Gord’s Top Ten: "Canadian Railroad Trilogy" (Don’t mess with the navvies PT 2)

A "navvy" depicted in Ford Madox Brown’s painting ‘Work Navvy’ is a shorter form of navigator (UK) or navigational engineer (USA) and is particularly applied to describe the manual labourers working on major civil engineering projects. The term was coined in the late 18th century in Britain when numerous canals were being built, which were also sometimes known as "navigations", or "eternal navigations", intended to last forever. (wikipedia.org)

[Canadian railroad navvies: Photo - Canadian Encyclopedia]

In my own experience I’ve only come across the word once in the many books I’ve read over my lifetime, and I discovered it recently (thus the posts about it) in a book entitled ‘The Day We Went to War’.

I read the following:

Those in the civilian army of the Air Raid Precautions responsible for enforcing the blackout, especially air-raid wardens with their cry ‘Put that light out!’, soon became targets for the public’s pent-up fury and frustration (e.g., re black-outs... A Bradford navvy was of the opinion that ‘Three quid a week’s too much for just playing cards and such-like for them buggers... And if they say  they’ve homes to keep and they’ve themselves to feed, I’d make them live in barracks.’ (pg. 334 - 335)

What the navvy seems to be saying is, 'I know how much hard work is worth!' So, don’t mess with the navvies, eh.

More information isn’t hard to find. 

     Almost every leading figure connected with the building of the CPR has been immortalized in a Canadian place-name... The top dogs had mountain peaks named for them or in the case of Cornelius Van Horne, a whole mountain range. But what about the men who actually built the railway? Where are their names recorded, except on tombstones along the way?

["A mixed lot": Vancouver Public Library Photo 1773]

     The railway navvies were a mixed lot. Charles Peyton who walked down one stretch of track looking for work saw a band of Italians at one spot and a team of Englishmen a few kilometers later. He met a scholar who could speak and write Greek, a surgeon from Montreal and a pastor from Chicago. Generally, though, Peyton found the men to be a rough lot with ill manners and disagreeable mouths. They were there for the $2.00 to $2.50 a day, which was good pay for the time. [The Canadian Encyclopedia]

And yesterday a friend dropped off - unbeknownst to him, in such a timely fashion - a copy of The Rocky Mountaineer Mile Post (a trip guide for a unique section of our Canadian railways). I quickly learned that some navvies worked for half price and worked in extremely dangerous conditions, as can be seen in the last line of the highlighted paragraph.

[From The Rocky Mountaineer Mile Post]

The last line of Lightfoot’s song pays tribute to the navvies - "And many are the dead men too silent to be real" -  and, as of yet, I don’t know of another song that does.

"Canadian Railroad Trilogy" is in Gord’s Top Ten for many reasons, and now you know some of them.

[Canadian Prairies, photos by GH, 2012]

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Perhaps you know of another song that mentions the navvies. Please let me know.  

Please click here to read "Canadian Railroad Trilogy" PT 1