By Jeremy Miles
When I first met my lovely wife Hattie I was surprised to learn that there was a deep sea trawler fishing for salmon off the Pacific coast of British Columbia that had been named after her.
It’s not the kind of thing you expect to hear from a girl who grew up on a farm in rural Kent. Gradually I learned the full story and it was fascinating.
The 40-foot boat had been built by her Uncle John, a WWII veteran who became disillusioned with Britain after returning from distinguished Naval service to find a country that had little to offer. He emigrated to Canada in the 1950s and established a fishing business on Vancouver Island,
By the early 1960s he needed a boat that he could rely on for lengthy lone trips out into the ocean often over several days. He decided to name it the Miss Harriet after the little niece he remembered from his only visit back to the UK in 1956. He had been impressed that the then three-year-old Hattie had stubbornly refused to eat her bowl of porridge one morning. She had been defiant to the last and her mum (John’s sister) finally gave in.
John would later explain that such determination, stubbornness and tenacity were exactly the qualities you needed while fishing in the sometimes hazardous waters of the Pacific.
The Miss Harriet was launched in 1962 and for the next 40 years was a familiar sight sailing out of Nanaimo. In pride of place in the wheelhouse was a hand-coloured photographic portrait sent by John’s inspirational young niece.
After he died in 2000 that same original picture was returned to us. I found myself glancing at it with an eyebrow raised just the other day when, while listening to a radio report about kids who are fussy eaters, Hattie announced rather grandly that she had never been picky about food as a child.