Brothers to the Rescue
Graham Hancock decided to quit fishing for a living when cod was placed under a moratorium in 1992.
The (then) 34-year old from Bide Arm, on Newfoundland’s Great Northern Peninsula, only had a groundfish license and without cod, it would be impossible for him to make ends meet so he quit and took a job onshore.
In his approximately 15 years fishing commercially, Graham never had a scary moment on the water but 20 years later, he came perilously close to drowning.
On Sunday, November ...
A Nasty Labrador Sea – Part III
Last month we told you about Wade Earle and his fishing partner and nephew, Leslie Dumaresque who were thrown overboard when their speedboat was struck by a huge wave about 20 miles north of Red Bay, Labrador. Wade surfaced in the shallow water, but the only thing he could see was the overturned boat —there was no sign of his fishing partner and friend. Intuitively, he started wading through the foaming water toward the small boat located about 250 feet away.
After feeling strangely ...
A Nasty Labrador Sea – Part II
Last month we told you about Wade Earle and his fishing partner, Leslie Dumaresque, traveling to their fishing station in a place known as Green Bay, about 18 miles north of their home in Red Bay, Labrador. They left home on Monday morning, June 8, 1987 to spend the week in Green Bay fishing their salmon and lumpfish nets. The weather was fine but a menacing sea near shore in shallow water made things a little uncomfortable on Monday evening, but otherwise things went reasonably well on their ...
A Nasty Labrador Sea
Red Bay, Labrador is best known these days as a UNESCO World Heritage Site showcasing a Basque whaling station that was active there almost 500 years ago.
This southern Labrador community is now world-renowned.
In the 1500s, the shores of Red Bay were part-time homes to hundreds of Basque whalers who hunted bowhead and right whales for blubber, which were rendered into oil for export to Europe.
On Saddle Island, located at the mouth of the harbour, remnants of whale oil rendering ovens ...
We’d Have Been Better Off Staying Home – Part IV
On February 03, 2003 Irving Faulkner’s 22-foot speedboat capsized throwing all six men onboard into the frigid ocean near the shores of Offer Wadham Island on the northeast coast of Newfoundland. Only one survived. Irving’s son, Dion Faulkner, was rescued but the accident triggered a string of unbelievable torments and grief for family members back home in Musgrave Harbour that day. This is Part IV of “We’d Have Been Better Off Staying Home.”
When the Coast Guard helicopter landed ...
We’d Have Been Better Off Staying Home – Part III
On February 3, 2003 Irving Faulkner’s 22-foot speedboat capsized throwing all six men onboard into the frigid ocean near the shores of Offer Wadham Island on the northeast coast of Newfoundland. Only one survived. Irving’s son, Dion Faulkner, made it to the ice-covered rocks and despite below-freezing temperatures and being soaked to the bone, he started walking to the opposite end of the island. Dion hoped that some fellow bird hunters would be there and could rescue him. Against incredi...
We’d Have Been Better Off Staying Home – Part II
On February 3, 2003 six saltwater bird hunters left Musgrave Harbour just after midnight to hunt in an area known as Offer Wadham Island. The plan was to hunt saltwater ducks when the birds took flight at daybreak. Weather conditions deteriorated and seas turned rougher than expected during the 12-mile trip to the island and a thick fog made it uncomfortable for Irving Faulkner and his crew of five men, including his three sons, Dion, Darren and Danny along with friends Roger Hann and Draper ...
We’d Have Been Better Off Staying Home
“We’re goin’ birdin’ tomorrow,” an excited Dion Faulkner exclaimed to his wife Sue as he entered their home in Musgrave Harbour on Sunday afternoon, February 2, 2003.
“Birdin,” meant saltwater duck hunting and like most men in rural Newfoundland communities, bird hunting had a huge appeal to Dion for various reasons.
Duck was a delicious food staple and good to have in the deep freeze for great meals in winter, but it was also a thrilling sport. And, it was more than that ...
Don’t Worry Buddy, You’re Not Going Back
Black Tickle, on the coast of Labrador, was one of the most prolific cod fishing areas on the east coast of Canada in 1974.
Vessels from all areas of Newfoundland and Labrador, along with some from Quebec, would congregate there at certain times of the year and fishermen could always depend on good catch rates. In fact, in the era of mainly gillnet fishing, one of the biggest problems was too much gear in the water that would often get tangled in someone else’s nets.
Like others from ...
Foolish, Is What He Was
To some people, ‘foolish’ may sound like an odd way for 19-year-old Gilles LeBlanc to describe his best friend who is no longer with us, but in this case it is truly spoken as a term of endearment and spoken with huge affection.
The ‘foolish’ one was Michael (Mike) Doucette from Wedgeport, Nova Scotia, who was loved by everyone because of his crazy fun-loving pranks and his wild sense of humour that often translated into “acting the fool.” And, Gilles still smiles broadly when he ...
