Navigating the Lower Saint Lawrence in the 19th Century.
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The arrangement, general and in detail, by the commanding officer
and others, were so excellent, and the affair was conducted
altogether with so much order, regularity, and circumspection, that
the whole debarkation of men and officers, women and children, was
effected providentially without the occurrence of a single, even
the most trivial, accident. Major Bennett, Lieutenant Harris and
Captain New, were the last persons to leave the ship. The dwelling of the poor French Canadians were readily thrown open, and their provisions, such as they were, cheerfully shared. Men, women and children were billeted up and down in shanties and barns; a liberal ration of potatoes (or pittats, as the Canadians generally call them) and salt fish was served out; and a glass of country rum to each, which, after the long fast, fatigue, and continued soaking for several hours in ice-cold water, was neither useless nor unacceptable. For several succeeding days the officers, non-commissioned officers and men were unremittingly employed, from daylight till dark, in endeavouring to save property from the wreck. In this arduous and harassing duty they were assisted by a party of Canadian fishermen, under the active superintendence and direction of M. Louis Roy, whose friendly aid throughout was of the greatest value. Provisions were, of course, the first things sought for in the wreck, as the whole village stock (which was merely the winter's supply for the poor habitants themselves) would be consumed in a week. Arms and accoutrements were next sent on shore, the officers' light baggage from the cabins, &c., and, lastly, such articles of ship and government stores and general baggage as could be fished up from the hold, which, as well as the entire space between decks, was full of water. All these things, as they came on shore, were collected by the "fatigue men" on and under the bank above the beach, and piled in heaps under the charge of sentries. Sundry and various too, were the articles cast in by the tide. The whole length and breadth of the sandy bay was strewn with fragments of masts, yards, and spars, broken boats, casks, hen-coops, rigging, &c., not to mention the dead carcasses of pigs and poultry, before alluded to, and which were speedily picked up for the cuisine, while numerous picturesque groups of boys, women and soldiers might be seen drying their saturated clothes, or frying fish and roasting potatoes, in the red embers of the numberless bivouac fires along the beach. Several of the chests and boxes were burst open, and the contents presented, as may be supposed, a most pitiable appearance. Every thing was soaked with the salt water, and covered with a thick coating of black, slimy mud, The quarter-master sergeant was a considerable sufferer in property, having had a large quantity of scarlet cloth and cashmere, gold lace, and other articles of military equipment for the use of officers and men, totally destroyed. A small, unfinished, log shanty, that stood on the highest part of the bank, was fitted up as a quarter for some of the officers. The roof was covered with pieces of sail-cloth and tarpaulin, the sides with blankets, and a small stove, brought ashore from the ship's cabin, placed inside. This little hut, however, was found to be too small (not being above twelve feet square), and was given up as a guard-room. In front of this shanty a flag-staff was erected, and a reversed ensign hoisted as a signal of distress to any vessel that might happen to pass within sight. The quarter-master serjeant's scarlet cloth, and the stained and tarnished white and red jackets of the band and soldiers, were hung out to dry (after being washed in fresh water) upon the bushes and rail fences along the bank, where they soon froze en masse, forming a gay fringe to a sombre picture. The officers' head-quarters were established at the house of Louis Roy's brother, which was the best and largest in the settlement, and the only one at all suitable for the purpose, though inconveniently situated at a distance of nearly a mile from the scene of the wreck, and on the opposite side of the little river of Cape Chatte, which had to be crossed and re-crossed incessantly, in a rickety canoe, through sludge, and field-ice, which floated in and out with every rise and fall of the tide. I may here add, that two soldiers were told off to the exclusive duty of ferry-men and porters at this river; and it is but justice to them to state that they performed this arduous work for several days, with the utmost cheerfulness and good-will, from daylight till long after dark, wading incessantly through the broken ice and freezing water, and exposed, without even the covering of a great-coat, to all the inclemencies of Canadian winter weather. This head-quarter house, like all the others in the settlement, was built of logs, and consisted of three apartments, the outer, larger one, about twenty feet long by fifteen wide, with a sort of recess in one side, and a large open fire-place, black with soot, and garnished with salt fish and pieces of fat pork, &c. Its native furniture consisted of a huge double Canadian stove, often heated to a red heat, a broken ladder leading to a large loft above, two or three old rickety tables, and some half dozen still more rickety stools and bottomless chairs, with a sort of trough at the window for the general washing of faces and hands, plates, dishes, &c. This den served for "parlour, kitchen and all." |
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| G. R. Bossé©2001-03 | Page 24 | Chapter 1843 |
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