Drowned Captains and Their Money: Schooner Days MCCXLVIII (1248)

by C. H. J. Snider

ONE thing leads to another.

Inquiry from Corunna, Ont., about possible relationship to a non-polygamous Mormon in Toronto a hundred years ago is accompanied by a note on the steamer Eclipse, which requires some disentangling.

J. Melville Warwick, Corunna, added to his hail: "I have found "no mention of the Eclipse in the numerous books regarding Great Lakes shipping and losses. I don't know whether investigation will bear it out but family tradition says that the Eclipse was the first 'iron' propeller ship built on the Great Lakes and that she was lost on her maiden voyage - built somewhere on Georgian Bay.

"I say family tradition, since her master was Capt. Henry Bury of Sombra. Ont., on the St. Clair River. He was brother to my maternal great-grandfather, John Bury, the name pronounced like Jury. I find this note in the MS journal of his first cousin, Edward Bury of Morpeth, on Lake Erie:

"In the nite of Wednesday the 21 November (1883) the steamer Eclipse, Capten Henry Bury, and crewe was lost on Lake Huron. Left Algomy Mills Nov. 15, bound - for Port Sarnia."

"Family tradition again says that the only trace of the Eclipse was the surrender many years later of Capt. Bury's papers and money belt by an Indian of Cape Croker on his deathbed. The ship's money which the captain carried in the belt was of course, long-since missing. According to the story Bury's body had been buried along the shore after it was robbed, but although search was made by the family no remains were a found."

THIS last part recalls the wreck of the schooner Fearless near the foot of Leslie street Nov. 15, 1875. She had anchored in a snowstorm the night before, off the Eastern Gap, and dragged for a mile and a half when the wind shifted to the west, striking the sandy beach a quarter of a mile out. She pounded so hard that Capt. Wm. Ferguson decided to abandon her and got his yawlboat down. He got into it himself, to take the woman cook, Mrs. Eliza Clarke, the crew standing by the painter hauling up and easing off, to prevent the boat capsizing or being smashed against the vessel. Before the cook could be got in the crew lost the painter and the boat was swept away and capsized about 40 yards from the vessel. Capt. Ferguson was drowned. The boat was found afterwards, half a mile up the beach.

The crew remaining took refuge in the rigging and in the water-filled cabin. Lifesavers under Wm. Ward, who had already rescued the crew of another stranded vessel, the Olive Branch, got within 150 yards of the Fearless and were almost swamped. They kept a vigil all night by a bonfire on the beach, and in the morning made another attempt and took off Robert Short, the mate, Mrs. Clarke, James McMillan, Wm. McTaggart, Samuel McLean and Charles Lintock, more dead than alive. All were taken to Simpson's, Hotel, then at the foot of George street on the Esplanade.

Captain Ferguson's' body was never found, It was supposed that he had been washed ashore and if still alive, murdered by the beach-combing Brooks Bush gang and buried in the sand. It was known that he had $360 of the ship's money on him when he got into the boat and the gang seemed to be in funds after the wreck. This was the gang whose women murdered John Sheridan Hogan, M.P.P., in the old covered Don Bridge—for which another member of the gang, John Brown, was hanged.

THIS is a long way from the non-polygamous Mormon of Toronto with whom we began. The querist politely asked about John Snider who was living in Toronto in 1836. Our people had been farming in Vaughan Township for forty years by that date so there may be no connection. Mr. Warwick wrote: "An Anglican myself, I have become interested in an obscure chapter of Upper Canadian history converts to Mormonism in the 1830-1845 period. A John Snider was one the first in Toronto. In 1836 when he joined the Latter-Day Saints he was a brickmaker living on Berkeley street. Shortly after he appears as one of the first party of Mormon missionaries in England. Still later he was prominent in the building of the Mormon Temple in Nauvoo, Illinois. After the assassination of Joseph Smith he followed Brigham Young to Utah but consistently refused to apply Brigham's polygamy revelation to his own life."

All we can say is that he was none of the six Johns mentioned in our family Bible since 1797.