Woodcarvers, Lighthouses and Sinking Ships!!

We awoke to rain and wind on the morning we had scheduled to head out of Old Quebec, but fortunately by the time we were underway, the weather had improved a bit. We have decided we wanted to take Route 132 which is the coastal highway around the Gaspesie Pennisula.

Approximately 85 kilometers down the road, we stopped at the little town of St. Jean Port Jolie where the long main street accommodates the galleries of the region’s most popular woodcarvers. We walked along the road and visited most of the galleries.

While there were some very unique carvings, most of them were quite expensive. We did run across a park that had some very unusual carvings. Everything was written in French so we had no idea what it was but McKenzie really enjoyed playing "crazy dog" and running around the carvings pulling me behind while holding on to her leash.

We did enjoy one gallery in particular though. The artist was Noel Guay and he had been carving since 1957. His specialty was wildlife and had we had a place to put it, we would have certainly bought one of his pieces. His son, Mario has been mastering the art for 30 years and also does a fantastic job. After spending several hours looking, we headed down the road a bit further and found a nice large spot by the highway where we could drycamp for the night. One of the things we noticed about this area is that there are fields and fields of mustard. It is so yellow that it almost hurts your eyes to look at it. Two other couples from Quebec joined us and since one of them spoke a bit of English, we had a nice conversation. They had been on a two week holiday going around the peninsula and were now heading back home.

The next morning brought more drizzly rain and wind and the temperature dropped dramatically. We decided it was time to get out our coats once we arrived at the Pointe-au-Pere lighthouse, overlooking the St. Lawrence River. Although there are approximately 16 lighthouses along the Pennisula, Pointe-au-Pere is the most photographed and well known. We walked the 128 steps (and believe me, I counted every one of them!) up to the top of the lighthouse. Even though it was very overcast, the view out over the St. Lawrence was beautiful. We learned that each lighthouse has its own method of lighting which tells the ships where they are and which lighthouse is sending out the light. We also learned that we definitely wouldn’t have wanted to be a lighthouse keeper, even though they were given a house to live in plus their wages. Their jobs were long and dangerous, especially when it came to washing the outside of the windows of the lighthouse, as they were expected to do once a month. Looking down on the sites from the top of the lighthouse, there is no way you would have had me hanging out washing windows!

Lighthouses have become a thing of the past now since GPS has taken over. It’s sad, but I guess that is progress. Anyway, we were glad to get a close up view of this one.

In addition to the lighthouse information, we found out something additional. We all know about the Titanic, but we were totally unaware of the second most tragic ocean liner wreckage in history – the Empress of Ireland!
Taking advantage of the wave of immigration, the Canadian Pacific Railway began building twin ocean liners measuring 167 meters in length to cross the Atlantic Ocean in 1904: the Empress of Britain and the Empress of Ireland.

Fairfield Shipbuilding & Engineering Company built the Empress of Ireland with 7,000 workers in 14 months. After being launched on January 27, 1906, the Empress of Ireland embarked on her maiden voyage from Quebec to Liverpool on June 29, 1906. After the sinking of the Titanic in 1912, the number of safety boats aboard the Empress of Ireland was increased from 20 to 40. On the morning of May 28, 1914, as before every departure, safety exercises including launching of the life boats, fire fighting, and closing the water tight doors were carried out in less than 3 minutes. Putting each of the lifeboats in the water required 10 members of the crew. Aboard ship, for the six day voyage from Quebec to Liverpool were 420 crew members and 1057 passengers, including more than 200 former employees of a Detroit automotive factory.

The crew cast off at 4:27 p.m. on May 28, 1914. As the ocean liner prepared to carry out her 192nd crossing of the Atlantic, the passengers aboard took their places. Captain Henry George Kendall was on his first voyage in command of the Empress of Ireland. At the time, ships greater than 30 meters were required to have the assistance of a pilot to navigate on the St. Lawrence. As he had done for 8 years, Adelard Bernier guided the ship for the 157 miles separating Quebec and Pointe-au-Pere, where he was then dropped off.

Through the fog at a distance of some hundred meters, the crew of the Empress saw the bow of the Storstad heading directly toward them. Collision seemed inevitable. At 1:55 a.m., the Storstad rammed the Empress and then immediately backed off. Several passengers heard the initial sound and felt a shock that some thought to be that of the ship mooring to a wharf. The enormous hole some 4 meters in width and 14 meters in height created by the Storstad allowed a huge quantity of water to enter several decks at the same time. The Storstad penetrated the ship so deeply that it damaged the water tight bulkhead separating the two huge boiler rooms. These were flooded in less than 2 minutes. About 270,000 litres of water per second were pouring into the rooms. The fires in the furnaces were doused causing the pressure in the boilers to decrease such that the ship lost its capacity to maneuver.

As soon as the alarm was sounded, the crew members assigned to manually close the water tight doors proceeded to their stations. The water had already flooded several passageways. The listing of the ocean liner prevented the crew from activating the closing mechanisms on the starboard doors. Crewmembers already at their stations tried to lower lifeboats into the water but the weight of the lifeboats (2 tons), the complexity of the maneuver, and the angle of the ship made launching the lifeboats impossible. Only 5 of 21 starboard lifeboats were lowered.

Ronald Ferguson, the chief telegraphist, sent an SOS stating that the ship was listing badly at 1:56 and again at 2:04 a.m. As the listing worsened, (the inclination of the ship was greater than 60 degrees) the passengers were thrown into total darkness and found it increasingly difficult to reach the decks. The water already flooding most of the 2nd and 3rd class cabins on the starboard side, condemned hundreds to their death. Others fell into the icy water or were hit with moving objects. Captain Kendall, still at his command, was thrown overboard, but miraculously survived.

The Storstad launched their boats at 2:08 a.m. and started picking up survivors. The pilot boat, Eureka, arrived at the scene of the tragedy 45 minutes after the shipwreck, followed by another boat. At 6:00 a.m., the two boats unloaded their survivors at the wharf of Rimouski. Shortly after, the Storstad set sail for Montreal where it arrived on May 31. Upon docking at the wharf of the Dominion Coal Company, the ship unloaded its coal and was seized for inquiry by Court Order from the Admirality Court of Quebec. The inquiry commission concluded that Officer Alfred Toftenes, commander of the Storstad that night, was guilty of negligence. He had changed the course of his ship in the fog. As to Captain Kendall, he was let off with blame for having stopped his vessel in the fog for 8 minutes while trying to determine which way to move.

In mid June, the Canadian Pacific, under pressure from the families, ordered a search for the bodies. By the end of July, just over 250 had been recovered. Divers removed the safe on August 20th along with 212 silver ingots with a value of $1,099,000 at that time.

On September 15, 1914, the diving work on the wreck seized. World War I had begun and the tragedy of the Empress of Ireland was forgotten! The ship had sank in 14 minutes, with only 465 survivors!!

We were quite moved by this story and totally unaware of it before coming here. We’ll be heading on down the road tomorrow and hopefully find other interesting things to share with you. Til then, enjoy life and take care of one another.