Page 30 - H.L. Livingston Talks About Peggy Doggy & the "John Lauchlin" in the August Gale

ISSUE : Issue 19

Published by Ronald Caplan on 1978/6/1

put his ship broadside to the storm. Some? thing you're never supposed to do with a sailing ship, because if she has sails and wind in her sails it keeps her rather steady, although she'll lean over. But without sails she rolls until she rolls completely over. About 4 o'clock that afternoon he couldn't see the foremast through the drifting spray. The hurricane was almost 100 miles an hour, with spray drifting off the tops of the waves. And every time she would fall away and start to race before the hurricane, he'd put the wheel hard over and bring her up into the sea again. Broadside to the storm. Below decks I guess everybody thought that he'd gone crazy, because she was rolling so badly • but that set the broad keel of the "John Lauchlin" to the tide, so that it cut down her rate of drift. He made a complete wide circle around the Magdalen Islands. And daylight found him just north of the northeast tip of Prince Edward Island. So he ran in under a headland. The wind was by that time going down. He brought the crew on deck. Rigged up a spare foresail and came into North Sydney three days later • the only ship in the Gulf of St. Lawrence that survived. More than 1000 persons drowned on this coast and the coast of P.E.I, in that storm. In Arichat alone, as Capt. Parker points out in Cape Breton Ships and Men, 50 heads of families v/ere never heard from again. So Lauchie, being stubborn, non-conform? ist, refused to believe what the rule book said, and saved the ship and its crew. And while the storm was at its height and the trees were being uprooted around my grand? father's little log house at Big Bras d'Or • my grandmother said, "I'm afraid a- bout poor Lauchie if he's in this." My grandfather said, "Don't worry about him. He'll know just what to do in any storm. Lauchie's got a good ship and the ship's got a good master." And it did. Licensed Dining Room and Lounge Enjoy a beautiful day of golf at the . Dundee Qol! Course Green Fees: 18 holes $5.00 Pro Shop 9-HOLE PUBLIC GOLF COURSE Located at Dundee, Richmond County in Cape Breton, Canteen Club Rental Golf Cart and Car Rental on a beautiful site overlooking the Bras d'Or. IXMDEE is 17 miles from Port HawkesDury off Route 104 Beautifully situated on Sydney Harbour Isle Royale Hotel Fully Liscensed Dining Room Coffee Shop Cable TV Lounge with Nightly Entertainment (902)564-5511 The Social Centre of Sydney OPEN ALL YEAR ROUND Now 208 Years Old ROBIN, JONES 8c WHITMAN, LIMITED Cheticamp 224-2022 Inverness 224-3125 CHICKEN CHALET frfed 4 outlets to serve'you- Bioweis st. North Sydney Sydney Shopping Centre, Prince St Sterltnf Road, Glace Bay CB. Shopping Plaza, 'ney River 7M-3S34 5M-6322 849-MM Qualified Dispensers Always in Attendance OWL DRUG STORE D* I* MacDonald, Prop. Your Northside DOROTHY GRAY DISTRIBUTOR Convalescent and Sick Room Supplies Sales & Rental Drug Sundries and Cosnetics P.O.Box 125 794.3611 North Sydney ALWAYS AT YOUR SERVICE

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