Temperance and the White Horse: Schooner Days CMLXX (970)

by C. H. J. Snider

LARRY BELMORE, of Southampton has or had for a long time an old Tower musket. It came from Drummond Island, and how it came is interesting.

Drummond Island is the second one west of Manitoulin, Cockburn being the first. When Great Britain graciously gave up Mackinac, captured and gallantly held through the War of 1812, the garrison was moved to Drummond Island, not many miles away, but boundary commissioners twisted the boundary in a very noticeable loop around Drummond Island, and Britain gave up another section of North America without a murmur. In 1828 the post or garrison was removed to Penetanguishene, where a naval base and garrison had been established in 1816.

TOOK TWO VESSELS

The meek second removal was accomplished by chartering two vessels, the brig Wellington and the schooner Alice Hackett. This Wellington may have been the square-rigger which the Hon. Angus McIntosh of Moy House built to eclipse his rival Oliver Newberry's fore-and-aft Napoleon of Detroit, before the said Angus vacated his place in the Legislative Council of Upper Canada to return to Scotland and the headship of the clan McIntosh. The Alice Hackett was a smaller vessel, a schooner built for Capt. Jas. Hackett at Moy House, which, was on the Detroit River and has since been swallowed up by Windsor. The Wellington took the Drummond Island troops aboard, with much of the post's equipment, leaving the Hackett to remove the rest.

MIXED GRILL

The schooner left at the end of September, with twenty-five persons on board and a cargo of pork, provisions, four cows, eight pigs, 12 sheep, four horses, beside William Soloman's white saddle-horse Louie. Soloman was a farmer-interpreter on the island, and Indian agent. He was included in the passenger list, as were Pierre Lepine, his wife Angelina and their little daughter of 10, Therese.

There was also on board a small much travelled brass cannon, which was said to have been brought to Drummond Island from Mackinac by the English garrison, who had taken it over from the French when they surrendered old Fort Michillimackinac in 1761. And the French, before that were said to have brought it from James Bay in 1765; perhaps from d'Iberville's fleet. There was, too, a sutler or tavern keeper, who was carrying away from the post thirteen barrels of rum and whiskey. And to get back to the starting point, Larry Belmore's Tower musket, final relic of departing power.

The Alice Hackett had light winds at first, freshening to a good breeze on Oct. 1st.

PREACHER'S REPORT

"Her passengers," declared the Rev. H. J. L. Wooley, of Richard's Landing, in a moving address in the Sudbury Star twenty-five years ago, "included a small detachment of soldiers, a number of French-Canadian voyageurs and half-breeds, besides the crew. They were rough but brave men, made hardy and enduring by the rigors of the wilderness.

"The soldiers were men of loyal and true hearts and though they anticipated happier times at the new post on the mainland, they had viewed, with a tinge of bitterness, the hauling down of the British ensign from the ramparts and the handing of the keys to the American officer by their trusted commander, Lieut. Carson. They obeyed when bidden to shake hands with their old enemies, but at the same time thought hard towards the members of the Boundary Commission who had so generously agreed that Drummond Island should be transferred to another flag. However, it was not theirs to reason why, so they went about the work of moving with the calm consciousness that they had stood loyally by the old flag when the call came and now they would turn away from the old camping ground to enjoy all that the change might bring to them.

"The good ship had weathered many a rough gale on the lakes and would doubtless have delivered her cargo and crew safely at the post on Georgian Bay had not the fort tavern-keeper taken on board that morning thirteen barrels of whisky, besides other odd bits of liquid dynamite. He was a wily merchant used to trading with all manner of men, and knew the power of a few free drinks to enhance big business in his line. No sooner had Drummond Island faded into the blue haze and windy cloud sheets on the western horizon, than he tapped a barrel and called all hands to drink a last toast to 'Awld Drummond.'

THEY GOT TIGHT

"This had the effect he expected it would, it was like a taste of blood to tigers. They came for more, and again they came with their shillings and pence and nodded assent to the repeated opinion that a man needed something hot on such a cold day.

"By night the lake was lashed into boisterous waves by the increasing wind, while cold rain added to the discomfort. The storm without and alcohol within put the Hackett at a decided disadvantage. Had the sutler not been on board she might have steered a straight course, but now she zigzagged over the waves as if she were trying to foil a submarine. About midnight, danger loomed up right ahead, but the lookout was out of business and no one saw or cared, until a great crash and a thunderous jolt sent the unsteady crew sprawling in all directions.

"Yo! Ho! In port at last," a thick voice called out, and then someone started a stifled cheer, but the fact was that they were far from port, and had met with a fatal disaster. The ship had foundered. Yes, the Hackett lay hard and fast, caught without hope on a hidden rock. Her timbers thrilled, as nerves, when through them passed the spirit of that shock.

"The crew and passengers, though in an advanced stage of intoxication, sobered considerably in the presence of their peril, and soon had the lifeboats launched. They knew that land of some kind was near and that their only chance lay in reaching it through the boiling waves.

WOMEN AND CHILDREN LAST

Somehow, they landed safely, for it does sometimes seem true, that you cannot kill a drunken man. About the only part of the cargo they saved was the remainder of the 13 barrels of whisky. This they carefully carried up the beach, and when it was made safe they huddled together and were soon oblivious to the world's mad strife.

"There they lay till morning broke and then, roused one by one and began to look around, but a piercing cry from Pierre Lepine brought them all to their feet.

"Me wife and chil'," shouted the excited French-Canadian. "Where are dey ? Dey on ship yesterday now dey not here!"

"And, sure enough, these brave and fearless men had disregarded the law of the sea of 'women and children first' and had left their only lady passenger and her babe behind, alone on the drowning ship.

"Ashamed and horror-stricken, they launched a boat and a number of the shame-faced crew made their way over the bumping billows to the wreck. Then a cheer came back, for the woman and her child still lived, to the wild joy of Pierre Lepine. This hardy daughter of Lower Canada had wrapped her child in a seaman's blanket, strapped her to her back and then bound herself securely to the swaying mast, where she hung throughout the rest of that awful night.

THE STRANDED HORSE

"When the shivering men began to take inventory of their baggage and cargo, they found that practically all was lost except the salvage barrels of whisky and one horse which had managed to break loose and swim ashore, where it galloped madly up and down, whinnying for its missing mates. William Solomon offered a large reward to anyone who would bring the horse to Penetanguishene, but the ice formed before it could be attempted and the poor animal perished.

"The island where this wreck occurred was Fitzwilliam, the most southerly of the Manitoulin group, but is better known by the name of Horse Island, so named in memory the stranded horse from this wrecked rumship of long ago.

"What became of the whisky?

"Did it perish with the horse? No, it does not die so honorably! Somehow it found its way with the wrecked crew to Penetanguishene, where it formed part of the stock of the first tavern started there."

Our information is a little different in spots. We have been told that the white horse survived the winter on the island and lived happily for years. Another story is that he escaped over the ice. Southampton fishermen salvaged the brass gun from the wreck in 1860, and the Tower musket. The latter reached Southampton and Larry Belmore, but the gun was lost through the fishboat capsizing off Chantry Island.