Old Port Maitland Saw Quite a Lot: Schooner Days CMXLV (945)

by C. H. J. Snider

"OF accidents which happened at or near Port Maitland, on the north shore of Lake Erie at the mouth of Grand River, as told to me by my father," writes E. J. Aikens, 23 Whitmore avenue, who "never misses reading Schooner Days."

"Early in May, 1850, an accident occurred just outside the harbor which threw a gloom over the whole settlement. It was from the collision of two steam vessels, the Commerce, bound to Port Stanley with a division of the 23rd Regiment for London Welsh Fusiliers, and the coasting boat Despatch, which vessel ran into the Commerce, so badly damaging her that she went down in a very short time. The Despatch, not being much damaged, she at once came to the help of the Commerce and thus rescued most on board. However, unfortunately, some forty were drowned. This occurred at 11 o'clock at night.

About the year 1860 late in the fall, with a heavy sea running, driven by a southwest wind and freezing, the schooner Augustus Ford was trying to make port. She had been stripped of most of her sails, and was unmanageable. She struck the sand beach about four hundred yards from the east pier. The sea was very high end soon broke over her and filled her with water, driving the crew on deck. The crew consisted of captain, four sailors and a woman cook. In the harbor that evening were some of the late Senator McCallum's wrecking crews, also a canal tug. The crews saw the plight of the vessel at dusk and followed along the beach to where she struck. They built a big bonfire to guide any that would risk swimming ashore. They heard a woman screaming above the gale.

The crew floated a line ashore which was made fast to a tree. Only one man ventured, hand over hand to shore. He was warmed by the fire and recovered. One man on board wrapped himself in what was left of one of the jibs. He was frost bitten but recovered. But the captain, two sailors and woman cook, who had lain down on the cabin top, were frozen to death with six inches of clear lake ice over them. When the rough boxes arrived from Dunnville, the ice was cut square with the bodies incased in them to fit the boxes and shipped to Dunnville by tug and given to the undertaker for shipping to their homes in the United States.

WHEN GUIDING STAR BLEW UP

As told to me by my aunt, of the blowing up of the steamer Guiding Star at the dock in port:

Back in the 80's the lake steamers all burned wood, and Port Maitland was one of the wood loading centres. Thousands of cords would be cut and drawn during the winter to port and placed along the bank for the season's fueling.

The steamer Guiding Star came in the morning and took all day to load and fuel, leaving early next morning. The captain gave the order to castoff. Mr. Thewlis, who was in charge of the wood supply, cast off the line and immediately there was an explosion. It was supposed caused by the boiler being low in water, and fresh water turned in caused it.

Pieces of boiler plate were thrown a hundred yards. Several men were killed. The captain was blown ten feet on the deck. One man was blown overboard and landed on a spile in the river. My aunt and another woman secured a punt and rowed to where he was, but the poor fellow was badly mangled and dead when they got to him.

Amidst the horror and confusion there was a funny incident. The Negro cook was in the kitchen baking bread, and was in the act of reaching in the flour barrel, which was nearly empty, when the explosion occurred. He was not injured but came up on deck yelling, "Lord a mercy, what happened?"

A GUILLOTINE

She also told me of another sad accident on one of the wharfs. The small schooner named John McBride (which name I have often read about in Schooner Days and which I remember very well). She came in off the lake and was about to tie up at the wharf. They threw a line ashore, or on the dock, and a young boy named Robinson, about 16 years old, was about to make it fast on the snubbing post when a bow stay of steel cable swung around and nearly cut his head off.

(The John McBride came to Toronto early in this century and was in the stone trade for some time, going to the Bay of Quinte finally.)

SAVED BY THE SENATOR

One night in the early fall in the 80's a heavy sea was running before a strong southwest wind, when the large three-mast vessel named "Pettit" was trying to make port, and mistook a house light for the lighthouse and ran aground on the sand beach so close to the east pier that we stepped on her rail from the pier. The minute she struck the captain ordered her scuttled to save her from pounding to pieces. She did not take in much water, only aft. She was loaded with a cargo of marble and sulphur. The late Senator McCallum had a large wrecking outfit, composed of such steam vessels as the W. T. Robb, The Prince Albert, Parker, Jessie and the Mary Ann. By the way, the last named was the first steam vessel entered on the Dominion Register of Shipping (as you, no doubt, remember). He had also the schooners M. C. Upper and Josephine and lighter, Nevada. He had the contract of releasing the vessel with the aid of powerful steam pumps. She was released and towed into port.

DOUBLE KNOCKOUT

On another occasion, I remember a yawl holding eight or ten men, big, husky fellows they were, rowing into port just as they left their vessel, which had collided with a steamer or freighter (I have forgotten their name—somewhere between Mohawk, or Gull Island, and Dunkirk, N.Y.). (Would it be the Garry Owen?) Their vessel was loaded with railroad track and sank immediately, so fast that they just took to the yawl and got away in the clothes they had on. The man cook went back to the cabin to secure some money and was lost.

The steamer also went about two miles and went down. Fortunately, the crew took to the lifeboats and rowed to Dunkirk. The weather was quite mild and the lake calm.

I also remember visiting my grandmother at Port and was woke up at midnight to see the lighthouse burn down. The oil was stored in barrels below the lights. It was a sight to be remembered, seeing one barrel after another falling burning into the lake.

PORT MAITLAND REVIVES

During the First World War the port was very active. The T. H. & B Ry. ran a spur line from Smithville to Dunnville and on to Port Maitland. The government dredged the entrance to the harbor and bought the car ferry "Maitland No. 1" carrying 32 cars, mostly of coal, running on schedule from Ashtabula, Ohio. It ran several years and was sold and I think went to Lake Michigan. The coal went principally to the Steel Co. at Hamilton. Freighters still bring coal to Port and transfer same I to cars and ship to Hamilton.

My father was called Captain but never took out papers. He was part owner of three tugs on the Welland Canal. The first one named after him, W. J. Aiken, and the others, Lizzie and McPherson, all have long since departed from the lakes."

Thank you Mr. Aiken. As a constant reader of Schooner Days you give as good as you get and we are glad to hear from you. Do you know anything of the remains of the old Eighteen-Twelvers dredged up at Port Maitland when the harbor was improved thirty years ago?