nerd651's Blog

In the spring of 1995, I wandered north to visit some of the ports in the Canadian Maritimes (Newfoundland, Labrador, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island). I sailed as crew on the Gazela from St John's NL to the self governing territory of France known as Saint-Pierre and Miquelon. On that trip, I meet a local "Newfie" girl. After the trip, we dated a while, talked of marriage, moved in together, and ended in a fiery split up. I can't help but wonder whether it is simply too difficult to date a girl from a different country. What are the rules?

The Gazela Primeiro is a 700 ton barkentine originally built in 1883 in Portugal and rebuilt in 1901 as the Gazela. From 1883 through 1969 the Gazela was a family owned a fishing ship to carry fishermen annually and their fishing dories from Lisbon to the Grand Banks and back again. See photo 1.

Since 1971, Gazela has been U.S. owned and using Philadelphia as the home port. In 1995, a Gazela sailing tour was planned for the Canadian Maritimes. Since I was a volunteer crew on the Gazela, I volunteered for that part of that tour that visited ports while sailing from St John's NL to the self governing territory of France known as Saint-Pierre. I took two and a half weeks leave from my work, drove to Baltimore and then I flew from Baltimore to Toronto. From there, I changed planes and flew on to Halifax NS, and from there, I changed planes again and flew on to St John's, the provincial capital of Newfoundland. I would later join the ship as it was moored in the harbor.

Before joining my ship, I played the tourist in Newfoundland. I got a room in a St John's hotel for a few days and did some sightseeing. I visited Fairyland, the site of Lord Baltimore's first colony in North America, founded in 1621. When I visited, Fairyland was no more than an archeological excavation of the Colony of Avalon. I stood on the stone footings that was once the stone mansion house of the Lord Proprietor, Lord Baltimore (George Calvert). See photo 2.

Lord Baltimore had a beautiful view of the an expansive bay with the bluest water you ever saw. The shoreline was protected by steely blue granite in the form of ledge and large rocks. Inland of the granite was fields of deep green grass. All of this was under a powder blue sky with white puffy clouds. See photo 3. Of course, I visited in June. The winters can be … cold. Lord and Lady Baltimore were so cold that they moved south and founded the colony of Maryland in what was once part of Virginia.

On the way back to St John's, I stopped in Petty Harbor – Maddox Cove, a community on the Avalon peninsula of less than 1,000 people. See photo 4. There I met Alvin Lee Sr. and his son Alvin Lee Jr. Alvin Sr. had such a strong Irish accent, I couldn't understand him. This was typical of the whole of the Avalon peninsula, at least for those who were born before television. Anyway, Alvin Jr. had to translate for his father. Alvin Sr. was so excited to teach me about the life of a fisherman and also the difference between a Newfoundland cod trap and a Japanese cod trap. You see, he was a fisherman.

Alvin Sr. told me how proud he was to take command of his family's fishing boat when his father went to war in Europe (WWII). Alvin Sr. was just 14 or … old when he took the boat out with 4 or 5 fishermen under his young command. They set the Newfoundland Cod Traps and then they tended them all day long. At the end of the day when they pulled up the trap netting, they hauled in enough fish to fill and overflow their little 24 foot fishing boat. Alvin Sr. supervised the dividing of the fish they caught: One share for each fisherman, one share of Alvin (who was a hard working captain), and one share for the family boat, as was their custom. It was their best catch of any day of the war. He was proud to show the picture he kept of their over burdened boat. Alvin Sr. was over 65 years old, but he told the story of the big catch with such excitement in his eyes, as if he were a … old boy all over again. When telling the story, his eyes lit up as he reminisced about the time he was captain of that boat so many years ago.

I returned to St John's but I still had places to visit. St John's harbor is protected from the Atlantic Ocean by a high rocky ridge. See photo 5 of Signal Hill (the north cape) in the near ground, of the south cape in the upper left corner with a cruise ship in the Narrows there between. The city of St John's is shown in the upper right corner with the harbor between the city and the south cape.

See photo 6 taken from atop Cabot Tower (on Signal Hill) and showing St John's, the harbor and the inland side of the south cape. The harbor is inland from the granite ridge line and a small Narrows is cut through the rocky ridge to allow ships to pass between the harbor and the ocean. See photo 6 of the harbor taken from the top of Cabot Tower. See also photo 7 of Fort Amherst on south cape and a submarine in the Narrows sailing into the harbor.

Cabot's Tower was erected on top of Signal Hill (north cape) to commemorate Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee and the 400th anniversary of John Cabot's voyage to North America. See photo 8.

The first trans-Atlantic radio transmission was sent from Ireland to Signal Hill, NL. Guglielmo Marconi himself was present to make sure the equipment worked properly and supervise his team flying a large kite to raise the antenna of the receiver. Today, Cabot's Tower is used as a museum to this G. Marconi accomplishment.

My tourist time had come to an end, and I had to report in to the ship and attend to ship's duties. This time, the ship was anything but normal. The Mayor of St John's threw a big party for our crew at City Hall. The next day, two of our crew members, who had met onboard and fell in love, now got married to one another onboard the Gazela in a ceremony officiated by her honor, the Mayor of St John's. You see, the Gazela had not been back in St John's harbor, or anywhere on the Grand Banks, since about 1969. Everybody was celebrating the Gazela's return after a 25 year absence. It was a weeklong party.

My daytime duties consisted of giving tours of the ship to tourists who came to visit the ship in port. Gazela had just been featured in a move adapted from Ann Rice's novel, "Interview With A Vampire," starring Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt. When we opened the ship for tours, we placed snap shots blown up to life size of Cruise and Pitt at the locations on the Gazela where the stars had posed for the original snap shots. A weekend dad who had brought his two teenage daughters to the ship were most impressed by the snap shots showing the stars at the location on the ship where the stars had posed for the snap shots. The girls wanted a picture but the dad's camera had run out of 35mm film. I ducked below to grab a couple of roll from my stock, and I gave the rolls to the dad. The girls were delighted when the dad took pictures of the girls standing next to the blown up snap shots of the stars at the location where the stars posed for the original snap shots. The weekend dad became a hero.

After 16:00 hours, almost all of the crew was given liberty including me. The captain cautioned us to be back early since we will get an "all hands call" about 1 hour before sunrise to make ready to sail on the first ebb tide of the day. As I left on liberty, a couple of young women who were among the last guests to leave the ship offered to and took me to be screeched-in at Trapper John's on Water St that night. Water St and George St are where the bars are that are frequented by both sailors and college kids alike. Screech is a kind of sweet spiced rum of about 80 proof that is a specialty in Newfoundland. The ceremony involves drinking copious amounts of … reciting a certain verse in "Newfie" (a local dialect that is almost unrecognizable as English), and for the big finish, I must kiss a cod fish on the lips. However, because of depleted fisheries at the time, fishing cod was banned. So the screeching-in ceremony substituted kissing of a Puffin's ass for kissing a cod on the lips. I did all of this, and I have the plaque to prove it hanging on my wall.

In one of the bars, I told one of the young women who served as tour guide about being unable to understand Alvin Lee Sr. She explained that the Avalon peninsula is full of Irish with a very heavy accent and everybody but locals has trouble understanding. She also said if I go north toward Bonavista, I would encounter an equally difficult London accent (almost Cockney). She said she knows because she used to be married to a man from Avalon with the thick Irish accent and her family was from the north where everyone had the difficult London accent. She said she got divorced when she could finally understand what her mother-in-law was saying about her.

That was the day before we set sail. On that day, we took on about a dozen extra "Newfies" as volunteer crew. We began the detail planning as to which sail got set first, and who would set which sail. I was assigned to the crew setting the foremast top sails. Among the dozen extra "Newfie" volunteer crew that joined us was Carol, a girl who would later relocate from Canada to the US to be with me, a disaster that I will describe later.

All things come to an end, and it became time for us to leave. The captain gave the pre-dawn "all hands call" and the ship came to life. The captain wanted to put on a good show as we left St John's. He instructed us to set all sails before we reached the Narrows. We began under motor and set the sails while in motion. We sailed out of the harbor and through the Narrows under sail power and the locals could take all the pictures they wanted.

Our departure on the ebb tide was at first light, and we slowly sailed out of the harbor. A dozen or so smaller boats followed us to the Narrows. We set every sail that could be set under the wind conditions before we left the harbor. From the dock, the locals took their pictures of our ship under full sail. I was standing on the foot ropes for the lower top yard of the foremast, about 50 or 60 feet over the water. After I untied the gaskets from the lower and upper top yards and unfurled the upper and lower top sails, the lower top sail fell down below the yard and the deck crew adjusted the sheets. Then the deck crew pulled on the halyard to raise the upper top yard. The lower clews of the upper top sail were already affixed to the ends of the lower top yard. When the upper top yard was raised, the upper top sail became pulled between the upper and lower top yards. Both the upper and lower top sails quickly filled with wind. The deck crew then set the angles of the sails from lines that had been led to belaying pin on the deck. We were on our way to the self governing territory of France known as Saint-Pierre and Miquelon.

It was during our sail from St John's to the self governing territory of France known as Saint-Pierre and Miquelon that I met and became friends with Carol, but that story will be in a later post.