Page 5 - Wreck of the 'Mikado' / Wreck of the 'Iceland II'

ISSUE : Issue 31

Published by Ronald Caplan on 1982/6/1

that sort of thing. I've seen one just a day or two after it happened. That one was out here (a portion is still on the shore), the Iceland II. She was from Prince Edward Island. They came in--they were in a south? east snowstorm. She had two captains--one was a qualified navigator, the other was acting captain. He was more of a, say, fishing expert. A good fisherman and so on. But I don't imagine that he was trained too well in the use of navigation equip? ment. The navigating captain--her regular captain--was ashore. It's not so many years ago, sometime in the late '60s. Sara Severance: She was a- shore for two days before anybody found her. It was a storm, you know, and nobody went out. Arthur: Terrific snowstorm. It was in the winter, a southeaster. There were two of these stem trawlers that were fishing in the same general area, started in. Well, this one was supposed to be head? ing for Louisbourg, and the other one was going up to the States. Well, the other one made port all right, but this one was coming in on just automatic pilot. And the first thing that I guess anyone was aware of--there were no survivors, no one to find out exactly what happened--but she struck right into the bluff rocks, right back here, just east of Bear Cove. Hooper's beach--yeah, it was the old Hooper proper? ty, right on the back of that. There's bits of her out there yet, up on the bank where the sea fired it up. It was in Febru- ary--in that kind of weather, nobody would be going out. Sara: Two young boys were out there for a walk, the MacKay boys, and one sighted the wreck. Arthur: I think they only got one of the men aboard the ship. He was in the wheelhouse, frozen stiff. I think they got all the bodies, though. Along the shore. But they were a quite a few days before they did recover them. No survivors. Wreck of the Iceland 11' 4 Crowd on shore at Bear Cove, Fourchu, watch as RCMP rescue helicopter lowers a man aboard the ICELAND II. Ski Loft Corner Charlotte St. & Townsend St. Sydney featuring: Wool rich - Spring and Summer Clothing also available: a fall wool-lined Mt. Parka jacket Tom Taylor sailing wear Deck Paws: canvas shoes and moccasins and rubber boots New Balance Hiking Shoes Phone 539-7165 Ralph Rafuse, Fourchu: (Was the Iceland II a vessel that was around here before?) No. I never heard of her, that's the first time I heard of her. (How was she found?) Well, it was Brian MacKay, he walked up the beach--it was him that saw her--she had been there a day or so--I don't know how long. But I know I was down aboard my boat here in the harbour just a day before that. I could smell fuel oil and I could see pieces of styrofoam floating around-- that's the stuff that had blown over the hill, that had come out of her. I never thought anything of it, but it was that day that he found her, sometime through the day. She could have gone in through the night. I heard a fellow saying that he thought he had heard an engine running through the night out back there, but I don't know if it was that or not. (This is February 24, 1967. What kind of weather was it?) Well, the day before that, it was blowing a southeaster--oh, I guess it must have been blowing 115 anyway, I would say--a south? easter, and snow. And then that's how come (5)

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