How the loss of Grand Bank’s Mabel Dorothy echoed across decades through the crew’s descendants
The years of the Second World Conflict, with German U-boats prowling the North Atlantic, have been exceptionally harmful for Newfoundland mariners manning the small picket schooners carrying salt fish to Caribbean and European markets.
Captain John Ralph and his six-man crew of Grand Financial institution, within the 167-gross-ton schooner Helen Forsey, had two encounters with enemy submarines inside a six-month interval of 1942.
It was 80 years in the past — at dawn on April 1, 1942 — on a return journey from the Caribbean, about 1,600 kilometres south of Newfoundland, that Ralph noticed wreckage and lifeboats of a just lately torpedoed British service provider ship, the S.S. Loch Don. Whereas being noticed by a U-boat periscope, the captain altered course, stopped his ship and rescued 44 of the 47 crew members.
The crew of the Helen Forsey fed and cared for the ship’s enlarged firm of fifty for seven days, whereas dodging and avoiding different enemy submarines, earlier than they arrived at Burin.
On his second journey getting back from the Caribbean that yr, with a load of molasses, Ralph was not so fortunate. German submarine No. 514 was mendacity in wait 1,900 kilometres east of Bermuda. It was simply at dawn when, with out warning, they have been fired on repeatedly. The primary shell struck the schooner, shortly adopted by one other. Two of the crewmen —Leslie Rogers of Grand Financial institution and Arthur Bond of Frenchman’s Cove — have been killed and Ralph was critically injured.
Thomas Bolt, Jacob Penwell and William Keating managed to tug their injured captain right into a lifeboat with them. Calling upon his grasp mariner’s navigational abilities, Ralph set a course for Bermuda. Together with his different three crew members rowing, they lastly landed safely in Hamilton Harbour, after surviving 13 days and nights of their small open lifeboat.
Quick-forward to the mid-Nineteen Fifties and Ralph is now grasp of the Grand Financial institution schooner Mabel Dorothy. The times of the salt fishery have come to an finish and the remaining schooners nonetheless working are concerned within the coastal commerce, carrying freight together with coal, flour and feed between Sydney and numerous Newfoundland ports.
It was on Nov. 3, 1955, when the 95-ton vessel left Roddickton on the Northern Peninsula sure for North Sydney, N.S., for a load of coal. Climate situations within the space included wind and occasional snow flurries. This was to be the previous financial institution fishing schooner’s final journey for the yr and upon her return to Grand Financial institution she could be tied up for the winter.
We are going to by no means be certain what occurred on that fateful evening to consequence within the Mabel Dorothy being smashed to items and the lack of her seven-man crew: Ralph, mate Herbert Hollett of Grand Seaside, chief engineer Willoughby Riggs of Stone’s Cove, second engineer Garfield Lawrence of Bay L’Argent, prepare dinner Thomas Bolt of Grand Financial institution, seaman Henry Home of Bay L’Argent and seaman Thomas Jensen of Harbour Breton.
It was widespread for a lot of seamen to maintain their households knowledgeable of their whereabouts by wiring a telegram residence at any time when they arrived in a port. Nov. 8 was the birthday of Ralph’s spouse, Sylvia, however a telegram did not arrive that day or the following. The households of the opposite crew members additionally started to get involved that one thing horrible had occurred. After a few days Manuel Bolt, son of the schooner’s prepare dinner, went to see the homeowners, Ahead and Tibbo Ltd., to search out out if they’d any details about the ship. They did not.
After a number of extra days handed, the Royal Canadian Air Drive, with the assistance of ships within the space in addition to the U.S. air pressure, started looking. The households’ worst fears have been realized on Nov. 14 when wreckage was sighted. The subsequent day elements of the doomed schooner have been discovered scattered over a large space, together with the Horse Islands close to the doorway to White Bay, Hooping Harbour, Jackson’s Arm and Twillingate. A smashed dory was discovered and there was some hope that the crew might need escaped within the different dory — but it surely was to not be. Then the Mabel Dorothy’s stern part was discovered, with a part of its nameplate nonetheless intact.
At Grand Financial institution, the vessel’s residence port, hopes pale and public capabilities have been cancelled as residents mourned their fellow townsmen. After a number of extra days the seek for the boys was referred to as off. No hint of any of the crew members was ever discovered.
All of the particles from the schooner appeared to point she met no matter destiny befell her not lengthy after leaving Roddickton. The preliminary conclusion reached was that she had crashed into the cliffs of the Horse Islands because of stormy seas mixed with sturdy tides that drove her off target.
One other idea
It wasn’t too lengthy earlier than one other doable rationalization surfaced, that she had been reduce down by a paper provider that entered the port of Botwood on the identical evening the Mabel Dorothy left Roddickton. The doomed schooner would have been steaming on a course that might have positioned her instantly within the path of the approaching bigger Norwegian ship.
On Nov. 15 — the sixteenth birthday of Ralph’s daughter Mae — the search was coming to an finish. The blinds in her home, as in all the opposite properties of the lacking sailors, could be drawn shut. However by tears her mom mentioned, “We will not decrease the blinds immediately. It is Mae’s birthday.”
Mae had a really shut bond together with her father and was heartbroken to have misplaced him so tragically and at such a younger age. She noticed her goals of changing into a nurse vanish and as a substitute she needed to discover a job to assist ease her mom’s monetary burden. It could be a full yr earlier than any of the widows or kids would obtain their first month-to-month insurance coverage cheque for the lack of their husbands and fathers.
Three of the boys who have been misplaced on the Mabel Dorothy have been single: Garfield Lawrence, 20, and Henry Home, 21 — each of Bay L’Argent — and Thomas Jensen, 39, of Harbour Breton. Three of the others — the 57-year-old Ralph; Thomas Bolt, 54; and Herbert Hollett, in his early 50s — have been older, with almost all of their kids grown.
Chief engineer Willoughby Riggs, 46, of Stone’s Cove left a spouse and 9 kids to mourn. Six of the youngsters have been younger, starting from two months to 14 years outdated, and thus nonetheless dwelling at residence. To make the state of affairs even worse, his spouse, Theresa, died simply two months after he was misplaced at sea.
Riggs had moved his household to Grand Financial institution early in the summertime of 1955, because it was the schooner’s residence port and he would have the ability to see his household extra typically. Theresa, who was pregnant, had been complaining of abdomen pains earlier than the household left Stone’s Cove. Her child was born in September; that occasion coupled with the information of her husband’s loss of life in November triggered her situation to drastically worsen. Shortly after she was airlifted from the Grand Financial institution Cottage Hospital to the Normal Hospital in St. John’s, the place the medical doctors identified her as having inoperable abdomen most cancers. She died in January 1956.
Two of the Riggs’s older daughters have been married and the oldest boy was at college, however what was to turn out to be of the six youthful kids? The prolonged members of the family did their finest; three of the Willoughby’s sisters got here down from RisePEI, and every took a toddler again with them. The 2 older daughters, with younger kids of their very own, additionally pitched in to maintain the opposite three.
Extra tragedy
However there was extra tragedy to come back: the aunt who had taken the child died in March 1956 and the second eldest daughter died in January 1957.
Leroy Riggs turned eight simply after the household moved to Grand Financial institution.
“Every part was saved from us,” he mentioned. “I used to be by no means advised what actually occurred, solely that the schooner was lacking and perhaps Dad swam ashore.”
Leroy’s older married sister, Beatrice, got here down from RisePEI and took him together with the child — Willoughby Junior — again together with her. The next spring he moved again to St. John’s to stay together with his sister Vera after Beatrice died.
“I moved round so many instances whereas in Grade Three that I attended 5 completely different colleges,” he mentioned. “I used to be so blended up that after I was advised in January that Mother had died, I could not even cry.”
Harvey was 10 years outdated when he misplaced each dad and mom.
“I had a contented childhood in Stone’s Cove, however that every one got here to an abrupt finish once we relocated to Grand Financial institution. I noticed a automotive for the primary time and I keep in mind being actually scared at a soccer recreation and going to Fortune in a small bus. Then I keep in mind being within the hospital and saying goodbye to my mom,” he mentioned.
“The final imaginative and prescient I had of my dad was of a bald-headed man with a brown leather-based jacket strolling away. Later I keep in mind being in downtown RisePEI and seeing a bald-headed man strolling in entrance of me, considering, ‘May that be my dad?’ I used to be 52 years outdated after I grieved the lack of my dad. The largest downside I needed to cope with was no closure.”
Finally two of the youthful kids have been adopted. The youngest baby, Wayne, grew to become very profitable as a author, gained many awards in journalism, and penned a number of performs, together with Abandon Hope Mabel Dorothy.
Wayne had been adopted by a MacPhail household in Dartmouth, N.S., the place he grew up. When he was nonetheless very younger he has a reminiscence of his grandfather Riggs coming to go to him there. Later in his youth the household moved to Burlington, Ont., and, in line with Leroy, they misplaced contact with him.
“I used to be all the time asking our household about Wayne however nobody reached him,” Leroy mentioned. “Then in the future after I was wanting within the Burlington cellphone e book, I noticed his identify and referred to as him — this was within the early Nineteen Eighties. I advised all my siblings that I had discovered Wayne and most of them then contacted him.”
Leroy was then dwelling and dealing in St. John’s. Sooner or later when he needed to go to Toronto on enterprise he referred to as Wayne to see if they might meet on the airport. Wayne agreed.
Reuniting with Wayne
“On arriving on the airport baggage space I noticed Wayne from a protracted distance,” Leroy mentioned. “I did not know what he was sporting and did not know that he had a beard — I simply knew it was him.”
A number of months later, Wayne and his spouse came around Leroy’s household in St. John’s.
“Whereas there he mentioned writing a play in regards to the household. A number of years later, early within the Nineteen Nineties, he spent a number of weeks in Newfoundland, at Grand Financial institution, Nook Brook and St. John’s researching, asking a variety of questions and gathering data — some that was new to all of us — in regards to the lack of our father’s schooner,” Leroy mentioned.
However in line with Wayne, though some skinny proof and rumour urged the schooner had been reduce down, he did not flip up any proof, and concluded he actually did not know what occurred.
He was moved to write down the play as a result of he felt the story would possibly resonate with other people who have been additionally adoptees.
“I additionally thought it will be a great way for me to discover my very own emotions about discovering a brand new household after so a few years — a long time, actually,” he mentioned.
“I believe the factor that affected me most throughout my analysis was being within the product owner’s store in Grand Financial institution and seeing the papers in regards to the Mabel Dorothy, nonetheless there in an outdated oak submitting cupboard — I spent a very long time going by these papers.”
Wayne discovered that go to to Grand Financial institution to be emotionally tough, particularly the day he walked down on the wharf and was acknowledged by an older gentleman, who advised him he regarded like his father.
Leroy continued to stay together with his sister Vera Frampton, and have become considered certainly one of her kids and a brother to her kids. In 1960 one other sister, Catherine, additionally got here to stay with Vera and her household. Vera, in Leroy’s phrases, “provided a lot of the glue that saved our household collectively.” Some years later she self-published a set of her recollections, entitled Triumph Over Tragedy — The Riggs Household of Stone’s Cove.
All the Riggs kids have executed effectively of their chosen careers and have saved in contact with one another. Harvey, Frank, Newman and Leroy meet each Friday morning in downtown RisePEI for a espresso, and there are plans being made for a Riggs household reunion in Prince Edward Island this summer time.
The Mariner’s Memorial in Grand Financial institution has given a type of closure to a few of the widows and kids of misplaced seamen however the emotional fallout can keep it up into future generations.
