2396 AWARD OF THE FISHERY COMMISSION. 



Q. At the time the stormy weather comes on they leave there ! A- 

 Yes. 



Q. Then you are not undrr the necessity of encountering the danger 

 if you are only there in the summer months. You would not say, as a 

 master mariner, that there was any danger on the island in the summer 

 months! A. Oh, there is some danger. You may have a gale. 



Q. Well, that is true of this harbor here. I think there have been 

 some vessels wrecked in this harbor, but as a master mariner, do you 

 say that in the summer mouths it is a dangerous thing to fish in the 

 bend of Prince Edward Island? A. Yes; I think it is a dangerous 

 phice for a vessel fishing in the summer, or any season. 



Q. Yet there has not been a vessel lost except the two ? Where were 

 they lost ? A. At St. Peter's. 



Q. That is not the bend of the island ! A. St. Peter's is not! It is 

 as nearly in the bend as you can go, as far as I am informed. 



Q. Then I am mistaken. Malpeque is the bend ? A. I would not be 

 positive, but Tracadie is about 45 miles from East Point, and St. Peter's, 

 I think, is 11 or 12 miles to the eastward of that. 



Q. That is, it is nearer the point ? A. Yes. 



Q. Now, that cannot be anything like as dangerous as the center? 

 A. Well, that is nearly the center. 



Q. Well, what time were these vessels lost that you speak off A. 

 The 5th day of July. 



Q. Well, the master must have been at fault ? A. Well, I may be at 

 fault now. 



Q. I didn't wish to say so at all? A. Well, you judge from that. 



Q. Were you there when those other vessels were lost ? A. I was in 

 Tracadie the 5th day of July, when they went ashore. 



Q. Was that in the harbor ? A. No ; they were outside. I was in 

 the harbor. 



Q. It was in the night ? A. I could not tell whether it was in the 

 night or day. 



Q. You don't know how they came to be lost ; you had no conversa- 

 tion with them? A. No; I know they were cast away, that is all. 



Q. You don't know anything about what was the motive for casting 

 them away? A. Well, the wind was the occasion of it. 



Q. You considered it a dangerous gale, then, in July? A. It was a 

 heavy breeze. 



Q. Had you made harbor to save yourselves ? A. Yes ; we made 

 harbor that morning early. 



Q. Well, that is what those others should have done. A little fore- 

 thought would have savqd them ? A. Perhaps they could not get there 

 in season. I have been caught myself in gales of wind right near har- 

 bor, and had to go off. 



Q. I cannot understand. Perhaps you will explain how you came to 

 select Tracadie as a place for fishing. One would consider it was not the 

 best place? A. Well, I was there last year, and I thought by appear- 

 ances there was a prospect of a very good year's work, and that I might 

 do well. My vessel is not calculated for the fishing business, that is, for 

 the mackerel business to go off shore, and that is the reason I went in 

 boats instead of going in a vessel. 



Q. Why didn't you go to the Magdalens or some better place? A. 

 Well, I don't know that that is better. 



Q. 1 thought, according to your view, that it was ? A. It is at some 

 MMona. 



