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Ship of the Month - cont'd. 8. as they had no fire all the time they were back there. "Some of the crew decided that if help didn't come by noon, they were going to try to swim to shore, but the water was so cold the chances were we would never have made it. The crowds were getting bigger on shore all the time so we knew that help must be coming to us. At last we noticed a small fishing boat approaching us and as it came closer we all went out on the bow deck to greet them. It didn't take us very long in getting into it. They then turned their boat around and headed back for Pentwater, eight miles up the shore from us. We were still rolling good but the little boat was built for high seas and the crew were good in a sea. "As we rode back, they told us of the ANNA C. MINCH going down and the WIL­ LIAM B. DAVOCK and several other smaller ones that also went down. They were finding bodies from both boats along the shore near us so they knew that they must have gone down somewhere not far off. As we arrived at the dock we were greeted by hundreds of people who were anxious to see us safe on shore again. We were then taken to the Coast Guard Station where we were given a hearty welcome and after being warmed up with rum and coffee and a good meal, we all went to lie down for a few hours. "The first thing we had to do was to wire home to our families to tell them of our safe arrival on shore. That afternoon the President of Sarnia Steam­ ships [Capt. R. Scott Misener] came over from Canada and asked if we knew any of the crew of the MINCH, so when he handed us the [crew] list I found I knew several of the crew on it. We were just lucky that we weren't in the same place as they, as the [MINCH] was found that afternoon just four miles from us about a thousand feet off shore in forty feet of water. No one will ever know just what happened to it... "That night we were all taken to a restaurant for supper and afterwards went to a theatre. When it was over, there was a chartered bus waiting to take us up to Muskegon for the night, where we met the President of the [Paterson] Company. We stayed there for two days until the investigation was over, then we took a train and came back to Toronto to the Union Station where we were interviewed again. We stayed in Toronto that night and the next day we were allowed to go home, on the night train, where we were welcomed by our pa­ rents, relatives and friends. " Lloyd Belcher continued with his narration. "The above was written by me about two weeks following the shipwreck, and I spoke to different churches about my experience during that terrible storm. The following, however, are my thoughts and feelings as I look back on those eventful days... "After the NOVADOC was beached just north of Little Pt. Sable light, we waited for help from shore as our lifeboats were washed away. After 36 hours a fishing boat called THREE BROTHERS [sic] under Capt. Clyde Cross and crew members Gustav [some reports spell his name as Gustave] Fischer and Joe Fontain came out to our rescue. That was the happiest day of our lives to see help coming. Capt. Cross and his two crew members were very brave to come out to rescue us in heavy seas such as we had. I remember Gus Fischer telling me years later, when we visited him, that he paced up and down the shore, knowing some were still alive on board the crippled ship, and just couldn't stand it any longer, saying that they just had to get out there to see if they could rescue anyone. "It was good to see so many people lining the shore to show us we were not alone; their support was tremendous when they flashed car lights during the night to let us know they were there, and to give us whatever support they could. We were treated very well by the people of Pentwater and by the num­ ber of people who came down to the shore at Juniper Beach. It was wonderful to see so many who cared. "After leaving Chicago, I saw we were in for a bad trip down the lakes, and as time went on it got worse. I never saw such a storm in all my sailing