"Marshy Haul": Schooner Days DCCXV (715)

by C. H. J. Snider

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THE GOLDRING family once numbered among their fleet the schooner Marcia A. Hall, a chunky little American bottom which Capt. Maurice Fitzgerald introduced to Lake Ontario. She hailed from Windsor and may have been transferred there to the Canadian registry. On her stern was an escutcheon of some sort. It seemed to be the lion and the unicorn but it might have been Britannia and the Indian, who have so long, as you doubtless recall, professed Industry, Intelligence and Integrity. Or do you? If you do, what is the rest of that blazon, and whose is it?

OLD SCAR LONG HEALED

The Marcia A. Hall — her name was always pronounced as though spelled "marshy haul"—was the innocent cause of contention between two highly respected lake families sixty years ago. It seems that Capt. Tommy Williams, second of the Williams boys, was in some sort of partnership agreement with some of the Goldrings regarding the Marcia A. Hall which did not work out to their mutual satisfaction. For one thing. Tommy, who was sailing the vessel, got fed up with being sent to Oswego with lumber, which involved hard work at both ends, loading and unloading and pumping in between. So he solved the problem by forgetting to take out a "clearance" from Oswego once, which prevented the vessel from being sent there any more, because a fine of $400 awaited collection. The final breach came when, coming back from Wilson, N.Y., on a much shorter run, he arrived minus the Marcia's mainmast, that important spar having gone over the side in midlake. The Goldrings, also fed up with these tribulations, brought an action in court to recover damages. Tommy, who inherited much Keltic wit along with his name, told the judge:

RACING FAST STEAMER

"Your Honor, it was like this. We were in a hurry to get home, you see, and we were racing the Cibola." (The Cibola was the companion of the ex-blockade running steamer Chicora, and could do fifteen miles an hour while the Marcia would drown herself at ten). "Every time we'd get a puff we'd gain on her and every time she'd get a puff she'd seem to draw away from us, and so we were coming across the lake and I guess I was watching her so close I didn't see the heft of the puff that took our mainmast clean out of us."

"You should know better than to race trains or steamboats," said the judge, mildly. "This appears to be a case where two well-intentioned neighbors have not been well advised. I am going to adjourn it and allow you to arrive at a settlement."

AMONG THE EVERGREENS

That, and time, healed the breach long ago. Capt. Tommy Williams has long since sailed over the horizon which his later schooner, the Highland Beauty, so often adorned. And Capt. Dick Goldring, the Maple Leaf man, last of the sailing Goldrings, with his anchors down in Port Whitby, wished him rest, and all the Williamses well the very last time we were talking to him. Walter Williams, Tommy's nephew, and Kew Williams, Tommy's brother, attended Capt. Goldring's funeral a fortnight ago and brought the family condolences. Capt. John Williams, who is nearer 90 than his old acquaintance reached, wanted to go too, but doctors advised against the journey.

Another member of the Evergreen Club who would have liked to attend was Capt. Jas. Peacock, of Port Hope. Capt. Peacock, born Oct. 22nd, 1853, entered his 93rd year last Monday with a quiet home celebration and heaps of good wishes.

A GOOD SERVANT

The Marcia A. Hall wore herself out in the 1890s running the odd cargo of lumber or shingles to Wilson, N.Y., having been bought by Capt. Pat McSherry. She ended her days in the boneyard at Port Dalhousie about 1895.

She had been a good servant of the Goldrings while they had her. When the Maple Leaf, pride of the family, sailed by "Little Dick" Goldring and his younger brother Charlie, burned and sank in the Esplanade fire of 1885, all the Goldring boys flung themselves into the Marcia A. Hall, which Ted and Frank had sailed hitherto, and they made her scorch her bottom running up and down the lake to catch-up with the Maple Leaf's contract. At the end of the season, having raised the Maple Leaf with Fire Chief Tom Graham's assistance, with the Marcia A. Hall they towed her charred hulk to Bronte for rebuilding during the winter. It was quite a feat towing the wreck with a sailing vessel, and that one smaller than the tow, but the Goldring boys did it, even for some time after the wind drew ahead and the "Marshy" one could no longer steer for Bronte. Night coming on, they put into Port Credit with their battered prize, and lay over until the wind came fair again. They reached Bronte next day, and young Captain Dick—he celebrated his 87th birthday before his recent death—put in the winter rebuilding her.

To have raised her from the slip where she settled at the foot of Frederick street, was also a feat. A hundred tons of stone had to be hand-raked out of her before she could be raised up to the water's surface. Her bow and stern were burned away, and her spars so badly charred that they had to be lifted out and sawn up. Capt. Richard Goldring took her into Bronte a charred wreck, with the remains of a spoon bow. He brought her out a yacht with a clipper bow and as pretty a profile as was to be found on Lake Ontario—and good for forty years' service. She lasted until 1926.

SCHR. MARCIA A. HALL, LOADING LUMBER FOR WILSON, N.Y., at the old Northern Docks (about opposite the foot of Portland street, Toronto), 1891.