Great Gale of July, 1891: Schooner Days MLVIII (1058)

by C. H. J. Snider

Old Warior's Young Cruise - IV.

SEVEN hungry R.M.C. cadets who had spent all their money sailed from Charlotte, N.Y., in the new yacht Mary in July, 1891, with the two Kingston captains, Nick and George Henderson, who owned the little craft, That the cadets were broke and hungry did not matter very much, for they had had a good time at Charlotte and Rochester, and were soon so seasick that they could not have eaten anything anyway.

"We were about twenty miles from Toronto when it hit us!" recorded Major J. B. Farley, one of the surviving cadets, now living in Kenya Colony. "The most terrific storm in the whole of my experience. The storm king leveled at us everything he had, and the fury of the onslaught baffles description except from the pen of a Conrad. The wind howled and shrieked like a living force. I had a mental picture of some multitudinous hate crazed mob howling and raging for the victim they were about to sacrifice.

KNOCKED FLAT

"Heeled over as we were, the waves were much higher than our mast, and every now and then the crests were sliced off as with a knife and hurled at us like snow. We had all lower canvas set at the time, and just had to take it. We went over on our beam ends until we were practically flat on the water, and the wind blew out of our sails. Otherwise we should have been stripped of them. I never could understand why we did not roll right over and sink, as I am sure any other yacht I ever saw would have done. Months afterwards Nick Henderson told me that by a miscalculation they had put a great deal more lead into the Mary's keel when they were building her than they should have. Very lucky mistake!

"The lee side was under water the whole time, and there was great danger that the cabin would be flooded. Some of the glass had not been put into the cabin' port holes yet, and she was over so far that the cabin side, a foot above the deck, was under water and the lake was spouting up through the side ports. Nick sent me down to stuff pillows and cushions into the holes.

Yet none of us felt alarm. We were all perched astride the weather rail, except Captain Nick and Captain George, both of whom gripped the tiller. We had absolute confidence in them.

"From the moment our sail was seen approaching after rounding Toronto Island lighthouse crowds began to assemble on the Queen's Wharf, until there was a dense mass there. When we got off the Western Gap we had, of all things, to gybe to get into the harbor, and in a masterly manner this was carried out. Nick dropped the peak of the mainsail and we came round like silk. As we headed past the great crowd on the wharf we got such a cheer that after sixty years I can almost hear it ringing yet. One man shouted: "They are no amateurs who are handling that yacht!" and it came on the wind in a series of echoes.

ORIOLE WAS THEIR ANCHOR

"The Gooderham schooner yacht Oriole II was riding to her buoy off the Gooderham distillery, as immovable as the rock of Gibraltar, for her moorings were permanent near the Gooderham residence on Trinity st.

"We steered for her and dropped anchor just astern of her, but in that gale we might as well have dropped a fish hook. We were dragging down on a submerged wreck when a boat was put overside by the Oriole, and dropped down to us on a line. They told us to make fast, and so we hung on to the Oriole for the rest of the day.

"Many yachts and sailboats, torn from their moorings were blown past us, and we saw them dashed to pieces on the breakwater at the end of the harbor. A hundred craft were said to have been destroyed in that storm, the worst experienced for fifty years or more.

"We saw the steamer for Hamilton attempt her daily run. As she emerged from the Western Gap her smokestack was knocked off by a wave burst, and she had to turn around and abandon her trip.

"We were perfectly safe, thanks to the sturdiness of the Oriole and her moorings. All seasickness was gone and we were desperately hungry, with not a bite left on board. Oriole again came to the rescue. Not only did she give us provisions, but her crew hoisted the peak of our mainsail for us, buoyed our anchor, set the head of the jib, and sailed us into a snug berth behind the Polson Ironworks at the foot of Frederick st. on the old Esplanade.

"Here we could lie quietly and communicate with the shore at will. It was, indeed, high time to do so, though the cadets did not know that at the time. Tell you why later."

Famous Oriole II in racing trim, 1891