Page 68 - Shipwrecks at White Point: From a Talk with Bob Fitzgerald

ISSUE : Issue 52

Published by Ronald Caplan on 1989/8/1

they could do. They ran before the wind for two days and two nights, or three days and three nights. And when the storm blew out, they had no idea where they were at.... But George and Allan, they took the chart and they tried to figure out where they were at. They had run for so many hours or days before the gale. They knew the way the wind was nor'west, or a norther, or what? ever it was--northeast. And so they had run for three days and three nights before the wind, and they tried to figure out how far they ran and where they were at. They didn't know. Well, they laid a course up as they talked, as near as they could figure it out, and they laid a course for St. Pierre. Okay. The wind was favourable to them, then. They let her go. So they went all day. And they went all night. And the next day was nice and fine. And the French cap? tain, he made signs to (my) father. He told Father that Allan and George Burton--if they'd let him--that he'd take the sun. You know. And figure out. He'.d find out where they were at. And then he'd set the course for St. Pierre for them. Talking a sight with a sextant So Father told George and Allan. Well, there wasn't much else they could do. They knew that he was a navigator. They knew this. And he had his sextant, his charts and compasses, and everything. So, George said, "All right. Go ahead." So Father told the old French cap? tain that the boys, Allan and George, said for to go ahead, take the sun, tell them where they were at. So at 12 o'clock noon, French skipper came on deck with his sextant, and he took the sun. Then he went down. He had the logarithms and he had everything, figured out where they were at. Knew right where they were at. Came up on deck. Took the wheel. Now my father said that they were going this way--on the course that George and Allan had figured out. Frenchman shifted--they were go- Siuberges lunnDLvn 'Jims Welcome '''' You to 50 Lovely, Newly-Renovated Suites & Fine Dining at Family Prices A Fully Licensed Dining Room featuring Fresh Seafood WANDLYN INN 100 King's Road, Sydney, Nova Scotia B1S1A1 (902) 539-3700 TOLL FREE: 1-800-561-0000 (Canada) 1-800-561-0006 (U. S.) Senior Citizen Discount ing this way. Steadied her up on the course, gave it to them. Told them, "That's it. That's the compass. Keep her on that." Okay. Went below. George and Allan talked over. "Jesus," George said, "he's got to be wrong. We can't go that way." He said, "We'll never reach anything going that way." But there was nothing they could do. The old Frenchman--they knew that he had navigation, and they didn't have any. So, they went for two days and two nights. And they couldn't shake the thing. George and my father were great friends. George said, "We'll never see St. Pierre. We'll never see land again." That evening, before dark--about 2 o'clock in the afternoon--my father said the old Frenchman came on deck, took the wheel, and hove her up in the wind. Let her come up in the wind. He had a dipsy lead in his hand. You know what a dipsy lead is? Of course you don't--you never saw one. A dispy lead is a lead that they--in the old times--that they measured the water with, and found out what kind of bottom there was. The bottom end of the dipsy lead was about that big. (About 3 inches across.) Yeah. And it was about this long. (A good foot long.) That ,'' We're MacLeod-Lorway Insurance , CALL US NOW and discover why more Cape Breton r '" through MacLeod-Lorway than any other independent agency. We represent more than half of Canada's leading insurance companies. Call or visit 215 Charlotte St. one of our 12 licensed agents for pre-purchase counselling. P.O. Box 1354 MacLeod-Lorway offers personal and commercial lines including home o Sydney, N.S. tenants pacicages and mobile home, travel, auto, builder's risk, commercial B1P 6K3 commercial liability, marine, bonding, business interruption and boiler and • as,> • ?',y. FAX # 539-4064 24 houF phone - call collect 539-6666

Cape Breton's Magazine