Rogues and Rascals by Bob Kroll

Author:Bob Kroll [Kroll, Bob]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: HISTORY / Canada / General
ISBN: 9781551098838
Publisher: Nimbus
Published: 2011-10-15T00:00:00+00:00

Marvels and Mysteries

FATE

Some say the when, where, and how of one’s death is written down at the moment of one’s birth; and that no matter how desperate the circumstances, if you’re not fated to die, you won’t.

In mid-November 1840, at Canso, Nova Scotia, that old saying proved true. It had to do with a fishing skiff finding a woman and a child huddled on the beach of Andrew Island. The woman was in shock and the child bawled for food. The fishermen took them to Canso. After a few days of food and tender care, the woman finally heaved a deep sigh and told her story.

Her name was Mrs. Walsh, and she had sailed with her husband and child from St. Peter’s, Newfoundland, aboard the schooner Spring Bird. They were bound for Gabarus, Cape Breton. Her husband’s family had a farm there. There were thirty other passengers aboard, and six crew.

In the telling of her story, Mrs. Walsh had several moments of confusion. She told of a storm. Heavy winds. A high sea. She said she heard a loud crash, and the squeal and splinter of wood. She grabbed her child, and at that moment the sea rushed over her.

She woke on the beach on Andrew Island with the child still in her arms.

A few days later, Canso fishermen found debris from the wrecked schooner—a plank and some broken timber. All aboard had perished except for the mother and child. The fishermen wondered how these two had managed to survive that raging sea. They spoke about it often, particularly when a storm blew up on the water.

Canso villagers did the same. For years after, whenever the subject of survival at sea arose in conversation, someone was sure to tell of Mrs. Walsh and her child, and several among them would smile and take comfort in knowing that no matter how desperate the circumstances threatening one’s life, if it is not your time to go, you won’t.

If you could ask Albert Boudreau if that was true, he would probably wrap his arms around himself as if in a hug, look off as though looking into the past, and nod his agreement. Albert Boudreau also survived a raging sea, and he always wondered how.

On a chilly morning in September 1933, a Judique, Nova Scotia, householder answered a knock at his front door. Sleep crusted his eyelids and his brain still moved in slow motion. As he swung open the door, his senses suddenly sharpened at the sight of a drenched and exhausted sailor who looked more dead than alive. The sailor was Albert Boudreau, second engineer aboard the Hurry On, a Halifax ship bound for Montreal with a cargo of corn.

“Four men,” Boudreau said. “Four men on the beach.” Then he passed out with exhaustion.

Boudreau and his four companions were the only survivors of a harrowing night at sea. The Hurry On had left Halifax the day before. Off the Cape Breton coast, it ran into gale-force winds and a heavy sea.

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