(IN = CBC interviewer)

IN: Now, Mayor Cates, have you breath to give us a story about the sea?

CC: Well, I always think this is a rather cute story, you know. As you no doubt know from the history of this country, around in the early part of the eighteen hundreds there was a lot of very hard times in the Old Country, in the British Isles, and a great number of people were migrating to this new land. So they were brought over by, on small sailing ships, very fast and very hard-driving crews (that’s where that saying “wooden ships and iron men” comes from, you know) and on one of these ships coming over, there was a young Irish woman from County Sligo, well-to-do young woman, coming to visit some relations in New York. And on the way out, a stowaway was found aboard the ship. I don’t know what the ship’s name was. But anyway, it was a penalty for stowing away to be – have a line put around you and thrown over the stern and dragged in the wake until you were pretty near drowned. So they found this poor stowaway on this ship, and they were getting ready to tow him astern and this young woman, she really got mad at them and she told ‘em what she thought of ‘em and finally paid the young man’s passage. And when they finally arrived in New York, why, they got married, and that was my great-grandfather and grandmother Kelly.

IN: Well, if he had been thrown overboard we might not be enjoying this chat, Mayor Cates

CC: That’s right.