Bridgewater Bulletin March 3, 1931.
Tern Schooner Marguerite Tanner
The first fatality in the fresh fishing industry in Lunenburg occurred on February 25th, when two men, Alton Hiltz, 28 years of age, and unmarried,son of Richard Hiltz of Martin’s Point, and Archibald Parsons,about the same age, and as far as is known, unmarried, of Rose Blanche, Newfoundland, were lost from the schooner, Marguerite Tanner, Captain Angus Tanner, of the Lunenburg Cold Storage Company.
Captain Tanner arrived in port on Thursday, with the schooner’s flag half mast and reported that the fatal accident occurred while fishing on Emerald Bank. The men, after hauling their trawls, returned to the schooner, when the Captain at once noticed one dory missing and a search was immediately instituted for the missing craft. In a short time the dory was seen floating, bottom up, and a floating sail, oars, an oil hat, and a mitten were mute evidences of the tragic happening.
Captain Tanner cannot account for the accident; the weather being reasonably fair and the other dories encountering no difficulty. The strange part of the tragedy is, that another dory, containing shipmates of the men, was within three hundred yards of the dory when it overturned, yet they heard no outcry, nor any sound of any untoward happening.
Captain Tanner is terribly upset over the disaster, as these fatalities are usually the results of blizzards or heavy weather.