Herm, Russ and Howard.

March 27, 1918 was a sad day for the villages of Drum Head and Seal Harbour, for on that day there was a triple drowning.

On that date, my second cousins, Herman and Russell Burke and their sister Lois' s fiance, Howard Jarvis, set out in a skiff to hunt Brant ( a species of goose ) in lower Coddles Harbour.
The weather when the skiff, under sail, passed out the cove and rounded the head of the 'old' breakwater and headed down the sound, was benign. A fine early spring afternoon, with the wind just a gentle breeze from the nor 'west. My grandfather had helped his nephews launch the skiff, assisted by their father, grandfather's brother Charles William Burke, ' Charlie Hack' Neither could know that in a few short hours, these three strong young men would fall victims to the capricious sea.

The wind, as it so often does in the afternoons on our shore, come in a breeze from the sou' west, and just about dusk, a sea ' hove on'.  Uncle Henry Burke was keeper of Green Island light at the time of this sad event. His daughter Gladys had been out of doors and when she came in she told the family that she had heard three gun shots that seemed to be spaced evenly apart. The shots had ranged right across the island from the light. It was too dark by then for hunting. Uncle Henry was mystified by this, until someone came on the island with they tragic news. It was concluded that the boys were 'broke on' at Thrump Cap Reef. Thrump Cap is a small islet in the mouth of Lower Coddles Harbour, and the shots Gladys heard were fired in distress, while they still clung to the swamped skiff.
Herman was 24. His body was never recovered. His brother, Russell was a year his junior; 23,.His body, as well as that of Howard Jarvis 36 was recovered. They came ashore on the ' back shore ' down toward New Harbour Point.

My dad always told me that their mother, aunt Martha, ( always called aunt Marth) never got over this horrific loss.