The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1879-12-19
THE GULF OF ST. LAWRRKCE.
4 Sea Whfeh has many Dead 90 Reader
Up--RafstsFieaI ship0Feeks.

THE GULF or 81. LAWRENCE.
4 SEA which has na.y Dead % Reader
Up--h1fztoFfeal shfpU Reeks.
Cores. Chicago Times.
In the day when the sea shall give up
Its dead there viii be . multitndinons
In the Cali of st. Lawrence.
In I'LL the feet under Admiral
Sir Ho0enden Walker, wa sent
By Queen Anne against Que
bee, went ashore ON Egg Island and
the coast about there, and loo souls |
perishsds Twenty years before Sir
William Phipps lost ] 900 men by ship
wreck In his expedition against the same
city. The Walker wreck IL the most
terrible disaster OF the kind In the worlds
history, the loss of the Spanish Armada
alone excepted. He left Plymouth amid
great rejoicing, and on his arrival At
Boston was received with considerable
by the cClonistS. His entire
force of soldiers and sailors when he sail
ed from Boston for Quebec on the 30th
Of July, I'LL, comprised 1886 men.
The men Of war were the flag ship Ed
gar, 20 guns; Windsor, 90; Montague 90
SWiftsure 20; Sunderland so; Monmouth
10; Dnnkirk so; Hunter 80; and Devon
shire 80 guns, and he was Joined In the
gulf by the Enterprise 40; Sapphire, 40;
Kingston, so; Leopard, 81 and Chester,
81 guns. There were also so transports,
IA Of them belonging TO New England,
with old.fashioned names, such as In
these days are found only In nomencls-
ture Of stone-luggers and canal.boats, 6.
g., the Willing Mind, Happy Union,
Nathaniel and Elizabeth, Two Sheriff,
Friends Increase, Susannsh and Thomas,
Four Friends, Friends Adventures,
Martha and Hannah, etc. OF the coast
of Cape Breton, the Edgar took aboard
q French pilot, Paradis by name, and 1t
has been charged that he willfully led
this armada to destruction, but the
admiral at least never believed 1t. On
the Goth of August they stood of Gaspe
Bay, where heavy fog fell upon them,
and they drifted about not knowing
where they were. In the evening of the
22nd O furious gale arose and died away,
and the fog grew thicker; and the lead
gave NJ bottom, and the utmost con-
sternation prevailed. About midnight
the fog lifted, only to let the admiral see
that his feet was close to the north
shore, and before he could get out of
danger a terrific storm came on, and
eight of the transports, with 800 officers
and men were driven on the rocks of Egg
Island and dashed to pieces. The trans
ports lost were the Isabella and Oatharine,
Samuel and Anne, Nathaniel Elizabeth,
Marlborough, Chatham, Content, COL
chester, and Smyrna Merchant, and next
morning Walker counted SS4 corrses on
the rocks. The gale still ragged furious
ly, and other transports were driven on
the shore between Egg Island and Point
des Morris. OF the loss of the latter the
admiral, in his journal, says little.
When he reached Boston, on his return,
he had only 7,643 seamen and soldiers;
1,742 souls had persisted In the disaster.
The year following two British vessels
visited the north shore to save the
wreckage. The Mere Juchereau, In her
narrative says: "The spectacle which
met their eyes was awful to contemplate;
over 1900 corpses, in every posture of
anguish strewed the rocks" The bod
les of the troops of the Royal Guards,
veterans who had served with Marlbor-
ough in the Low Countries, were easily
identified by their scarlet coats and gor-
geOus trappings. A vast quantity of
ships material and implements of war
were recovered, two years afterWard
twelve thousand pounds worth was car
ried to Quebec and sold. The name of
Notre Dame des Victories was given to
the lower town church by the pious in.
tendant In honor of the great deliver
ance vouchsafed to France. Admiral
Walker returned to England and in his
journal he says quantity that "the news
of the expedition has made a great noise
in London, almost as If the fate of Brit
ain depended on it." A few days after
his arrival in London his flagship the
Edgar, blew up in Portsmouth harbol
and four hundred and seventy men per
ished. He was arrested by order oil
Queen Anne, but permitted to retire Il
the American colonies, where he diet
broken hearted in 1925.
It will take volume to chronicle thu
minor wrecks that have occurred in tn
gulf. In October, 1888, the bark Col
borne was stranded at Mackerel Poin
on the Gaspe coast and Al lives were los
with a cargo ofsilks, wines, silver plate
and specie valued at $400, 900. In 1863
one Of Sir William Phipps' frigstes wen
ashore on Anticosti, and of the crew o
102 men only five lived through tn
winter on that desolate spot. Thes
started in the spring in q row-boat, ant
after q passage of fOurty-four days, II
which they sailed nine hundred miles
reached Boston safely. In 1914 the
British frigate Leopard, the vessel whicl
searched the United States frigste Chess
peake In 1907, was lost on Anticosti
In 1875 the French frigste La Renommet
fourteen guns, commanded by Captain
De Freunese, was stranded on the sOut
coast of that island. She had compile
ment of fifty.four men. and Father Ore
pei, q missionary, was on his way HON
from France. She struck on the 14th Q
November. The men starved slowly t
death, the cold being intense and tn
provisions scarce. The majority of ther
died from frost bites; others committe
suicide to make an end of their misery
and only three, Father Crespel and tw
seamen lived through it. In October
1928, the brig Granicus was stranded i
Fox Bay, Anticosti, while on her voyag
from Quebec to the Cove of Cork, no,
Queenstown, and the passengers anC
crew, forty souls in all, landed, but o
their suferings there is no record, 70
wht n the government steamer called il
the spring only their skeletons wer
found. A hut In which they had take
refuge was shambled Ikea butchers sta
with human carcasses, and o pot COZ
tanning human flesh and bones hun
over an extinct fire, while round abou
lay the skeletons of the unhappy canni
balls. The following is list of the prir
cipal wrecks that have occurred 1
Anticosi waters since 1860: Lor
Warri.h, Dec. IL, 1850; Commerce, Ma
) 2, 1861; Neva, May 10, 1868; JAIME
GLEASON, Sept. 16, 1868; Shard, Aug.
1865; steamship North America, Jun
26, 1867; Russia, Dec. 6, 1870; LAX
huron, Nov. 8, 1871; Royal Charter
) May 8, 1872; Shandon, Oct. 8, 1874
Northumbria, Nov. 6, 1877; steamshi
Lake Megantic, July %, 1878; City Q
Manitowoc, Aug. 10, 1878; and th
steamship Vindolona, Aug. 20, 1878.
is estimated that since Phipps' exped
tion, in 1890, no less than eight thousan
vessels have been wrecked and one hur
dred and fifty thousand lives lost In tn
Gulf of st. Lawrence, not including tn
loss of fishing craft.
The Wild Camas.
B. B. Reddipg, of San Francisco, a