Wellman - Final Voyages, Volume II

Final Voyages 2

Jim Wellman

Flanker Press Ltd.

St. Johns, NL

2004

National Library of Canada Cataloguing in Publication

Wellman, Jim, 1946-

Final Voyages / by Jim Wellman.

Stories originally published in The Navigator, 1997-2003.

ISBN 1-894463-43-9 (v. 1).--ISBN 1-894463-69-2 (v. 2)

1. Fisheries--Accidents--Atlantic Coast (Canada)--Anecdotes.

2. Fishing boats--Atlantic Coast (Canada)--Anecdotes. 3. Shipwrecks--

Atlantic Coast (Canada)--Anecdotes. I. Title. II. Title: Navigator (St. Johns, Nfld.)

VK1275.A856W44 2003 363.1196392209715 C2003-905486-1

Copyright 2004 by Jim Wellman

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.

Cover photo courtesy of Terry Gill

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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.

Acknowledgements

A sincere thanks to the women and men who graciously gave freely of their time to tell me the stories of their loved ones who suffered loss of life or the loss of their most valuable possessions.

Thank you to Betty Johnson and the Johnson family for allowing me to include The Loss of the Annie L Johnson written by Captain Morrissey Johnson shortly before his passing in 2003.

Thank you to Paul Pinhorn, Rick Young and Trevor Decker, publishers of the Navigator Magazine, who again encouraged me to continue documenting Final Voyages as we recount the stories of heroism and bravery of those employed in Atlantic Canadas most dangerous occupationthe fishery.

And also a big Thank You to those who made Final Voyages, Volume I a huge success. Your support is greatly appreciated.

Dedication

This book is dedicated to all the families of fishermen who died at sea in Atlantic Canada. It is especially dedicated to the family of the late Captain Morrissey Johnson, one of Newfoundlands best-known mariners. Captain Johnson was the essence of what our proud marine heritage has meant to Atlantic Canadians for centuries.

Contents

Introduction

The fishing industry in Atlantic Canada has gone through massive change in the last twenty years. Perhaps at the very top of that change is new developments in technology. Even small inshore vessels are outfitted with fishing equipment that would astound those mariners who passed on just a generation or two ago. For example, state-of-the-art electronic navigational gear can pinpoint, with almost absolute accuracy, the location of a crab pot or lobster trap anywhere in the ocean.

But still, despite the incredible advances in technology, dozens of fishermen continue to die each year doing what they know best.

Simply put, fishing is still one of the most dangerous professions in the world.

In Final Voyages, Volume II Jim Wellman portrays the stories of some of those tragic events, along with other accounts of near-death experiences that finished with happier endings.

In Volume I of Final Voyages , we presented a poem by David Boyd from Twillingate, Newfoundland. David wrote the poem in memory of his friend Garry Troake who drowned while fishing near Twillingate in October 2000.

After reading the other stories in Final Voyages , Volume I, David was inspired by one of the chapters and once again sat down with poetry-pen in hand.

Lying Down To Die

A week of wind from the frozen north

Packed the ice tight to the land

The young men walked on the frozen sea

With a gaff just in their hand

A mothers face pressed to the pane

Watched her boys disappear in the drift

Her heart like lead with familiar dread

As she blew them a loving kiss

Chopping wood in the morning light

Fresh flippers soon in the pan

The old man felt the south wind raw on his cheek

Saw the ice moving off from the land!

Quick, Mary, he shouted, hand me the gun!

Pray shots from the hill wont be late

Its the only chance now to save our boys

Cause the ices moving off from the cape!

The sound of guns from the towering cliff

Like the toll of a funeral march

Stopped the young sealers dead in their tracks

And sent shivers of fear through their hearts

Their bodies turned to the biting wind

And the freezing fog and the rain

Hearts racing now like a wounded beast

To make the land again!

But not the power of a mothers love

Nor the tears from her swollen eye

Could change the howl of the wind

Or the hail from the angry sky

We can only guess what the heartache is

On a bed of ice to lie

Just those haunting words carved on the gaff

Were lying down to die!

David Boyd

Jan 3, 2004

One Family,

Two Tragedies (Part I)

The Grays of Shoe Cove

Monday , December 6, 1976 started out as a reasonably good morning in Shoe Cove on the Baie Verte Peninsula in Newfoundlandat least as far as the weather was concerned. Dozens of fishermen and their friends were up before dawn preparing to go hunting for saltwater birds that day.

At daylight, skies were overcast and a light northerly wind kept temperatures on the chilly side. Although the dark clouds appeared foreboding, it was not really a bad morning. Within a half hour of the dawn breaking, approximately twenty fishermen/turr hunters had assembled at the main wharf and slipway in Shoe Cove. By 7:30 a.m . most of the men had sized up the sky and the sea conditions and made a decision that the fair weather should hold for a few hours, giving everyone ample time to get out on the water and back home comfortably with a good take of turrs (murres). After all, there were about a dozen speedboats going and theyd only be travelling a short distance of about four or fives miles. Before eight oclock, a small flotilla of boats had started out from the small fishing community on the northeast coast of Newfoundland.

Brothers George and Lloyd Gray were in one of those boats.

Lloyd was only twenty-two years old but had worked for several years as a fisherman/crewman with a Shoe Cove fishing skipper. Although George worked in the fish plant in nearby La Scie, he too was comfortable on the water. The twenty-four-year-old man had spent many days fishing with his father Dorman Gray, something that George had dreamed of doing someday with his own son, Roger, who was then only ten months old.