Around a hundred years before the excitement and danger and intrigue of the rumrunners, the Bay of Quite and surrounding waters had it’s fair share of swashbuckling and high-sea adventure. In a series of materials recently penned by local sailor Bob Townsend, and printed by Virtual Impact Marketing Inc., the local waters come alive as the setting for shipwrecks, ferocious battles and the making and breaking of fortunes.
A few months ago, I was handed several books and booklets concerning the marine history of this area, and that of the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence waterways. The author. Robert B. Townsend could be a described without a great stretch of the imagination as an "old salt" though of course, the waters he sails in and writes about are fresh.
The stories contained in this armload of books Is immense. The small booklets; that of The HMS Speedy, and The HMS St. Lawrence. the larger booklets telling the tales; The Battle of the Thousand Island, and Who Was Canada’s Greatest Yachtsman, and finally the full blown Arts re books a duo under the title When Canvas was King, one detailing the activities on the water in and around Quinte and Prince Edward, and the other a biographical account of Master Mariner Captain John Williams, are all based on the research and writings of the great marine historian C.H.J. Snider.
Townsend is effusive is his praise of and accredits Snider’s work in great detail. Indeed there are Snider collections at the Ontario Archives, the Marine Museums in Kingston and Toronto, and the Toronto reference library.
Bob just wrote the stories down so everyone could have a chance to read them. And I am certainly glad he did. Fiction is my reading matter of choice, but .1 have been coaxed to. partake in the odd
memoir, volume of poetry and true story.
The Townsend books read like an adventure novel, steeped in reality, and backed up by historically accurate detail. There are thrills and chills, narrow escapes from death, treachery and bravery, and even some buried treasure!
Quinte and Prince Edward, one of the When Canvas was King titles reads more like a set of connected stories rather than a novel, but it was my favourite of the lot, if I may be so bold as too choose just one.
The smaller stories some more like my poor husband is going to spend
lot on gas money driving around the County this summer so we can visit some of the wreck sites in person. The closer you can experience history, the more it comes alive.
I especially like the disclaimer in the prologue to The Story of the HMS Speedy that reads: "We leave it to the reader to determine what is fiction and what is fact." I’ll have to ask Bob if his tongue was firmly planted in his cheek when he wrote that!
Oral traditions - stories passed generation to generation form quite a bit of history. Snider found much of his evidence told in poems and songs.
The wreck of the Belle Sheridan in 1880 off the south shore of Lake Ontario, chronicled in Quinte and Prince Edward, as well as in a
a previous book by Bob, Tales from the Great Lakes is a ship that inspired a legend. It is the story of a great ship and her crew lost to a stormy November gale but this ship was earlier and a lot closer to home than the ship made famous by the haunting mellow croorings of Gordon Lightfoot.
Seriously, I think I fell in love with Captain John Williams, a brave and noble character, and I was surprised to learn the waters, I too have sailed upon hold so many lives and so many secrets
The stories of the ships, the captains, the lighthouses, the ports and the recollection of a different time, when the bay was an integral shipping lane, not merely pleasure craft. When lives were saved or lost, fortunes and careers were made or broken dreams raised and dashed.
Historians like C.H.J. Snider have collected the past for safe-keeping, and storytellers like Bob Townsend have spun those facts into tales that capture the imagination and interest of a whole new generation, The Historians do not want us to forget the past. And the storytellers seek to entertain us with it. Look for the story of the HMS St.Lawrence, The Speedy, the Battle of the Thousand Islands and When Canvas was King: Captain John Williams, Master Mariner, and Quinte and prince Edward in local bookstores and libraries.
