"Of Port Burwell" and the ARIADNE'S Notched Deckbeams: Schooner Days CLXXXV (185)

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"OF PORT BURWELL" used to be on the stern of many a Lake Ontario schooner, after the name — Homeward Bound, Two Brothers, Lady Macdonald—to mention only three of dozens that traded to Toronto in schooner days. The Ariadne, whose cruel fate in a November gale 49 years ago was recalled recently, was another Port Burwell vessel, although, like so many of her sisters, she never went back to the old home port after her launching. She was owned in Toronto when she was lost, and before that she was owned in Oshawa or Newcastle and in Port Hope.

Brother Roy contributes a thumbnail sketch of one of the Ariadne's crew who "left his mark" most emphatically upon her. He was known as the Dummy, and he kept track of his days of working by means of notches cut with his jack knife in the deck frames in the Ariadne's forecastle. The Dummy sailed in the Ariadne for years while Capt. Gibson had her, and eventually the timbers were dog-toothed from end to end over his bunk forward, and new men coming on board wondered about the why and how of the hundreds of notches.

The Dummy, otherwise unidentified, was a native of Newcastle or Darlington. He sailed before the mast in the Ariadne until he seemed as permanent as the seasons. He was not a lip reader in the accepted sense, but never was he known to misinterpret an order from the Old Man or the mate, for orders were invariably accompanied by more or less expressive gestures, and compass courses were pointed out to him. He was a good man at the wheel.

The Dummy supported himself, his mother and a crippled sister.

He saved up enough to pay for a complicated and expensive operation which ended the sister's infirmity. The girl went to Port Hope High School and to Normal School by her speechless and deaf brother's efforts and was a credit to him. The Dummy was not in the Ariadne when she was lost When Captain Gibson sold her, the Dummy closed his jackknife and packed his bag and left her forecastle for good, figuring, probably, that a new skipper would be too hard to comprehend.

But we were talking about Port Burwell vessels and Port Burwell itself. T. H. Mason writes that most of the first settlers of the Port Burwell district were Nova Scotians. A few were established just before the War of 1812, and others had come up to spy out the land and had gone back to Nova Scotia for their families, when the war broke out and delayed their settling. Most of them came in during 1815 and 1816, and took up land along the first concessions of Bayham and Malahide Townships, a stretch still known as "Nova Scotia Street" and still largely occupied by their descendants. There were some U.E. Loyalists among the first settlers, and a little later a number of West Indians, but the clear majority were Bluenoses, with family names which are common to this day around Digby, Berwick and Annapolis.

Naturally, these Nova Scotian settlers were not long established on their farms until they began to build and sail small schooners on Lake Erie. The first shipyard was on the west side of the Otter Creek, where the first concession crosses. A little hamlet, known as Estherville, grew up here, but only a few schooners were built at Estherville; the shipbuilding was soon transferred to Port Burwell, where a small fishing and shipping fleet gradually accumulated.

"In 1844," says Mr. Mason, "my mother and grandmother crossed the lake in a schooner, and went on to New York via the Erie Canal and Hudson River. Where possible people chose the water routes in those days. Grandmother returned in September. Just before her return there had been a terrific storm, and she saw on the main street of Buffalo, hundreds of feet from the harbor, a small schooner which had been driven up and left there by waves and wind. All but two of the little Port Burwell fleet were wiped out in that blow.

"Later," continues Mr. Mason, "twenty-eight captains of schooners lived in and around Port Burwell, and the port was the greatest shipbuilding establishment on the north side of Lake Erie, with three shipyards at work."

How they worked and where their products went will be told next week.

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ALL ORDERS IN ENGLISH ABOARD FINN MANNED BY EIGHT NATIONS.

Sir,—I take much enjoyment in reading "Schooner Days" in The Evening Telegram, but I have here in my possession a picture of a sailing vessel -- which may be of interest for many readers.

This fullrigged ship "Pampa" belongs to Captain Gustaf Erickson Mariehamn, Finland, is 3,000 tons and made all of steel. The main mast is 182 feet high. I signed on this ship in Buenos Aires, South America, on January 14, 1921, and spent nine months and 13 days as sailor on this beautiful vessel, then under command of Captain Henrickssen. We sailed from Buenos Aires to Wellington, New Zealand, where we, after being loaded with wool, left for London. England. Our trip took 115 days, and for 82 days we did not see a ship at sea. There were eight different nations on board, all orders given in English. A credit to the boat was the good food —five meals a day. For fresh meat we had 21 hens and three pigs—the last pig weighed 180 pounds. We also had a library with 3,000 books, all in different language. All work was done by hand, no machinery at all. This ship was later dismasted off Scilly Islands in the spring of 1922, following information from the owner, yet to-day there exist still 26 of this ship sailing in trade from Australia to Europe. This "Pampa" carried some canvas in her days and was regarded as one of the heaviest sparred ships afloat.

—OTTO H. NEESS.

OFF THE HIGHLANDS, after a squall, thirty years ago. Left, the schooner Dundee of Toronto; right, the St. Louis.

The Pampa