Garry Cranford - Sea Dogs & Skippers

Flanker Press Ltd.

St. Johns, Newfoundland

2001

National Library of Canada Cataloguing in Publication Data

Sea Dogs and Skippers

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 1-894463-16-1

1. ShipwrecksAtlantic Coast (Canada)

2. ShipwrecksAtlantic Coast (U.S.) I. Cranford, Garry, 1950-

G525.S42 2001 971.5 C2001-901245-4

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Copyright 2001 Garry Cranford

All rights reserved. No part of the work covered by the copyright hereon may be reproduced or used in any form or by any meansgraphic, electronic or mechanicalwithout the written permission of the publisher. Any request for photocopying, recording, taping or information storage and retrieval systems of any part of this book shall be directed to the Canadian Reprography Collective, 379 Adelaide Street West, Suite M1, Toronto, Ontario M5V 1S5. This applies to classroom use as well.

Printed in Canada

First printing July 2001

Second printing May 2003

Third printing April 2004

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We acknowledge the [financial] support of the Government of Canada. Nous reconnaissons lappui [financier] du gouvernement du Canada. We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts, which last year invested $153 million to bring the arts to Canadians throughout the country. Nous remercions le Conseil des arts du Canada de son soutien. Lan dernier, le Conseil a investi 153 millions de dollars pour mettre de lart dans la vie des Canadiennes et des Canadiens de tout le pays. We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador, Department of Tourism, Culture and Recreation for our publishing activities.

Some of these contributors are old sea dogs themselves, in terms of their writing experience. Cassie Brown, author of three blockbuster sea stories, opens the book with her examination of the Newfoundland dog myth at the wreck of the SS Ethie , a myth that has stoked the imaginations of writers around the world. She is best known for her three classics in maritime history: Death on the Ice , A Winters Tale , and Standing into Danger . A collection of her short stories, The Caribou Disaster and other Short Stories was published a few years ago.

The other lady in this collection is Rosalind (Wareham) Power, author of A Narrow Passage: Shipwrecks and Tragedies in the St. Johns Narrows , and who brings a personal perspective in that she relates the death of her maternal grandfather, a St. Johns harbour pilot.

Rev. John E. Currey is a regular contributor of seafaring tales to the Downhomer magazine and author of Sailors & Their Ships .

Jack Feltham is author of several books, including Bonavista Bay Revisited , Northeast from Baccalieu , and Sealing Steamers .

Among the other veteran writers of sea stories is the tag team of Frank Galgay and Mike McCarthy, who have written many books on their own and as co-authors. They are widely known for their series Shipwrecks , Vol. 1 through 4, and their next co-authored work will be Olde St. Johns , detailing the history of the great capital city of Newfoundland.

Arden Hall is new to the publishing world as a writer but he is a lover of all Newfoundland and Labrador books. He can be seen every weekend at flea markets in St. Johns, Newfoundland, selling and trading old books.

Robert C. Parsons is the admiral of the writing fleet in Newfoundland when it comes to shipwrecks and sea yarns. He is author of half a dozen books, including Committed to the Deep , Survive the Savage Sea , Raging Winds...Roaring Sea , and the soon-to-be-released Lost at Sea .

Earl B. Pilgrim is the most popular author in Newfoundland. He is author of perhaps the most talked-about book in Newfoundland, Curse of the Red Cross Ring , as well as three other Canadian best-sellers: Will Anyone Search for Danny? , The Price Paid for Charley , and Blood on the Hills .

Retired mariner Captain Joseph Prim and his wealth of information on ships, crews and their captains are well known in Newfoundland. He has worked closely with Frank Galgay and Mike McCarthy on their Shipwrecks books and co-authored The Angry Seas with Mike McCarthy.

Shannon Ryan is an associate professor in the department of history at Memorial University of Newfoundland and the author of Fish Out of Water, the Newfoundland Saltfish Trade, 1814-1914 , and Ice Hunters: A History of Newfound-land Sealing to 1914 , the authoritative text on the history of the sealing industry in Newfoundland.

Clarence Vautier is a young man from the southwest coast of Newfoundland who works on the water. He has written approximately eighty short sea stories not yet published.

Jim Wellman is a retired radio broadcaster, author of The Fisheries Broadcast , and most recently Lighthouse People , a popular book on the history of lighthouse families in Newfoundland and Labrador.

Garry Cranford is the author or co-author of four books and editor of three others. He is best known for his history of the knockabout schooner Norma & Gladys. He is president of Flanker Press Ltd.

Special thanks go out to all of these contributors, as well as to Bruce Ricketts and Dottie Olson for the use of the dog photo featured on the cover.

Contents

Cassie Brown

Garry Cranford

Rev. John Ellis Currey

Jack Feltham

Frank Galgay

Arden Hall

Mike McCarthy

Robert C. Parsons

Earl B. Pilgrim

Rosalind (Wareham) Power

Joseph Prim

Shannon Ryan

Clarence Vautier

Jim Wellman

The Dog that Wasnt

Cassie Brown

Theres a dog that wasnt, in the wreck of the Ethie , which is legendary, for it has been recorded for all time in a Newfoundland folk song, and has its niche in Newfoundland history.

One of Newfoundlands most outstanding seamen, and one of the last of his kind in North America today, is Captain John Gullage, OBE, who was the chief officer of the Ethie . As the chief officer, John Gullage considered it his duty to take the risks he did for his captain and his ship. I was a young man, he said, and perhaps a little more foolhardy than I am today.

However, about the dog.

According to newspaper reports in a February issue of the Daily News in 1920, a few months after the wreck of the Ethie , there was a story to the effect that a Newfoundland dog owned by Reuben Decker had swum out and got the line, bringing it to shore, and thus was the factor in getting the people ashore so quickly.

Now, there had been no mention of the dog in the original account given by the survivors, but then there wasnt too much of a story published about the wrecked ship, owing, no doubt, to the fact that the wreck took place on an isolated island, and it was practically a week before news of it reached the capital city. Communications in those days were not as extensive as they are today.

Suddenly, two or three months after the wreck, a new hero is born. A dog had saved nearly a hundred people. Subsequent stories in the Daily News revealed that the story had come from the American paper The Philadelphia Ledger , and the readers of that paper were already sending contributions for a silver collar for the fearless Newfoundland dog.