Paul Carroll - The Wexford: Elusive Shipwreck of the Great Storm, 1913

THE

WEXFORD

A classic photo of the Wexford, showing the romance of the Wexford profile. Thephoto, originally from the late Dr. William Bill N. Watters, has been enhancedby Captain Bud Robinson.

From the authors collection.

THE
WEXFORD
Elusive Shipwreck
of the Great Storm, 1913

PAUL CARROLL

NATURAL HERITAGE BOOKS
A MEMBER OF THE DUNDURN GROUP
TORONTO

Copyright Paul Carroll, 2010

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise (except for brief passages for purposes of review) without the prior permission of Dundurn Press. Permission to photocopy should be requested from Access Copyright.

Published by Natural Heritage Books
A Member of The Dundurn Group

Editor: Jane Gibson
Copy Editor: Allison Hirst
Design: Jennifer Scott
Printer: Transcontinental

Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

Carroll, Paul, 1944

The Wexford : elusive shipwreck of the great storm, 1913 / by Paul Carroll.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-1-55488-736-1

1. Wexford (Ship). 2. Shipwrecks---Huron, Lake (Mich. and Ont.). I. Title.

G530.W49C37 2010 917.132043 C2009-907475-3

1 2 3 4 5 14 13 12 11 10

We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council for our publishing program. We also acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Canada BookFund and The Association for the Export of Canadian Books, and the Government of Ontario through the Ontario Book Publishers Tax Credit program, and the Ontario Media Development Corporation
.

Care has been taken to trace the ownership of copyright material used in this book. The author and the publisher welcome any information enabling them to rectify any references or credits in subsequent editions.

J. Kirk Howard, President

Printed and bound in Canada.
www.dundurn.com

Front cover image: The Last Sighting, oil, 2000, artist Captain C. Bud Robinson.
Back cover image: The Goderich Lighthouse, circa 1880, watercolour, 2000, artist Paul Carroll.

This lamentable tale of the Wexford shipwreck is dedicated to the memory of thousands of mariners, especially those unknown sailors whose bodies have never been recovered and whose names have never been recorded, lost on the Great Lakes over the long history of plying these waters for commercial trade from the time of the European explorers to the present day.

My manuscript preparation is dedicated to my two sons, Karsten and Kalen, who know that persistence and determination can accomplish extraordinary goals.

Thou rulest the raging of the sea:

when the waves thereof rise, Thou stillest them.

Psalm 89, Verse 9

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Wexford Found Off Grand Bend by Tim Cumming

Epilogue Remembering the Wexford, November 11, 2000

Appendix F Poetical Tributes to Mariners

Following page 144

Plate 1.The Last Sighting, oil, 2000, artist Captain C. Bud Robinson, showing the Wexford as she struggled with the heavy seas offshore from Goderich on the afternoon of Sunday November 9, 1913, just as the storm began to intensify to horrific proportions. The image of the Goderich Lighthouse, for which improvement plans had been designed but never enacted, is shown in the background on the right hand side. This striking painting is now owned by Mr. and Mrs. Keith Homan, The Ridge, Ridgewood Park, Goderich. In describing his painting, Bud cites the lines of the poem The Dirge of the Lakelands by Captain William Leonard:

Where is the lea or shelter

For we of the nations care.

Courtesy of Captain C. Bud Robinson.

Plate 2.The Wexford, watercolour, 2001, artist Robert McGreevy, perhaps as she steamed along in a lull between the beginning and the end of the storm, downbound on Lake Huron, early in the day, in a strong northwesterly breeze. The artist has completed hundreds of magnificent paintings to preserve and to celebrate our extensive marine heritage on both sides of the international border that runs through our Great Lakes. Mr. McGreevy went out of his way to make an accurate scan of this image available for use in this book. He drove for several hours to pick up the original painting from its current owner, remove it from its frame, transport it to a professional printer, reassemble it, and, then return it to the owner. Courtesy of Robert McGreevy.

Plate 3.The Wexford, acrylic, 2000, artist William Nieuwland, from an aerial perspective as she is whipped by the winds and lashed by heavy seas during her last voyage. The artist created his image at the time of the discovery of the Wexford. There was a sizeable group established, The Friends of the Wexford, which took pains to try to protect the vulnerable wreck site as well as to celebrate the significance of her discovery in the waters northwest of Grand Bend. Courtesy of William Nieuwland.

Plate 4.The Goderich Lighthouse, circa 1900, watercolour, 2000, by the author, showing the storm signals in place, as another late November gale intensified. The original photograph is from the collection of Duncan and Linda Jewell and is used in the text. Although most sources suggest that the lighthouse was improved on the basis of needs made apparent by the tragic events of the Great Storm of 1913, recent archival drawings show that certain upgrades were already on the drawing boards before this horrific maritime event.

Plate 5.Vessels in Winter Storage at Goderich Harbour, circa 1910, colourized postcard from a photograph by Reuben R. Sallows of one of the few occasions the Wexford wintered at Goderich. The vessels shown are as follows: The tug in the foreground might be the W.L. Forrest. Beginning on the left side closest to the elevator: the Paliki, the J.A.McKee, and our Wexford. The three in the background are the Dundee, the Midland Queen, and the Neeping. To the right of the tall chimney on the water and electric plant is the Turret Chief or possibly the TurretCape. These ship names have been verified after additional research by Captain Bud Robinson. Colourized postcard published by James F. Thompson, Goderich, colourized by The Valentine & Sons Publishing Co. Ltd., Montreal and Toronto. Printed in Great Britain.