Excepts
from Jack Fitzgerald's Notebook are available for online reading.
There have been five
printings of this popular recounting of unusual and offbeat Newfoundland
stories. The first in a series of four books, Jack Fitzgerald's Notebook
grew out of a daily five minute radio program of the same name. It contains
intriguing short stories of villians, treasures, ghosts, distinguished
Newfoundlanders, heroes and adventures.
Excerpt #1: Mass
Murderers Detected by a Newfoundlander
When a group of
wealthy Dutch people decided to pick up their roots and move to the American
west to settle down, they chartered the ship SS Commerskie, turned their
fortunes over to the Captain for safe keeping and set out on what turned
out to be one of the most bizarre stories in Newfoundland's history.
Just before leaving
port a beautiful young girl was forced by her family to marry one of the
wealthy men going on the expedition to the new world. She was most unhappy
until she met and fell in love with the ship's captain, himself a married
man.
Near Cape Race tragedy
struck the Commerskie, and in the darkness of night the vessel sank to
the bottom of the ocean. The captain, however, his wife and eight crewmembers
turned up safely at Bigley's Cove the next morning. He informed authorities
that the ship had struck a rock and sunk, taking with her to the bottom
of the ocean, seventy-four men and women who were unable to escape. The
survivors returned to England on the first ship out of Burin. Then the
rumours started. People wondered why the survivors had so much money in
their possession? Why didn't any of the bodies wash ashore? Was the lady
with the captain really his wife?
At the time, Thomas
David Dobbin of St. Mary's was making a name for himself as a pioneer
of the recently invented diver's suit. By the time he arrived at Burin
he had already gone to the ocean's bottom in the suit and recovered thousands
of dollars in treasure. When he learned of the recent sinking at Silver's
Cove he decided to take a look to see if there was anything worth salvaging.
What he found shocked
people throughout the world and culminated in the captain and crew being
hung and the lady spending the rest of her life in prison.
As Dobbin moved
slowly through the murky waters on deck of the sunken ship he couldn't
believe what he was seeing. There in front of him was a woman with long
blond hair, a blue coat and a red dress knocking about in the water as
though she was dancing. Nearby stood four men with their backs to the
rail. Then he saw the rope that held her hands to the ratline of the main
mast. The four men had their hands bound to the deck rails. Recalling
the rumours he had heard in Burin, Dobbin surfaced, and advised the people
above of his discovery and went below again. This time the scene was even
more macabre. The other sixty-nine men and women had been locked in their
cabins and the doors nailed shut. The victims were in every possible position,
some kneeling in prayer, some huddling in corners and others showing agony
filled eyes. Authorities sent a full report to England. At the sensational
trial that followed it was learned theat the captain had plotted the mass
murder and had the support of eight of his crewmembers and the unhappy
girl who fell in love with him. They selected Cape Race because of its
deep waters and history of ship wrecks. The captain had included his wife
among those to be murdered and after the deed was done, passed the young
girl off as his wife. The seventy-four murdered victims were buried near
Cape Race at a place called the Plantation. The murderers were hanged
with the exception of the girl who was given a long prison sentence.
Excerpt #2: Tidal
Wave & Earthquake
A fault on the earth
located 250 miles south of St. John's on the extreme Northern end of the
Grand Banks, was once the epicentre of a great earthquake that was felt
throughout the Maritimes and the New England States, causing a tidal wave
along the Southwest Coast of Newfoundland. The earthquake registered 7.2
on the Richter Scale and caused harbours along the coast from St. Lawrence
to Lamaline to drain dry and later to be refilled by a 50 foot tidal wave
that brought death and destruction.
When the earthquake
first struck, a loud blasting sound was heard in St. John's. Most people
thought it was an explosion at the Bell Island mines. Transatlantic cables
were damaged, and it wasn't until four days after the tidal wave that
the outside world became aware of the devastation that followed it. The
event took place on November 18, 1929 and it represented the first reported
earthquake that far east from the main seismic belts. Scientists considered
it to be major in terms of energy release with a Richter magnitude of
7.2.
One eyewitness account
reported that the road near Lamaline appeared as if it were moving. Buckets
of water looked as though they were boiling. In stores, goods fell off
the shelves and houses shook. The trouble started on a fine day, around
4:30 p.m., lasted a few minutes, then stopped. Nobody knew what happened
and it was the talk of the town at suppertime that night. "At eight o'clock
a woman rushed into my store and shouted that all the water was gone out
of the harbour. We went out to see. It seemed as though the end of the
world was at hand. The harbour was dry and all the boats and schooners
were on their sides. People ran from the town and by the time I cleared
up, got my family and started to leave, there was nobody left here. The
town was silent and then I heard the start of a roar, it got louder and
louder. Fortunately everyone was heading for high ground. Then we saw
this great tidal wave rushing in and rooting up homes and buildings."
Later when rescuers
tried to recover property floating in the bay and to look for survivors
and bodies, they found a house with a child upstairs in its cot still
asleep while the rest of the family on the first floor had all drowned.
Twenty-nine people lost their lives before the tidal wave subsided. The
search for bodies went on until the following autumn. The tidal wave lasted
about two hours and caused two million dollars worth of damage in the
South West Coast area. All marine growth was swept away and the fish did
not return to the area until the 1940s.
On November 25 a
South Coast disaster committee was set up in St. John's with the Governor
as Chairman. The group raised a quarter of a million dollars to help those
affected by the disaster. Financial assistance also came from all over
the world to aid the victims.
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