It has been two years since Line Duvall lost her son to the ocean — two years that she has mourned and grieved, questioned why, over and over again.
She still doesn’t know the reason she lost her son Samuel Boutin, that cold May morning, nor will she ever know.
Instead of focusing on the why, she is focusing on remembering the son she loved so much and trying to make a change so others may not have to suffer the same fate.
Boutin was celebrating that weekend and he decided to go lobster fishing with friends on Saturday, May 18, 2013. He called his mother Friday night to tell her he was going to be signing the papers Monday to buy a house. He also told her he was going fishing.
It was the last conversation Duvall had with her only child.
The next morning he was gone.
Boutin was on a lobster boat that ran aground and sank in the Tabusintac Gully. Two other men also died in the early morning incident — the boat’s captain, Ian Benoit and his helper, Alfred Rousselle.
Lobster fishermen had long been complaining about New Brunswick’s Tabusintac Gully. The sands shift and fill in the watery path they have to sail their boats through to gain access to the fishing grounds.
In the spring of 2013, the gully was narrow and shallow. Fishermen had been lobbying for months to have it dredged.
May 18 was a cold miserable morning. Some fishermen opted to remain tied up to the wharf. Others decided to head out and see how rough it was to go fishing.
After assessing the situation once they reached the “outside”, the boats turned and headed back to the wharf.
It was when they went through what is called the entrance that Benoit’s boat ran into trouble. He had made the turn too wide and a large wave set the boat aground. More waves drove the boat further aground and smashed into the cabin. All three men were swept overboard. They drowned and their bodies were recovered over the next two days.
While the fishing community mourned the loss of the men, Duvall was in shock. Her son wasn’t supposed to be on that boat. He had planned to go with Ian’s brother, Eric.
Duvall spent the next weeks and months trying to piece together the last minutes of her son’s life.
She spoke to all the fishermen who had witnessed the accident. She had fishermen take her to the area where the boat sank, where her son’s body was found and where it was taken for RCMP to recover.
“I wanted to know. I had to know.”
It was something that consumed her.
But no more.
Now Duvall is focusing on making a change. She has started lobbying to see that it becomes mandatory for all fishermen and their helpers to wear a personal floatation device when they are working.
“There has to be safety first. Everybody who goes on the water should wear a life jacket, fishermen included.”
For Duvall, it is her mission to save lives.
“My son was a good swimmer but without a life jacket in those conditions, he had no chance. He didn’t drown. He died from hypothermia.”
Duvall says she does not blame anyone personally. She blames the system that didn’t fix the gully.
“I blame the gully and the burning of the boats,” she said in reference to the five boats burned at McEachern’s Wharf two weeks before. One of the boats belonged to Benoit.
Now, two years later, the gully has been dredged and the lobster boats have no problem sailing to and from the fishing grounds. Fishermen are unsure how long it will last.
Duvall is there to watch the fishermen leave on the first morning, her way of remembering her son and honouring those who helped look for him.
Many of them are honouring her son also in a unique way. Duvall has taken the image of her son’s stylized cross tattoo he got when he was 18 and made decals.
Samuel’s Cross decals are available in a variety of colours and the money raised from the sales goes to high school bursaries.
The largest bursary went to a student who was going to take up welding, Samuel’s trade. The others went to students who needed the funds to further their studies.
Duvall made the selections herself based on letters she received from the students.
“It’s not much but it’s coming from my heart,” she said. “It’s Samuel’s cross and it reminds people of what happened in Tabusintac.”
Samuel’s Cross decals can be seen in the windows of cars and trucks all across the Acadian Peninsula in Northeastern New Brunswick. The decals are also stuck in the cabin windows of many lobster boats.
“In my heart I see Samuel on the boat telling me things are going to be OK.”
