January 7, 1911
A meeting of the Trinity Mutual Marine Insurance Company, Ltd., was held last week to receive official reports of losses and wrecks during the late storm, and to deal with them. The total losses are: Schr. Mary A-, of Southport, Random Sound, Insured for $500; Schr. Prospector, of Brittania, Smith’s Sound, Insured for $1,000; Schr. Willie Martin, of Heart’s Ease, insured for $1,400; Schr. Dianthus, of Trinity, insured for $2,350. Partial wrecks; Schr. Alice Heart’s Delight, damaged to the extent of $900; Schr. Petunia, of Port Rexton, damaged to the extent of $4OO. The necessary collections this year will be about 6%.
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February 17, 1911
Seals at Heart’s Ease.
Mr. William Flynn, of Heart’s Ease, sent the following information to Harvey & Co. by last mail: “There are thousands of breeding seals in Random, T.B. Henry Seward and Frank Seward brought in two white coats to-day. A grand sign for this season. They were taken from a pan of ice 20 feet square, surrounded by slob. There are thousands of old ones around. The two young seals were very smart.”
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July 13, 1911
From passengers who arrived here by yesterday’s train we learn that a man named Gooby, of Northern Bight, mad a valuable find in a thick wood some miles from that place last week. It was no less than the discovery of the lair of a black fox where there was a brood of young of the same species. In a very ingenious way he caught the old fox and its litter of young alive. He has them now all in his possession and will scoop a rich harvest from them, as the pelts of these foxes are very valuable. He is seriously considering the advisability of starting a fox farm with these and rearing only this particular species.
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November 7, 1911
Hospital Patients. Joseph Higgins from Hodge’s Cove. T B. who came here in the Tugela yesterday, was taken to Hospital.
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November 17, 1911
News was received in town on Saturday from Montreal that Mr. Frederick Frost, son of Mr. Levi Frost, was held by the court there on a charge of homicide, owing to the death of a laborer named Gagnon who was killed by a fall while in a scuffle with Frost at the C. P. R. wharf. It seems that Frost with about 250 other men were lined up in front of the pay office waiting to get paid, when Gagnon pulled Frost out of the line and used some belittling language. He was a bigger man than Frost, and when the scuffle took place both fell. Gagnon striking his head on a small box. Frost picked himself up, but when the other man did not rise he lifted him up and was horrified to find that he was dead. He then gave himself up to the police. A number of witnesses who were examined claimed that Frost was not in fault, and that the other man had been the aggressor. Gagnon was 36 years, and Frost, who is a married man and has a home in Montreal, is 36 years of age.December 2, 1911
Schr. Driven Off.
The schr. Willie Martin, Skipper W. Martin, of Little Heart’s Ease, T. B., was towed in the Narrows this morning by the Ingraham and is now at Steer’s wharf. With eleven men and three women (passengers) the schooner left St. John’s last Wednesday morning early for Heart’s Ease with a load of general winter supplies below decks. A smart clipping breeze from the southwest brought the schooner down off Baccalieu in about seven hours. There a heavy sea struck her quarter and broke off the rudder at the upper pintle. She was going under double reefed canvas at the time. There was no chance of looking up for Trinity Bay, and as the wind had increased, the only thing to do was to give it to her before the wind for Cape Bonavista and try to steer her by the canvas. With a skirt of the mainsail and a double reefed foresail the skipper ran her before the wind, hoping that there would be a chance of the wind favoring him enough to look up for Catalina. The wind quickly chopped from the west and they had to douse the foresail. The wind increased, night set in and the rudderless schooner was driven off the land. To ‘ease her in the drift the anchor was dropped from 
the bow with 60 fathoms of cable attached. This kept her head to the wind. The night was bitterly cold and the watch on-deck spent a terrible time. When morning broke the schooner was conceived to be 40 miles to the S. E. of Cape Bonavista. The wind kept veering further to the north and the schooner drove south all day Thursday and the following night. Yesterday morning the wind veered round to the N. E., and later in the day more easterly. There was now a chance of getting back to the land if they had any help in steering. The genius of the Newfoundland fishermen now came to the surface. Samuel Martin, the skipper’s brother, invented a yoke made of five-eight iron, a supply of which happened to be on board, and attaching lines to it and passing it out on each side of the quarter, let it go overboard, and by means of a short rope and a buoy attached to the yoke and brought up through the rudder trunk, made the yoke clip tightly around the broken rudder under water and held it in position. The lines on each side of the schooner were used to move the udder in steering. By using this they steered the schooner west all day yesterday and last night, and when daylight broke they saw land and recognized Sugar Loaf. They had been driven off about 60 miles from Cape St. Francis. They saw a steamer last night and flared up a distress signal, but she came towards them for a short while and then passed away to the S. S. E. Mr. Martin deserves to be congratulated on his invention. He no doubt saved the lives of the people on board.
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December 9, 1911
Brought in Prisoners. – Const. T. Forsey arrived here by train at 2 a.m. to-day with a lad named Jonah Soper to serve 30 days for larceny. Last spring he broke open a case of goods owned by a man named Vey, of Long Beach, and stole several articles and broke others in it. He was convicted and fined a given a chance to pay up, but did not do so. He must now pay the penalty in serving his term of imprisonment.
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Transcribed by Wanda Garrett, Lester Green, and Brandon Seward September 2014; Last update November 2021
These transcriptions may contain human errors. As always, confirm these as you would any other source material.