Four Ariels and a Wing-and-Wing Run: Schooner Day CCCXLII (342)

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WE had the end of the Goldhunter last week, from the sprightly pen of Capt. John Tigert. But the seafaring of Capt. Tigert continued long after the Goldhunter gasped her last in 1890.

"That ended the season for me," he told The Telegram, "but next year I shipped in the schooner John G. Kolfage in Goderich, with Capt. John Macdonald, with his son Reddie, forward, and his daughter, Annie, aft as cook. For some reason Capt. Macdonald was nicknamed the Minister. He had a good command of language at times, and one of the times was when Danny McQuarrie, who was mate, was knocked overboard with the mainboom in the St. Clair River on the way down. Daniel was no safer in the lions' den than the other Daniel was in the St. Clair. After fishing him out and completing this leg of one voyage we loaded 1,100 barrels of salt in Goderich for Collingwood, and I don't think I have ever seen a better run wing-and-wing. We had the wind that way all the way up Lake Huron and around into the Georgian Bay, and right to Collingwood, just a light breeze. Then we came back to Pine Tree for cedar posts for Detroit. That's as far as I went with "John Minister."

"Next I made two or three trips in the schooner Heather Belle with Capt. John Golly, and shipped with mate McQuarrie, who had had the bout with the boom, in a three-masted schooner with a raffee nicknamed the 'Chorus And.'

"They were strong on nicknames in the cedar trade. Capt. Macdonald was 'The Minister,' as I have said. The Gold Hunter was the 'Gilt,' and the real name of my new ship was Corisande. She was laid up in the Sarnia Bay boneyard by 1910. Dan McQuarrie was sailing her when I was in her, in the absence of her master, Capt. Birnie, who was away on business.

"My next ship was the Ariel, an old black fore-and-after, with Capt. Finlay Macpherson, who later moved to Lion's Head to run a hotel. Charlie and I were before the mast and Chiddle was mate. The Ariel could carry about 200,000 feet of lumber. Chiddle and I got along well, because he would sooner steer than pump, and I'd sooner pump than steer. We both got all we wanted of each. Jack used to say any time after breakfast: 'Come and get dinner, boys, but give the pump a suck first.' That would mean a pretty late dinner, for she was a devil to leak.

"After that I shipped in the Lillie Smith of Southampton, a small steam barge with a fore-and-aft engine in her. Paddie and Josie Kerr were the engineers. Capt. C. J. Williscraft master, and Salty Alex. McLennan mate. We loaded cedar for Philip Forbes at Wingfield Basin. Forbes would bring it out in rope booms, and Salty McLennan saw to the stowing of it, while George E. Smith would sit and smoke his corncob meerschaum upside down. It had a bamboo stem. I finished my days tugging with the Abitibi Pulp and Paper Co. in a small tug called the Scotchman."

There were two Ariels—this one built in Quebec, the other in Owen Sound. Capt. Tigert did not mention, when speaking of his Ariel, the smaller one from the latter port, and the time when "Squealing Hughie" had her, and Black Dan Macdonald was mate. They were groping their way in the darkness of midnight through the islands of the Georgian Bay.

"Can ye no see the Half Mune, Black Dan?" Hughie would call from the wheel to Black Dan, peering forward from the knightheads.

"Na, Hughie, naethin but great darkness," Black Dan answered again and again, and again Hughie's high-pitched hail would urge him to look for Half Moon Island.

At the tenth time of asking there was a grating of the centreboard and grinding of the bottom, and the little Ariel came to full stop on the island, so far out of the water that the leaves from the trees came showering down on Black Dan as her jibboom speared the bushes.

"Can ye no see the Hawf Mune noo?" demanded Hughie above the crash.

"Gude save us, Hughie," hailed back Black Dan, tumbling from his post with the shock, "but it's the Fu' Mune hersel' ye've hut, and no hawvers aboot it."

There were at least two more Ariels on the lakes. Commodore Perry had one in his fleet at the Battle of Put In Bay, in 1813. She was of the Baltimore clipper model, a rarity in lake design, and was very fast. Her career was short, for she was wrecked at Buffalo in a gale that same year. She was about 70 feet long. She was never off Lake Erie.

A larger American Ariel was one built at Sacket's Harbor in 1847 and later sold to L. Conrad, of Detroit. She was of 253 tons, a good size for her time, but by 1864 she had apparently become much run down, for she was rated low and her insurable value was only $1,500. Vessels of her size were worth $10,000 new at this time.

The small Ariel of the Half Moon adventure was built in 1862 and registered 41 tons. She was 60 feet 8 inches long, 13 feet 5 inches beam and 6 feet deep in the hold. From the figures she should have been wet crank and fast. She hailed from Owen Sound. Bound for Collingwood from that port Nov. 24th, 1867, she was two days on the short voyage and was under water much of the time. She arrived with her forecastle full and some of her 2,300 bushels of wheat spoiled. Richard Hill was her master at this time. He was drowned later, 13 years to a day, in the steamer Simcoe (ex-Mary R. Robertson), in Providence Bay, Nov. 24th, 1880. He was captain of the Simcoe.

Peter R. Snider was master of the Ariel of Owen Sound on Nov. 5th, 1869. On this Guy Fawkes night she was driven ashore west of Collingwood breakwater, while trying tom make shelter in the port after leaving Meaford. She was got off this time and got on again long afterwards, Oct. 15th, 1895, near Findlay's Mill, Owen Sound, being blown ashore in a gale. The tug Aikins pulled her off, but she was about at the end of her long rope in other ways and soon afterwards vanished from the register.

But the much larger Ariel of which Capt. Tigert speaks, with could carry 200,000 feet of lumber was probably the Quebec-built one, as old as Confederation, which Wm. B. Ferguson owned in Port Hope in 1874. She was 111 feet long, 25 feet 2 inches boom, 8 feet 7 inches deep in the hold and registered 162 tons; a handy size in every way for grain or lumber. She went to the Upper Lakes some time in the 1880s.

The picture shown is said to be one of this Ariel, but its identity is in doubt. It looks rather small for her, and the only authenticated picture of her known (showing her in dry dock) does not corroborate this, for in it she has no fore topmast fidded. Of course, her topmast might have been struck for the occasion. Perhaps Capt. Tigert or someone else who knew the Ariel well will pass judgment on this picture. While they are at it, will they express an opinion on the possibility of it being Capt. Spence's Nemesis, out of Southampton?

Step up, boys, and try your luck.

"THERE'S MY DAINTY ARIEL"

OR IS IT? Prospero had no doubt about his faithful sprite, but some say this schooner would be too small for the ARIEL of Port Hope, and say it is the NEMESIS of Southampton. All that is certain is that it was taken at Kincardine about 1890. Who can identify her?