FISHERMEN'S OWN BOOK. 153 



dories, it would oftentimes save much suffering and perhaps life. It is full 

 time that masters and owners of fishing vessels interested themselves in this 

 matter and insisted that it should be done. The expense and trouble is but 

 trifling compared with the benefits which might follow, and it should be 

 among the duties required of fishermen each trip to see that every dory was 

 provided with the wherewithal to sustain life when lost in the fog or driven 

 out of sight of their vessel, as is frequently the case. There is no excuse 

 for the fishermen if they fail to comply with this simple duty, and we trust 

 that they will heed this advice and provide a remedy for one cause of dan- 

 ger and suffering attending the business. 



Five Days Adrift in a Dory Without Food. — James McGrath and 

 Michael Coleman left sch, Procter Brothers on Western Bank, March 18, 

 1880, to attend to their trawls, and a gale springing up, were unable to re- 

 turn to the vessel. After drifting about at the mercy of the wind and waves 

 for five days, without food or water, drove ashore at Sable Island on the 

 evening of the 2 2d. The weather was intensely cold and their sufferings 

 extreme while they were in the dory, and McGrath had both feet badly 

 frozen. When taken out of the dory they were unable to walk, and had to 

 be carried on the shoulders of the men stationed on the island to aid wrecked 

 people. They were taken to the hospital, and being sufficiently recovered, 

 were taken to Halifax by the Dominion Government steamer Newfield. 



The Colemans, as it would appear, were not born to be drowned. On 

 Feb. 15, 1879, Charles Coleman was capsized on the Banks in a dory from 

 sch. Commonwealth^ and with his companion. Sweeny McKenzie, clung to 

 the dory's bottom for an hour and a half with such desperation as to leave 

 the imprints of their fingers in the wood. Coleman slipped from his hold 

 three times, and three times his comrade battled the waves to rescue him, 

 and he was so exhausted when taken on board the vessel that it took three 

 hours to bring him to consciousness. Michael Coleman, whose second nar- 

 row escape is narrated above, was lost in a dory with H. Choate Allen from 

 sch. Addison G. Procter, June 29, 1879, on St. Peter's Bank, and after sub- 

 sisting on small pieces of raw halibut for four days, and rowing one hundred 

 and sixty miles, they were picked up by a Lockeport, N. S., schooner. 



Shipwreck and Loss of \ay^.— Gallant Rescue by a Gloucester Fishing 

 Crew. — Sch. Laura Sayward, Capt. James Moore, arrived from a Georges 

 trip Sept. 14, 1880, bringing the captain, John C. Winchester, and mate, 

 Thomas Lewis, of sch. Maggie Blanche, of Digby, N. S., for Barbadoes with 

 a load of lumber and potatoes, being accompanied by the owner of the ves- 

 sel, Mr. Wesley K. Rice, who designed selling the vessel on her arrival at 

 the West Indies. The Maggie Blanche set sail Sunday, Sept. 5, and every- 



