Palm-And-Needle Beats Crochet-Hook: Schooner Days DCCXXXVII (737)

by C. H. J. Snider

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PORT HOPE, March 30 (Special) —As nimble a sailor as ever knotted a reef point, is Captain Richard J. Edmunds, who at 88 is a hale and hearty resident of Port Hope.

In schooner days on the lakes he was an expert with palm-and-needle. Every sailor had to be, for sails had to be repaired and seizings replaced as, the need arose, and that was often in the middle of the lake, and far from the factory. Hand sewn sails wore longer and set better than the machine sewn kind, old salts will tell you.

Turks heads, matthew-walkers, rose-and-crowns, and truelovers' knots were the good sailorizer's recreation in spare moments and calm weather. The "palm" was his thimble, a metal disk with small depressions in it, set in a leather band slipped over the hand. The disk was pressed against the eye of the needle, to drive it through the stout canvas or tough manila rope. The needle was like a darning needle, but its head was thicker and three-cornered.

Now, in his second youth Edmunds turns his skill to needlepoint wool embroidering, and frames his product in fretwork.

Unlike some oldsters he does not live in the past alone, but takes a keen interest in the present and in the future. Right now he is looking forward to the ceremonies will mark the return to the town of the plaque given by Port Hope to their adopted minesweeper, HMCS "Port Hope." Captain Edmunds worked out in wood the elaborate carvings of the coat of arms on the plaque. This shows the genius of Port Hope as a schooner port, looking eastward, with fore-and-afters in the lake and lumber piles, barrels and bales on the wharf, and "Hope, the Safe Anchor" held fast.

With a skill which many a needlepoint worker of the opposite sex might well envy, Capt. Edmunds has made a model of a full-rigged sea-going ship out of woollen yarn on a canvas background. It has taken him over two years and the elaborate carvings and the elaborate carvings on the frame were made on his foot-operated fret-saw out on the back porch. The ship is done in color, and as Captain Edmunds aptly put it, "I figured it out from my head as I went along with no design beforehand to work on like the women do."

The ship is called the "Adrian" after the daughter of his niece, Mrs. A. Paxton. Captain Edmunds' wife died some time ago, and his niece and her daughter came to live with him. When The Telegram called Mrs. Paxton was down town, and the captain had put the potatoes on to boil for lunch. After that he started talking about ships.

When Mrs. Paxton came home she flew at once to the kitchen stove to lift the potatoes which had boiled dry.

"I might now that you would forget everything else when you start talking sailing," she chided him good-naturedly.

"That's the Skipper," Captain Edmunds said as he nodded in her direction.

Describing the workmanship of the Adrian, Captain Edmunds said that he had made it by drawing wool strands in over-hand stitches, pulling them through with a piece of wire carrying a loop at one end. It was a long process but his love of ships went into every stitch until a veritable masterpiece was the result. The sails are padded with paper, giving them the appearance of bellying in the wind.

"Sailors all learned to sew in the old days. That is where I got it," he explained.

Captain Edmunds got his first taste of sailing at the age of 12 when he sailed with his father. He was 21 when the owner of the Mary Ann Lydon came to him and, said, "Rich, I want you to take out the Mary Ann Lydon." It was the largest schooner sailing out of Port Hope then and with his captain's papers in his pocket, it was a proud Captain Richard J. Edmonds who went on board this fine vessel. As the years rolled on, he sailed on many craft out of the busy harbor of Port Hope, such as the Picton, the Aurora, the L. D. Bullock, the Annie Minnes, the E. H. Rutherford and the Jessie Drummond. These last two were three masters.

A one-time mayor of Port Hope, he also served on the town council and on the united council of the counties of Durham and Northumberland and still takes a great interest in the municipal life of Port Hope.

This picture of the good ship Adrian, in wool, is the work of Capt. Richard J. Edmunds, as is the fret-work frame.