Page 28 - The 1929 Earthquake: Two Memories

ISSUE : Issue 50

Published by Ronald Caplan on 1989/1/1

Capt. RoDGrtson continues from page 2 We tied up at the wooden cribwork breakwa? ter, and when I stepped onto it, I felt a trembling in my legs, for some unknown reason. Mr. MacDonald arrived on the breakwater in his Model T Ford car and stopped by me, and--although I had his money on my person, and true to his Scottish tradition, it would have to be some major unforeseen prob? lem to prevent him from accepting any money that was owed to him, at any time or place--he was as white as a ghost and very agitated, and shouted from his car, "No time to take any money today--the World is coming to an end--and I have to get home!" CAPE BRETON MAN MAY BE QUAKE VICTIM Point Tupper, C. B. • (Canadian Press) • It was learned here Mon? day that John McLeod, employed as a watchman at the saw mill at Lower River Inhabitants, has been missing since the earthquake of November 18. According to the meagre details available the mill was destroyed by the tidal wave following the quake. It is thought MacLeod was asleep in the mill at the time and was drowned when the structure was washed away. I do not know how long the tremors had been going on before, but they were still persisting as I boarded my boat, where I could no longer feel them, as I immediately set out for Louisbourg. There was no sound or rumble of any kind. I had experienced earthquake tremors previously at Kingston, Jamaica, and felt that these tremors were similar. With that he swung his car around and returned by way of the new eastern road behind the church, and his car was still in sight when the church chimney completely collapsed and fell into the roadway over which he had just passed. His prediction had narrowly missed ending his personal World! (Sydney Record, Tuesday December 17,1929) BELLE ISLE LINCOLN MERCURY ~ SENIOR SERVICE ~ • Any Make Car Care Plan for Senior Citizens FREE Leaner Car on Overnight Repairs FREE Pick Up and Delivery of Your Car FREE Tow to Our Service Department FREE 20% Off on Ford Parts FREE 20% Off on Repairs Done Here FREE Life Insurance on Car Loans FREE I. D. Card BELLE ISLE LINCOLN MERCURY SALES LTD. 195 Prince St., Sydney "At the Tracks" 539-9292 It took us one-and-one-half hours under power to reach Louisbourg, arriving at dusk, and when we tied up at Cann's Wharf, constructed of light wooden timber, we could feel no tremors, and th weather contin? ued clear and calm. After we had tied up, we immediately sat down to supper, and about ten minutes later--some time after half past five--the boat lifted vertically about seven or eight feet rather gently, and as the boat lines had been left slack, there was no snubbing as the wave rose above the deck of the wharf. This time there was a rumbling and clattering sound, but it was not caused by the wave, which did not crest or break, but from nearly one hundred empty forty- five-gallon steel gasoline drums, which floated off the wharf. The wave did not break on the shore, it' was more of a welling up. 1989 MERCURY TOPAZ MERCURY' LINCOLN 1989 MERCURY TRACER After supper I walked along the roadway towards Louisbourg to call on the Customs Officer, and as I approached a short wooden bridge, about twenty feet long, I noticed the seawa- ter rising up towards road level, and I quickly jumped on the bridge rail? ing and climbed a few feet up a light pole attached to the bridge railing. The seawater rose a few feet above the road surface, and then subsided after a minute or two. I noticed quite a few live smelt de? posited on the roadway, near the bridge. I felt no tremors at that time. There were very few radios and little communication in those days, so it was some time the following day in Louisbourg that we learned that there had in? deed been an earthquake. Two days after our arrival in Louisbourg, I walked 28

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