportation. He recalls his cousin, B.C. Lieutenant Governor Sir Henri Gustave Joly de Lotbiniere. He discusses his career with the English merchant marine. TRACK 2: Captain Douglas continues with his recollections about his career in the merchant marine; he describes the CPR liner "Empress of Asia" [on which he served as chief officer]; recalls the war years; describes the Victoria of 1905, and the north shore [of Burrard Inlet?].

CALL NUMBER: T0978:0001 RECORDED: [location unknown], 1964-02-26 SUMMARY: TRACK 1: Mrs. Edith Rowe discusses her father, Oscar Henderson, including how he ran away from Norway at 13 to go to sea, and details about his character; anecdotes about his character and her experie;nces growing up with a father who was a Captain; how he met her mother (Maude Muir) in Halifax, and how they went to sea on the ship "John Johnson", how he sister Inga was born in Nova Scotia, how Edith was born in Hong Kong aboard her father's ship the "John McLeod", anecdotes about her parents around the time of her birth, and details about ships and crews. TRACK 2: Edith Rowe discusses life ab;oard sailing ships, what it was like being a child at that time including the clothes that they wore and games they played, schooling in England, more anecdotes about life on the ship, an experience o;n the Sargasso Sea, getting to know your ships, and anecdotes about various ports, clothes the seamen would wear, what clothes she and her siblings would wear, life in the tropics, and swimming.

CALL NUMBER: T0978:0002 RECORDED: [location unknown], 1964-02-26 SUMMARY: TRACK 1: Mrs. Rowe discusses her parents' view of education, how she was schooled on the ship by her parents, the meals they would have aboard ships, how lime juice was supplied to avoid scurvy, dogs ;on the boat and more details about life, memories of the sea including phosphorous and the sounds of the sails, her memories of storms, more anecdotes including one about a race, and she relates a shanty. TRACK 2: Mrs. Rowe discusses communication with other vessels, the use of tugboats, a story about the coast of Peru, more anecdotes about life an adventures aboard ships, her memories of BC in 1;901, what the family was doing in Esquimalt, and a ship they came across that hit them in the fog and sank.

CALL NUMBER: T0978:0003 RECORDED: [location unknown], 1964-02-26 & 1964-04-22 SUMMARY: TRACK 2: Mrs. Rowe discusses other shipwrecks, stories about their interactions with survivors and their families, the inquiries, how living on land was boring, the next boat they lived on, more sea incidences including experiences from Chile, her feelings about other girls (they were "sissies"), she reads a poem called "Ships" by Robert N. Rose, the smell of the land, a discussion of the poem "Typhoon" by Joseph Conrad, a story about catching a shark, the sport of catching sharks, how sharks are enemies of sailors, stories about albatross sightings, how dolphins and porpoises follow the boats;, and sailing strategies. TRACK 2: [Interview resumes on April 22, 1964.] Mrs.Rowe offers an anecdote about an old sea custom called the working up of a dead horse which consists of the sailors getting a months advance pay before leaving on a voyage and they make a horse, Rowe sets of a bell to exemplify signals, more on the horse, the meaning behind the horse, stories about crossing the equator,; more on superstitions, a story of a sailing from Tacoma to South Africa in 1902, a dramatic incident in which her sister was almost thrown into the sea, and another which shows her sister's courage.;

CALL NUMBER: T0978:0004 RECORDED: [location unknown], 1964-04-22 SUMMARY: TRACK 1: Mrs. Rowe discusses how as children they were always more comfortable at sea then on land, more on racing, a description of '"tacking ship", more on life aboard ship, details on shark fishing;, more anecdotes about being a child growing up aboard a ship including a story about going to land to get fitted for shoes in Australia, and poems she realtes about the sailor's lament. [TRACK 2: blank.]

CALL NUMBER: T1651:0001 RECORDED: [location unknown], [196-] SUMMARY: TRACK 1: Mr. Francis Edmund Fredette of Victoria describes how he always wanted to go to sea, and so ran away from home on a sealing ship when he was fourteen; he describes the vessel he was on, including life aboard it; sealing with shotguns; what Victoria Harbour was like at that time; wages; his time (1909) as an apprentice at a shipyard where sternwheelers were built for use on the Skeena River; more on sealing including details on the seal themselves; how the Canadians, Japanese and Americans were the only ones sealing at that time; more on the sternwheelers he helped to build by hand; a six-month trip to the Bering Sea for salt cod in 1912, including details about the trip, the schooner they were on, and the fishing. TRACK 2: Mr. Fredette continues by discussing his experience in 1919 when he got a job aboard a ship as a carpenter; anecdotes about experiences on the ship; shipping laws at that time and implications; and a story about a criminal incident during prohibition.

CALL NUMBER: T1651:0002 RECORDED: [location unknown], [196-] SUMMARY: TRACK 1: Mr. Fredette discusses McNeil Island, a U.S. federal penitentiary in Washington State, and continues a story which occurred in 1919 relating to prohibition; anecdotes about sealing boats in 1912; a trip from San Francisco to Haiti; his experience on Christmas Island; and more anecdotes about boats and the industry. [TRACK 2: blank.]

CALL NUMBER: T1330:0001 RECORDED: [location unknown], 1961-02-14 SUMMARY: TRACK 1: Mr. Noel Robinson; a newspaper reporter; recalls some early personalities of Vancouver including: Captain Alex MacLean, the inspiration for the characater of Wolf Larsen in Jack London's "Sea; Wolf"; sailors; captains and others associated with the sea; Hastings Mill; the Empress boats; E. Pauline Johnson; and Mary Capilano. TRACK 2: Mr. Robinson continues with recollections of Mary Capilano; the funeral of E. Pauline Johnson; the Little Theatre company; J. Francis Bursill, including the Vagabond's Club, pageants, and creating the Bursill Institute; B.C. Hilliam and "The Belle of Bur;rard"; and more about Captain Alex MacLean.

CALL NUMBER: T1330:0002 RECORDED: [location unknown], 1961-02-14 SUMMARY: TRACK 1: Mr. Robinson recalls coming to Victoria and his work on the organ in the wooden cathedral; writing and producing his play the "Cat's Paw" in Victoria. He reminiscences about newspaper person;alities; his work and travels in the Boundary area, including Rock Creek and Midway; playing cricket; hunting in the Chilcotin area; Dog Creek Hill; Bob Piper; Williams Lake; George Murray and early newspapers in Lillooet; the Alaska Highway News; and early journalists Roy Brown, Ronald Kenvyn, and Bruce McKelvie. TRACK 2: This is a very short tape; Mr. Robinson talks about Captain Alex MacLean.

CALL NUMBER: T1330:0003 RECORDED: [location unknown], 1961-04-11 SUMMARY: TRACK 1: Mr. Robinson recalls J. Francis Bursill, and reacts to comments made about him by his granddaughter, Thekla Bursill-Hall, in a interview. [See T1331:0001.] Robinson talks about Bursill's personality; the Collingwood Institute; the Bursill Library; aspects of why Bursill came to B.C.; the Bursill family; literary life in Vancouver; anecdotes; his pen name (Felix Penne); eccentricities; Hugh Savage; and the death of J.Francis Bursill. Mr. Robinson continues with recollections about his interview with the Bengali writer and philosopher Rabindranath Tagore. [TRACK 2: blank.]

The Mainland Guardian was published from 28 August 1869 -21 August 1899 by J.K. Suter.

Box 1 contains Mainland Guardian account, cash, job, and advertising books, 1869-1899 (vols. 1-7).

Box 2 contains; a subscription book, 1883-1886 (vol. 8); diary of Richard Gray Dingle, 1909 and 1941-1945 (vol. 9); Robert Gray Dingle's journal of a voyage on the Empress of Japan, 1922 and log book kept by Chas. Liscum on a voyage by the Empress of Japan, 1917-1918 (vol. 10); a scrapbook with poetry, photographs and drawings (vol. 11); and an indenture dated 21 Jyuly 1871 leasing the New Westminster Land Registry building to Suter (formerly C/C/30.7I/Su8).

Maps, charts and plans were transferred to the map collection (CM/A419, CM/A588, CM/A590, CM/A606, CM/A660-CM/A663, CM/A666, CM/A668, CM/A670, CM/A906, CM/A907, CM/B379, CM/B384, CM/B751, CM/B1525, CM/B1526, CM/C990).

Presented by Miss A. D. (Peggy) Dingle and her brother Rev. E.R. (Bill) Dingle, 1974 (with the exception of the indenture).