Perserverance

                  





The gray cloak of the North Atlantic sea fog shrouded the double dory

and her lone occupant, who was straining on a pair of eight and one half

foot spruce oars, while droplets of moisture poised for a moment on the

brim of his swordfish cap, before falling like tears to be absorbed by

his shirt front.



Progress was very slow; the dory barely creeping over the water. Taking

a brief respite from his labours, the rower pulled his oars across the

dory so that the loom of each oar rested between the thole pins in the

opposite gunnel. Reaching behind him he took a small earthen jug by it's

handle and took a long swig. The water was warm, and did little to slake

his thirst.



Two hours earlier he had gotten aboard the dory after a sword fish had

been harpooned from the Drum Head sword fishing boat "Wilma L" Idling

along at dead slow speed on Scaterie Bank, the crew had come upon the

fish, as it lay upon the surface hoping that the sun would shine to warm

it's back, as it swam lazily along through the long undulating swells.



While the fish was being played, or drowned, the " Wilma L "  become

separated from her dory in the pea soup density of the fog, and now that

the battle was over, there was no sign or sound of the boat; only the

lapping of the water against the dorys side, so the now lifeless fish

was secured with a tail strap to the stern becket of the dory for the

long tow home.



With no radar or other electronic aids to navigation such as we enjoy

today, going astray from ones vessel on the fishing grounds was a very

real and present danger, not so much among the sword fishing fleet but a

common occurrence among the dory fishermen who manned the banking

schooners, there was however super fog alarms at the major light

stations, which where called diaphones. The coastwise lights would be

equipped with large units and the harbour lights with a smaller horn. It

was a rare time when a vessel was running down the coast when

atmospherics would be so poor, that they couldn't hear the sonorous

bellow of one or perhaps two fog alarms. ( It was one of the large

diaphones that was installed on Green Island during the reestablishment

of the station in 1965.)



At four in the afternoon as he methodically bent to his work the rower

could hear the blasts from two horns, one being the East Light, Scaterie

Island, bearing over his left shoulder, whilst over his right shoulder

came resounding at slightly lesser volume, the horn at Louisbourg. The

rower estimated that from the sound of the two horns and his bearing

that he would be about twenty miles off Main-a-Dieu. He muttered an

expletive and kept on rowing.



 At  five in the afternoon, he could hear the sound of engines running

at high speed and the sound was getting louder by the minute. Suddenly

out of the murk astern of the dory there appeared a sleek Cape Island

boat. Painted light gray, with a white wheel house and trunk cabin, her

hull trimmed with black rub rails, she made a pretty sight as she came

roaring up toward the dory. The name appearing on her bow was "Miss

Sambro II "



The man at the wheel saw the dory, and when but a few yards away,

recognized the rower. Slowing the boat down to an idle and calling the

owner and the other crewmen from below, were they eating supper, he

shouted to the dory man, " Where are you heading, Ian? "

"Main-a- Dieu," came the reply.



By now the owner of the "Miss Sambro II " Simon Garrison, was on deck

and he also knew the rower. "Ian," he yelled, I'll tow you in, but

you'll have to give us that fish " (he was joking, of course) The

already dark afternoon turned even blacker as volleys of virulent

invective spewed from the mouth of the rower, as he told Simon what to

do with his tow line. Seeing that the ownership of a  four hundred pound

broad bill swordfish  was not to be tampered with, Simon came up to the

dory, his crew hoisted the fish aboard, took the dory in tow, gave Ian

some supper, and two hours later they groped their way from the Southern

Point of Scaterie to Mad Dick Shoal bell buoy and into Main-a- Dieu

where Ian was reunited with his brother Raymond and the other crewman.

They sold the fish to Peter Mullins and all lived happy ever after.



********************************************************************



The above relates to a day in the life of Ray and Ian Luddington, and

this actually happened and was talked about for years within the sword

fishing fleet.



Ray had three boats named after his daughter Wilma. I believe the

original Wilma L was owned prior to WWII. "Wilma L II" was built in

Bickerton by Jake Kaiser. Ray only fished her for one year and sold her

to Donald MacKinnon of Ingonish Ferry. "Wilma L III" was also built

across the bay by Jake, and became a total loss, when she broke her

mooring in the cove (DH)in a fall easterly, drove across the bay and

smashed up near Quinces Brook.



A salvage operation was mounted the next day, but by the time the sea

had gone down there was nothing left but the two engines. The Engine

School was in DH at the time, Clive Boehner was the instructor,and the

engines were rebuilt at the school. Ray got a boat from the Fisherman's

Loan Board that had been repossessed and finished out the season in her.



He purchased "Helen & Linda,"his last boat, from Edgar Kaiser.the

following summer.  I brokered the sale of this boat to Leonard MacDonald

of Souris PEI, in the late spring of 1961.Leonard took her home to PEI

after Ray was done smacking at Caribou, at the end of the lobster

season.

.

Don