Allicor's Unique Boutique: Shipwrecks

Here is an interesting story from a book I bought yesterday at a yard sale ,titled “Shipwrecks off the East Coast. The author was Carmel Vivier. If you can still buy it

I would recommend it… This story is called The Royal Tar. I do hope you will enjoy it as much as I did.

Imagine a crisp fall day, with a touch of frost in the air. The leaves are changing colors, people are hurrying all over , and horses are hauling cards full of good up and down the road. These were all typical sights in Saint John in October 1836. No so typical however was the cargo on a group of wagons slowly making their way to the harbour. The wagons were carrying cages filled with exotic animals. In was October 21 and Fuller’s Menagerie, which had been touring Nova Scotia and New Brunswick for the last 6 months were leaving Saint John and heading back to the United States. Young and old people stood and watched as the colourfully painted wagons, some large and some small slowly went down King St. in the heart of the city to the wharf and the loading dock.

Fuller’s Menagerie was like most other travelling circuses, a mix of close knit families and performers who had been together for a long time. It had the usual circus animals, including 2 camels an elephant, a lion, a couple of tigers, ponies and horses that were used for performing and pulling the wagons. It also had an assortment of reptiles and birds. With an entire circus to move back to the USA, the owners needed a large reliable ship. They picked the Royal Tar ,a 400 ton, 160 foot side paddle steamer that could accommodate all their animals and bring them to the USA in a short period of time. The circus owners were anxious to get to New York, where they were hoping to find work for the winter. Built in Carleton New Brunswick in 1835, the Royal Tar was more reliable than any other ships because she had both a paddle wheel and sails. The captain was Thomas Reed. The Royal l Tar had a regular route, running between Digby ,Saint John, Portland and Maine. This route enabled people to reach New York from St John in less than four days. The passenger list for this 21 th day of October’s sailing totalled 93 passengers and crew, with some Irish immigrants heading to the US looking for work.

As the ship sailed out of Saint John Harbour into the Fundy Bay, the circus band played God Save the King. After the steamer started her trip, the weather began to get bad, with strong winds. The first port of call was Eastport, and the ship arrived in time, but when the ship left Eastport that night Captain Reed decided the weather was too bad to keep on going to Portland. He gave orders to steer the ship into Little River near Cutter Maine, to seek shelter. He decided to stay there till the weekend. The following Monday they left their shelter but soon after the weather was bad again so they took shelter in Machias Bay. Again they started out but the engineer didn’t notice that the water levels in the boilers were running low. The captain stopped the engines and the opened the safety valves. They dropped the anchor near Fox Island. Then they noticed smoke directly above the boilers. Now that the paddle wheel wasn’t working they had to use the sails to get the passengers to safety. The captain gave the order to man the boats, and everybody ran for the lifeboats. But the engineers, other crew members and some passengers had already lowered the biggest lifeboat and were on their way to Isle au Haut instead of getting help.

The captain didn’t want the rest of the passengers to all get in the one remaining boat because it would have tipped so he ordered everyone to jump in the water. Once they jumped he pulled them towards the boat he was in , soon the boat was full and they headed away from the burning ship. The sound of people screaming and animals screeching sent shivers down the spines of those on the lifeboat. The US cutter Veto arrived on the scene and boarded the people on the lifeboat. Then the Steward and Capt. Reed along with two seaman from the Veto made trips to and fro to the burning ship to rescue passengers . Many of the circus animals were dying of smoke inhalation in their cages, The horses and camels were backed off the shop, some other animals jumped into the water, the elephant jumped and landed on a raft full of people, tipping the raft, sending some people to their death, then the elephant swam to shore. With a boat full of passengers the Veto headed for Isle au Haut. Arriving on the island the passengers were in for some surprise, the men who had taken off in the biggest lifeboat were all there sitting comfortably around a fire at Squire Kimballs, one of the local lodgings enjoying themselves as if nothing happened. The survivors showed their appreciations to the people of Isle au Haut who gave them warm clothing, food and lodging. Captain Reed and William Brown returned to Saint John were they treated as heroes in rescuing the passengers of the Royal Tar, and the people of Saint John celebrated their bravery.

Out of 93 people on board the Royal Tar 32 died including 10 children and 3 crew members. The vessel and cargo was worth around $200,000 but nothing was insured, the strongbox from the circus with all of its earnings from an entire summer was lost . The elephant and two horses were found on shore, but the camels and exotic animals were never found. The Irish immigrants lost all their possessions, strangers in a strange land, they were left with only the clothes on their backs.

I do hope you have enjoyed reading this story which is sad but true.

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