November 27, 1931
Six Drowned After Collision
Sch. Edith and Elinor of This Port Rammed in Fog Off
Yarmouth Wednesday
Captain Theriault and Five Saved by British
Steamer --Dragger Sinks After Crash
Death reached out in the Bay of Fundy early
Wednesday evening and claimed six members of the crew of the local dragger Edith
and Elinor, Capt. Simon Theriault, which went to bottom
four minutes after the bow of the British freighter Gypsum Prince,
bound from Winsor, N. S., to New York, had cut a jagged hole in the dragger's hull.
Capt. Theriault and four members of the crew, and a Lynn man who was
making his first trip to sea, were saved. The Gypsum Prince
cruised around for three and a half hours, following the crash, but failed to find any of
the missing six men.
DROWNED
Bradford Whynot, native of
Port Medway, N. S., leaves a wife and three sons in Gloucester
Ernest Gillen, native of Nova Scotia, two children in the states, one in
Nova Scotia, widower
Joseph Rose, about 50, married. His father, a lobster fisherman, was
drowned off Salt Island in 1893.
Augustus Foley, about 54, cook, single, leaves three sisters and two
brothers in Gloucester
James Brothers, 39, native of Forgo, N. S., married, three children,
lived in East Boston
Youlis LeBlanc, of East Boston
SAVED
Capt. Simon Theriault of
Gloucester
Manley Goodick, Gloucester
Paul Pitts, resident of East Boston
John Powers, Gloucester
Alexander Stack, of East Boston
Oscar Thibadeau, of Lynn
Word of the accident which occurred at 7.30
o'clock Wednesday evening, reached here around 10 o'clock that night and spread like
wildfire through the city. The skipper is one of the most popular skippers out of
this port and his crew were all well known fishermen, having followed the sea for years.
The sinking of the Edith and Elinor, a vessel but two years off
of the stocks at Essex occurred about 10 miles out of Yarmouth, near Baccaro light.
Finding fish scarce on other banks, Capt. Theriault decided on this trip
that he would reach up into the Bay of Fundy a bit and try his luck.
Fog shut in early Tuesday evening and the
vessel which left here Monday after coming off of the railways, was groping her way
through the heavy mist. Four men were on watch at the time, two forward and two
aft. In the pilot house with the watch, stood Capt. Theriault and Thibadeau,
while two others had the watch forward. Out of the mist come the sound of a whistle,
a deep, mournful whistle, the Gypsum Prince proceeded up the
bay. Back went the answering siren on the Edith and Elinor,
and then six waited. They saw nothing but darkness ahead and around them. No
sign of the steamer, no realization of its closeness did the men have until there loomed
close beside them the high hull of the British freighter. Figures were at her rail
forward. Then the bell in the engine room tinkled and her engines stopped, were
reversed and she started to back. The momentum, however, was such that the freighter
could not be halted nor her course changed and with a crunching sound her steel bow cut
deep into the waist of the dragger. Almost before the strike, the life boats of the
freighter hit the water and her crew rowed toward the schooner. The schooner's own
boats were useless. They were hung over the pilot house and no one had a chance to
even reach for an axe to cut the lashings.
The bow of the steamer held to the jogged
"V" shaped hole, then she backed out. Two sections of the Edith
and Elinor pointed sky-ward and water rushed into her by the tons.
Four minutes after the crash only bits of wreckage could be seen floating on the water,
and although nothing was big enough for a man to cling to for any length the boats of the
freighter cruised back and forth over the spot where the Gloucester boat went down in a
vain search for some of the six men reported missing.
Capt. Theriault and his five
companions he were landed at Yarmouth today will reach Boston tomorrow morning leaving
Nova Scotia tonight on the Yarmouth steamer. The Edith and Elinor
was insured with her outfits for $68,000 with the Boston Insurance Company through the
agency of Warren A. Elwell. |
