54 In Great Waters

cost of hiring a launch would have been for them
prohibitive.

During the summer of 1925 the mission boat
Edward White on the Cape Mudge field was used to
splendid advantage to fight forest fires which de-
stroyed valuable timber, as well as the fences, homes
and outbuildings of settlers, and in one instance
took the life of an aged settler himself. Not alone
was this true of our own Church, but the boat of
the Anglican Church, on the other side of the
Island, also contributed fine service during this
time of danger.

Once, at a cannery on the Skeena River, the mis-
sion boat_.had tied up for the night. A service had
been held earlier in the evening, and the “‘crew”
were preparing to retire when a message came from
the cannery manager that the Prince Rupert Hos-
pital had wired in that one of the employees who had
been there for some days was in a critical condition,
and that it would be advisable for his wife to come to
his bedside as quickly as possible. There was no
other boat in at the time fit to take the mother and
her two small children at that hour of the night.
Of course the Thomas Crosby would go. Piloted
by Captain Oliver, veteran missionary skipper, the
boat made her way out of the Skeena, and then on
into Prince Rupert, bearing the wife and her chil-
dren to the bedside of the stricken man. It was two
o'clock in the morning when they arrived, but the
lady was seen safely to the hospital by the mis-