Katie Eccles 49 In 1880, Captain Eccles sold the schooner to Archibald Campbell and Captain Henry I. Matthews of Lakeport, Ontario. The former, the proprietor of the wharf, grain elevators and coal sheds at Lakeport, employed the Eccles in the export of Canadian grain from north shore and Bay of Quinte ports to Oswego and to Kingston forwarders with return cargoes to Lakeport. In 1898 it was sold to Charles J. McCallum of Cobourg and afterwards was increasingly employed in the coal trade." She carried intermittent cargoes in grains only at the outset of the shipping season and at the harvest. McCallum retained ownership until 1904 when Eccles passed through a succession of owners, first being sold to Captain James Dougherty of Deseronto, then Captain Frank Bamhardt, also of Deseronto. By 1905 the Eccles was owned by Captain John McCullough of Napanee and Alexander Foot of Deseronto.” Its final owner, Captain T. Harry Mitchell of Bowmanville, purchased the Eccles the following year. After 1915 all reported cargoes carried by the Eccles were coal. On 26 November 1922, the Katie Eccles, laden with coal, departed Oswego bound for Belleville on its final trip of the season, with only three crew aboard. Five miles out of Oswego, the Eccles’ rudder became unresponsive. After failing to retum to Oswego, the Eccles ran north for the shelter of the Canadian shore amidst snowstorm and gale. After narrowly averting going ashore on False Duck Island, the Eccles eventually anchored in the lee of Timber Island early on the moming of 27 November, where it rode at anchor through the morning of 29 November. On 29 November, a gale arose and shifted to bring the Eccles out of the lee of Timber Island and the Eccles began to drag its anchor drifting north. Mitchell decided to abandon the vessel. The crew took shelter on Timber Island, from which they were rescued on 30 November.'* With Katie Eccles adrift, much speculation ensued over where the vessel might come ashore, however, by the first week of December it became generally believed that it had foundered. On 5 December the upper portion of the stern came ashore at Reid’s Bay, Wolfe Island.'* The loss was further confirmed when, in late December, the Eccles was located by Captain Claude W. Cole, who, while taking the lightkeepers off Pigeon, False Duck and Timber Islands spotted the Eccles’ topmasts protruding above the surface opposite the Upper Gap.'® ‘© The British Whig (Kingston, ON), 7 April 1880; Census of Canada 1871, LAC , Roll C-4983, 23.; Census of Canada 1881, LAC, C-13240, 62. 4 The British Whig (Kingston, ON), 4 March 1898. 2 The British Whig (Kingston, ON), 11 April 1904. 17 April 1904, 29 December 1904, 17 April 1905; The Enterprise of East Northumberland (Colborne, ON), 7 April 1904 8 The British Whig (Kingston, ON), 29 August 1908. “Daily British Whig (Kingston, ON), 29 November 1922; Daily Intelligencer, 28 November 1922, 30 November 1922; Republican-Journal (Ogdensburg, NY), 1 December 1922; 2 December 1922. Sandy Creek News, 30 November 1922; The Toronto Telegram, 29 May 1943, 5 June 1943; Toronto Globe, 28 November 1922; Watertown Daily Times, 29 November 1922. 'S Republican-Journal (Ogdensburg, NY), 7 December 1922. 16 Cape Vincent Eagle, 28 December 1922; Sandy Creek News, 28 December 1922.