Plentywood herald. [volume] (Plentywood, Mont.) 1908-current, 1928-05-04
EMPTY GRAVES MARK
END OF SEA TRAGEDY
Breton Widows Mourn for
Their Men Folk.

Paimpol, Brittany. France.-Beside
the small gray chapel overlooking the
bleak little fishing town of Pors Even,
not far from here, rs empty graves
were dug recently.
They will never be filled, but drab
Brittany stones over them will attest
one of the greatest sea tragedies In
the history Of that little hamlet and
of Plouezec, its neighbor.
The story is the tale Of Brittany's
latest but not its worst sacrifice In
the quest of fish, the very life and
| blood of these odd million fishermen
who have followed the ways Of their
| forefathers centuries in and centuries
out.
In the village stone shop % slabs
are being prepared, all inscribed alike,
"PerI en- Mer" (perished at seal. For
the remaining citizens, the old men
and the women and those too young
to fight northern seas, at last have
given up hope of ever seeing again
their menfolk, the crew of the Bon
Avel, which sailed from the port Of
Paimpol some time ago.
Authorities Give Up.
The government marine authorities
gave up a month ago. They wrote
the name of the Bon-Avel on the ros-
ter of lost ships. Yet the good souls
who live In the slate-roofed hamlets,
and especially the widows Of the crew
that sailed away, were the last to
give up hope.
Every day during the last few
weeks, and sometimes all night, a
handful of lace-capped women braved
the terrific gales which beat the bare
rock coast of this vicinity to assem-
BILE at widows Cross high on a
hill overlooking the ca. And there,
While the snow and sleet beat down
upon them, they prayed for the return
of their husbands and fathers and
brothers.
AT last they, too, have given up.
And so they are admitting that the
fate of the Bon-Avel must take Its
place in the long annals of Breton sea
disasters which began when this
hardy ace first set out for distant
Iceland and Newfoundland, long be-
fore Columbus eve went to sea-
After Big Game.
The Bon-Avel was but one of many
sloops which attempted to go after
big game. And for a Breton there
was big money in ii. Immense schools
of Goldfish are to be found off the
banks of Greenland and Iceland. But
the waters are dangerous. Ice foes
and icebergs fill them and six days
out of seven hang deep in fog.
The Bon-Avel, however, was un-
daunted. She was a three-masted
schooner of 800 tons and had an aux
Hilary engine to boot. With a crew of
2S picked sailors she made her first
trip in 1926. 1t was a huge success,
and she returned in September of that
year loaded. Her owner fitted up
three ships to accompany her the
next year.
They set out February last for Ice
land. They returned to Paimpol in
May, unloaded, and set sail again this
time for the east coast Of Greenland.
Once there they separated. For sew
eral weeks no word came from the
Bon-Avel. Then on July 10 the crew
managed to have a wireless relayed
here telling of $1,000 fish already In
her hold.
Never Heard of Again.
She was never heard Of again. The
other ships returned, unloaded, and
prepared to set out again. A month
ago the marine authorities wrote her
off their books. The folks at home
are doing the same thing, though in a
different way. Already the village
newspapers are opening a public sub
scription, for one of the men left a
sou.
The experience, after all, was not a
new n neither for Pors Even nor
for Pl0ueZec. The two towns counted
10 widows and a half hun
dred orphans. And In the preceding
centuries every town record shows a
corresponding proportion. From the
seamen's pension fund the widows
will receive 1900 francs a year each
and the children so francs. And this.
the folk assure, will tide them over