Vanished Sails and Passing Hails: Schooner Days CMXCI (991b)

by C. H. J. Snider

A MAN FROM MANITOULIN

INSPIRED by "Stairway to the Stars," a recent number, Charles Joyce, Meldrum Bay, Mantoulin Island, sent this much appreciated rhyme to:

"SCHOONER DAYS"

I

The Albatross and the Albacore,

The Hyderabad and the Bangalore;

And timber droghers by the score,

In Schooner Days are pictured.

II

Those ships were built of oak and iron,

No engines there, nor boilers firin';

But men and muscle, never tiring,

Stowed their loads and hoisted sail.

III

Could I but see those sights again,

Those gallant ships and sailor men;

No four hours on, and eight off then,

'Twas sixty years ago.

IV

Now they're gone, almost forgotten,

Officers, men and sails of cotton;

Their hulks abandoned, timbers rotten,

A memory of by-gone days.

Mr. Joyce hazarded an identification of the picture of the crew shown going about the task of fitting out a lake schooner in the Stairway story. He thought the schooner might be the Sir C. T. Van Straubenzee, and one of the men, his father, Capt. John Joyce of Bronte, and the other Capt. Corson, and the time somewhere around 1890. Capt. Ben Tripp was sailing the Straubenzee in 1890 and Capt. John Williams in 1892. She was a three-masted schooner, and being a timber vessel her deck was flush. The vessel in the picture was a two-masted schooner and had a raised quarterdeck, as is shown. She was the schooner Azov of Wellington Square, and was owned and sailed by Capt. John Macdonald of Goderich.

Mr. Joyce sailed with Capt. Gribbin in the Emerald, Capt. Peter Shaw in the Clara Youell; Capt. Jimmie Quinn of Oakville in the White Oak, and later in the steamer Macassa, Capt. James Sutherland, and the M. T. Co. steamer Glenmount, so he knows his lakes.

KICKS AND COMEBACKS

A MINISTER hurried to Schooner Days after, the benediction the other Sunday.

"Where did they get the name—the Elia Murton?" he demanded, just like that.

The writer took a quick leap from The Shorter Catechism to the still shorter one and answered fast and truthfully:

"The great Aemilius Jarvis, who was a boy in Hamilton 80 years ago, and a banker there 20 years later, told me he knew Ella Murton as a very pretty little girl with shining black pigtails. She was a daughter of J. W. Murton, wharfinger and shipowner and merchant in Hamilton. Jarvis went to England in the schooner Edward Blake of Port Burwell as a sailor before the mast when he was 16, in 1875, the year the Ella Murton was launched."

"Every blessing," said the minister.

At the bowling alleys—Wednesday at 7:15, not Sundays at any time—we were held up with: "You didn't say what became of the Argyle—is that a secret?'

We wrote that she became the Frontier by 1914 and went to Detroit. Can any one add to this? That very live wire, the Marine Historical Society of Detroit, which publishes The Detroit Marine Historian, should have the answer. The Detroit News, by the way, offers the hospitality of its conference room for the big monthly meetings of the society.

RED APPLE FOR TEACHER

While we cannot compete with Myrtle's pop who keeps her late for the ball game while he finishes her homework, we were really touched by the letter of an Aylmer high school boy who wanted information about schooner building in Port Burwell.

"Please, sir," he wrote politely, "if it would not be too much bother for you, any quantity of material, no matter how small, would be welcome. Thank you."

He had tried local sources and got nothing, but the thesis counted 30 per cent., of his term marks in history, and- his teacher had told him he believed Schooner Days had published what he wanted.

While we cannot supply back numbers for the 20-year series (it began in January, 1931) we hope Schooner Days will be available in book form this year. We are happy to know that schoolmasters and school boys are among the fans. We also think it an excellent idea to set students to studying developments in the history of their own province, county and township as well as the history of Greece and Rome. We have so much homework of our own to do that we must duck doing anybody else's. We hope, though, we gave the Aylmer boy what may help in his 30 per cent.

END OF THE GOLDHUNTER

"I enjoy reading Schooner Days and forward them to my brother in Vancouver, and he is pleased with the reading also," writes Ken Tyson from Wiarton, wishing a prosperous season.

"A few weeks ago in 'Schooner Days' you stated the Schooner Gold Hunter was lost on Gold Hunter rock, Georgian Bay. That is a mistake, she came to grief on shoals about a mile east of Round Island, Lake Huron.

"Capt. Alex McLeod was owner and master, had loaded part of a cargo at Lions Head, Georgian Bay, then came around the Bruce Peninsula, intending to finish loading at Golden Valley (now called Howdenvale) but for a few hundred yards too far south in the channel and grounded. A few years later, a fall gale carried her over the rock and she settled in 12 or 15 feet of water. On a clear day the wreck is quite visible and is a grand place for bass fishing or at least was until last summer and I hope the bass will return this summer. The Goldhunter was lost about 1890-1892.

There must be something about old oak timbers that attracts the bass. These old wrecks are usually good fishing spots, and in exploring them we have often found little anchors, sinkers, and other trademarks of generations of fishermen. Perhaps the moss and weeds that grow on waterlogged oak are favorite nourishment for the bass or good pasture for what the bass in turn browse on. Anyway, thanks for the Goldhunter's finis.