| Tales my father told me when I was young. Story 2 and 3 |
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| On one of Captain Hayes' many voyages in the early 1900's, he came across a sailing ship, of which there were many still carrying cargoes around the world. This particular ship was carrying a cargo of grain. "The cargo had shifted in a storm and the ship was listing badly in a busy shipping lane off the Banks of Newfoundland. There was nothing we could do to salvage the ship or to right her, so we took the crew off safely. Well, we could not leave the ship floating around to cause risk to other shipping, so we set her on fire. As the sun was setting, she made an awe-inspiring sight on the horizon,with all her rigging and sails ablaze. A sight I never forgot through many years at sea, and indeed for the rest of my life" |
| "There was one occasion that I remember in particular when I was Officer-of-the-Watch. It was a beautiful calm day with a blue sky. We were on the correct course and I noticed something on the horizon that puzzled me. I kept sighting what looked like small clouds, except that they were very regular and this was unusual. I called the Captain to the bridge to have a look. He stared in the direction I was pointing and said that he couldn't see anything. I remember saying to him,"Sir, I believe there is a ship in distress and I insist you go and investigate". Well, I could have got into serious trouble if I had been wrong! We changed course and steamed for 20 miles towards whatever it was I thought I had seen. A ship came into view over the horizon. When we got to her, we discovered that she was a steamship that had broken down. She had lost her propeller two weeks earlier, and had been drifting helplessly since then. There was no radio in those days, and the captain had to keep the boilers in steam and keep sounding the distress signal on the whistle. When we had gone alongside and found out what had happened, the ship's captain said that he wanted to meet the sharp-eyed officer who had seen his distress signal. At that distance, we could not see the ship herself, but these regular puffs of steam from the whistle had just been visible above the horizon. We put a line aboard, and towed the vessel into Fayall in the Azores. That was the last I heard, but I guess that we got some salvage money for saving that ship." |
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