Robert C. Parsons - Heroes of the Sea: Stories from the Atlantic Blue

Heroes of the Sea

Stories from the Atlantic Blue

______________________________

Robert C. Parsons

Flanker Press Limited

St. Johns

Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

Parsons, Robert Charles, 1944-, author

Heroes of the Sea: stories from the Atlantic

blue / Robert C. Parsons.

Includes index.

Issued in print and electronic formats.

ISBN 978-1-77117-561-6 (paperback).--ISBN 978-1-177117-562-3

(epub).--ISBN 978-1-77117-563-0 (kindle).--ISBN 978-1-77117-564-7 (pdf)

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from Library and Archives Canada.

2016 by Robert C. Parsons

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 Access Copyright, The Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency, 1 Yonge Street, Suite 800, Toronto, ON M5E 1E5. This applies to classroom use as well. For an Access Copyright licence, visit www.accesscopyright.ca or call toll-free to 1-800-893-5777.

Printed in Canada

Cover Design by Graham Blair

Cover Illustration: Wreck of the Dispatch by Lloyd Pretty

Flanker Press Ltd.

PO Box 2522, Station C

St. Johns, NL

Canada

Telephone: (709) 739-4477 Fax: (709) 739-4420 Toll-free: 1-866-739-4420

www.flankerpress.com

9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

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.

Contents

INTRODUCTION

These are the peoples stories, their tales of the sea, many of which were recorded in print. Some were passed on in the oral tradition. These were told years ago around kitchen tables and in the warmer forecastles on ships.

Newfoundland and Labrador has a great vault of history and culture. The majority of the trove comes from folk tales or are housed in our archives waiting for us to piece them together.

The stories in this volume, many of which were compiled from a combination of oral and written sources, are true. Often the storyteller may have forgotten specific details or misconstrued certain facts (or the interviewer may not have asked the relevant question), but the event did happen in some form many years ago. Again, each depends on the whims of individual memory or on the notions of newspaper reporting.

Several tales in Heroes of the Sea were sparked by a story, or a fragment, I received from correspondents. Someone, somewhere read a story in a previous book, then sent me further information on events, crew members names, or what happened to significant others after the wreck or loss of life. Two or three accounts within are expansions of earlier tales.

Also, t he staff at various libraries usually found what I wanted or steered me in the right direction. Specifically they are the Newfoundland Reference Section at the A. C. Hunter Library and three venues at Memorial University: the Queen Elizabeth II Library; the Maritime History Archives; and the Centre for Newfoundland Studies (CNS).

I would like to illustrate a case in point. On May 29, 2015, as I was augmenting several tales in this volume, I realized I had only the first initial S of Magistrate Avery. S. Avery had spearheaded several relief missions, fundraising campaigns, for distressed families of lost seamen. I called the Newfoundland Reference Room of the A. C. Hunter Library in St. Johns, asking if they could search out some extra information on Magistrate Avery. Within an hour or so, back came the answer: he was Simeon Avery, a stipendiary (salaried) magistrate who had been stationed in Burin and on the west coast.

As well, to those peopletradition bearers, storytellers, information specialistswho sent me relevant information, I shall say thank you!

Newfoundland is rich with oral history: the oral has to be recorded and preserved before the singers, poets, sealers, and bank fishers pass on. Two or three stories in Heroes of the Sea were taken from folk songs or poems. These are included but are annotated to fill in certain background information.

As you, good reader, will see, the stories are presented in categories: ships that were abandoned, were victims of war, disappeared, ships and people that ran afoul of the law, and so on. It is a departure from my other books, which tend to be arranged chronologically or geographically.

Today, in this electronic age with its proliferation of material and images, the problem of proper copyright is compounded. Yet I have made every effort to identify, credit appropriately, and obtain publication rights from copyright holders of illustrations, photos, and written material used in this book. Notice of any errors or omissions in this regard will gratefully be received and corrections made in any subsequent edition.

As well, should any reader like to add or augment a story from this collection, contact the author at the address below. I will receive them with pleasure.

Robert C. Parsons, Box 131, Grand Bank, NF A0E 1W0

Email: robertparsons@personainternet.com

Website: http://www.atlanticwrecks.com

Preserving Newfoundland and Labradors

Maritime History, One Tale at a Time

Part 1: Unusual

The six tales in this first part are of unique, odd, and curious happenings on or near Newfoundlands shoreline. Some of the events could be explained. Others are of a more clouded and puzzling nature.

I have found, over the years of searching for Newfoundland and Labrador stories, many of the unusual, hard-to-believe events have a kernel of truth behind them. Those included here, like all the accounts in this volume, are based on research, written documentation in old newspapers, or oral history of families, poems, songs, and recitations. The sources for each are to be found at the end of this volume.

In all instances, the following accounts were cross-referenced in other sources, sometimes with results, sometimes not. But that didnt preclude me from presenting the story to you, good reader.

Death and Destruction

by Hailstones!

It was a glorious summer day in the early hours of June 26, 1930, in eastern Newfoundland, especially in Bonavista Bay North. In the town of Lumsden there was no indication of the harsh weather that was soon to come.

But in the mid-afternoon, an unheralded freak of nature fell upon the people of that fishing community. Located on the Straight Shore and renamed in 1917 from Cat Harbour to Lumsden (after Reverend James Lumsden), it was a fishing community which in those days was referred to as Lumsden North and Lumsden South.

A thunder and lightning storm and hailstone shower struck the town that evening. No ordinary hail, but huge balls that extensively damaged homes, sank or overturned fishing craft, and most grievous, killed three people. So rare was this type of event it sent the people into a panic.