Page 30 - Shipwreck at Little Lorraine from an article by D.C. Harvey, late Provincial Archivist for Nova Scotia

ISSUE : Issue 11

Published by Ronald Caplan on 1975/6/1

in a most surprising manner, so that it is found impossible to extricate it. The people are very particular in dressing the corpses according to their own ideas of propriety, which are, that each must have a shirt, trousers, and jacket, or a che? mise, petticoat and gown, as the case may be, with handkerchiefs over the face and feet, and in this array they are interred, without coffins, to raake *hich there are neither raaterials, time nor workraen. These clothes they have sorae difficulty in pro? curing in sufficient number, by raking thera frora araong the wreck at the bottom; and in some instances they assured me they were obliged to furnish thera frora their own houses. Their particularity as to the nuraber and nature of the garraents which they considered indispensable for the dress of the defunct was lat'hable enough: but, of course, I carefully abstained from any such remark that could reach their ears, and encouraged them to the utmost. They were also exceedingly careful that everyone should be duly interred before sunset, being persuaded that the inhabitants would be nightly visited by the spirits of such as remained above ground. "I have entered into all this detail to explain the foundation of my belief, that the fisherraen do not, and cannot, pay theraselves, in the way sorae iraagine. Can you give me any assurance that they will be indemnified by the province, or in any other way? Might not the unclaimed proceeds of former wrecks be thus appropriated? The ser? vice is surely one of public importance, and one that, but for the good will and ex? ertions of these poor fellows, would not be performed at all. Indeed, there should be raore done yet, even supposing they succeed in finishing what they have begun. Their time and means do not allow them to excavate the ground to a sufficient depth. Workmen should be dispatched to form barrows over these hasty sepulchres, or the foxes, and other ravenous creatures, will get at them, and probably tear out the corpses piecemeal. rt Morien J'-''j / 'i' '' * ' T 5t i There is a raonuraent at Little Lorraine "to the raeraory of the Irish Iraraigrants who lost their lives when the ship Asterisk with 500 souls on board bound frora Liraerick • '' Quebec were wrecked on Loraine Head April 22, 1816. only two surviving." We have tiar found no other record of the Asterisk and wonder whether the Astraea was the wreck intended here. It seeras unlikely that a wreck such as the Astraea. in which local fisherraen played so imselfish and important a role, would not be reraerabered. The coin shown was taken from the wreck of the Asterisk/Astraea • it is dated 1826-'- which Places the wreck at least 10 years later than the monument. Father Dolhantv told us fisherraen say you can see the iraprint of the ship against the clifFI Home Cooking Licensed Hyland Restaurant and Motel Open 7 AM to 12 m for Full Course Meals Daily INVERNESS Telephone: 2S8-9909 Levi LeBlanc Limited BUILDIN3 SUPPLIES HARDWARE • PAINIS Phone: 235-2022 Margaree, Nova Scotia A Meraber of the BOLD Organization

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