Kanakas =3D "Blueboys" ??

I just happened to see in the local paper today an announcement of a
history "lecture" at the West Van Seniors Centre this evening, featuring =
an
appearance by the Director of the Vancouver Maritime Museum (a Mr. =
Delgado)
as a Hudson's Bay ship's captain based out of Fort Vancouver; can't
remember his assumed character's name but basically it was a chance for =
him
to spout various historical tales, etc. to an impressively large crowd of
seniors (who actually _did_ have questions for him) "in persona".  =
Needless
to say, he used the occasional bit of Chinook in his talk, but I =
refrained
from asking him "Maiga kumtux mamook Chinook wawa?" for fear that he =
didn't
(apparently he might have).  I didn't stick around for the aftermath, but=
 I
did wind up meeting the president of the West Van historical society, who
agreed with me that there's a good chance that one of the seniors who
frequent the place (which is very busy) might actually have more than a
passing acquaintance with the Jargon; she referred me on to the curator =
of
the West Van museum.  Next to me, also, was a woman who (somewhere in her
files) has tapes of a white Chinook speaker in Squamish from around 15
years ago - who was 99 years old at the time; hopefully she'll get in
touch.....

Anyway, during the lecture, the "Captain" commented that the Kanakas were
more commonly known as "blue boys" because of the colour they were
perceived to turn in the relatively frigid Northwest climate.  Has anyone
else ever heard this reference before?  Certainly it's not "jargon", but =
if
valid it would seem to rank as a "westernism" or "northwesternism", =
albeit
an archaic/obsolete one.

I'll get in touch with him this week, if I can; you never know what might
turn up in the way of Chinook source materials, but the Maritime Museum
seems like a damn good place to start......there's also a possibility I
could get their involvement in any future gathering (for physical space
only; they're completely cash-strapped as it is....)

Mike C.
Mike Cleven
ironmtn at bigfoot.com
http://members.home.net/ironmtn/

The thunderbolt steers all things.
                           - Herakleitos