The Call of the Ocean

The Call of

the Ocean

Jim Wellman

Flanker Press Limited

St. John’s

Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

Wellman, Jim, 1946-, author

The call of the ocean / Jim Wellman.

Includes index.

Issued in print and electronic formats.

ISBN 978-1-77117-481-7 (paperback).--ISBN 978-1-77117-485-5

(epub).--ISBN 978-1-77117-489-3 (kindle).--ISBN 978-1-77117-549-4

(pdf)

1. Atlantic Provinces--Biography. 2. Québec (Province)--

Biography. 3. Fisheries--Atlantic Provinces--Biography.

4. Shipbuilding--Atlantic Provinces--Biography. I. Title.

FC2006.W45 2016 971.5 C2016-903685-5

C2016-903686-3

—————————————————————————————————————————————— ———————

© 2016 Jim Wellman

All Rights Reserved. No part of the work covered by the copyright hereon may be reproduced or used in any form or by any means—graphic, electronic or mechanical—without the written permission of the publisher. Any request for photocopying, recording, taping, or information storage and retrieval systems of any part of this book shall be directed to Access Copyright, The Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency, 1 Yonge Street, Suite 800, Toronto, ON M5E 1E5. This applies to classroom use as well.

Printed in Canada

Cover Design by Graham Blair

Flanker Press Ltd.

PO Box 2522, Station C

St. John’s, NL

Canada

Telephone: (709) 739-4477 Fax: (709) 739-4420 Toll-free: 1-866-739-4420

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We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Canada Book Fund (CBF) and the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador, Department of Tourism, Culture and Recreation for our publishing activities. We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts, which last year invested $153 million to bring the arts to Canadians throughout the country. Nous remercions le Conseil des arts du Canada de son soutien. L’an dernier, le Conseil a investi 153 millions de dollars pour mettre de l’art dans la vie des Canadiennes et des Canadiens de tout le pays.

Contents

1. Dion Faulkner — We’d Have Been Better Off Staying Home

2. Marilyn Clark — Young and Progressive

3. Dave Quinton — The Icon of Land and Sea

4. Sandy Stoddard — In God’s Hands

5. Richard Gillett — A Cool Cold Water Cowboy

6. Norman Peters — The Bearded Skipper

7. Jerome Canning

8. Alex Howse

9. Val Cull

10. Jonathan Collett

11. Mac Campbell — Doing Things His Way

12. Gilles LeBlanc — Foolish Is What He Was

13. The Johnson Brothers of North Harbour

14. Kim Pike — The Harbour Grace Trawl Rigger

15. Eric O’Brien — Don’t Worry, Buddy, You’re Not Going Back

16. Klaus Sonnenberg — One of a Kind

17. Joy Barker — Married Into It, Divorced Out of It, Still Passionate About It

18. Rick Hunt — A Trawlerman’s Son

19. Norma Richardson — A Lifetime of Volunteering

20. Wade Earle — A Nasty Labrador Sea

21. Tommy O’Brien — A Captain for All Seasons

22. Eugene O’Leary — Too Smart to Be a Fisherman

23. Brothers to the Rescue

24. George Rose — Internationally Renowned Fisheries Scientist Retires, Sort Of

25. Jan Spinney — A Woman of Quality

26. Raymond Ryan — As Luck Would Have It

27. Adlai Cunningham — Staying the Corporate Philosophy Course

28. The Barbours of Ches’s

Index

Acknowledgements

We’d Have Been Better Off Staying Home

Eternity begins and ends with the ocean’s tides.

— Unknown

We’re goin’ birdin’ tomorrow, an excited Dion Faulkner exclaimed to his wife, Sue, as he entered their home in Musgrave Harbour on Sunday afternoon, February 2, 2003.

Birdin’ meant saltwater duck hunting, and like most men in rural Newfoundland communities, bird hunting had a huge appeal to Dion for various reasons.

Duck was a delicious food staple, good to have in the deep-freeze for great meals in winter, but hunting it was also a thrilling sport. And it was more than that for Dion Faulkner on that day—it was another opportunity to enjoy the camaraderie of family and friends, because he was going to be with his dad, Irving Faulkner, his two brothers, Danny and Darren, and good friends Roger Hann and Draper Fahey.

The men were a diverse group ranging in age from twenty-four to fifty-nine. At fifty-nine, Irving Faulkner was the eldest, his son Dion was thirty-eight, Roger Hann was thirty-six, Danny Faulkner, thirty-five, Darren Faulkner, thirty-one, and the youngest of the group, Draper Fahey, was just twenty-four. All but Draper were married with children. Irving was owner of the Spindrift-by-the-Sea Motel in Musgrave Harbour, Roger was a well-known commercial fisherman, Dion worked as a refrigeration mechanic in Gander, Danny worked with the Department of Transportation, Darren had a seasonal job in Ontario, and Draper worked at seasonal jobs whenever and wherever one became available.

Dion Faulkner

The six men chatted on Sunday and noted the weather forecast called for moderate winds and sea conditions. The guys figured it was a reasonable outlook to accommodate a day on the water, considering it was in the middle of winter, and an ideal forecast in February was not likely on the northeast coast of Newfoundland that time of year.

Like many others in the area, the hunters were really anxious to get out on Monday because it was the last day of the hunting season that they would be allowed to take six birds each. The bag limit was going to be cut in half to three ducks per person the following day, so it was one of those seize the moment decisions.

Draper Fahey was especially excited that day. Although he was an avid hunter, this was going to be his first saltwater-duck-hunting trip. He went to bed just after supper on Sunday evening to be well-rested for their adventure the next day.

Saltwater ducks are best hunted at dawn when they take to wing, so that meant a very early morning departure. Irving and the experienced hunters in the group decided the best place to hunt on Monday morning would be around an island called the Offer Wadham, located about twelve miles away.

To allow themselves plenty of time to be in a good position to take advantage of the day’s first light, the guys decided they would meet on the wharf at 2:00 a.m., where they would board Irving’s twenty-two-foot speedboat and also tow along a smaller boat.

Irving’s boat had a small shelter at the front and a small, enclosed locker space at the bow—a compartment known locally as the cuddy, which looked small but was big enough for two people to crawl into if necessary in times of bad weather.

The boat, Darlene and Dianne, named after Irving’s daughters, was a good and sturdy vessel, and Irving was an excellent boater, known for his attention to safety and overall care and caution on board.

When Sue Faulkner was helping her husband, Dion, pack food and a few things for her husband’s trip, she had one request.

Make sure you wear your floater jacket, she said with a pleading tone.

Dion heeded her advice, and is eternally grateful that he did. Although the floater proved to be an obstacle at one point, it more than made up for it in the end.

At his brother’s house, safety concerns were also prevalent. As Danny was leaving his house, he hugged his wife, Kelly, and smiled. I’ll give you a kiss now because you never know—anything can happen out there, he said.

The Faulkner men and their friends weren’t the only hunters who had duck hunting plans for Monday morning—dozens of others had the same idea. One of them was Larry Easton from Carmanville, about eighteen miles west of Musgrave Harbour.

Lady Easton

Larry, a well-known fishing captain, along with ten of his family members and friends, had the same idea as Irving Faulkner. Larry, the owner and captain of the forty-five-foot fishing vessel Lady Easton, took two speedboats in tow. The plan was to drop four of his buddies on Peckford Island in one speedboat, where they would hunt from, while the remaining seven would continue on to the Offer Wadham, where they would anchor the Lady Easton and use the remaining speedboat for hunting. Larry, along with two of his long-time hunting friends, Rod and Bob Gillingham, would go to the island to hunt, while his dad, an uncle, and two others would stay on board the longliner and cook up a big meal to be enjoyed at the end of the day when hunting was done. The Easton team planned to stay overnight and hunt again on Tuesday before going home to Carmanville on Tuesday evening.

About 3:00 a.m., Larry had a call on VHF Radio. It was his friend and fellow fisherman Roger Hann. Roger explained that he was with the Faulkner men, along with Draper Fahey, and he asked what Larry and his crew were planning.

Larry outlined his plans to be at Offer Wadham Island before daylight. Roger replied that he, Irving, and the others might head to Small Island, not far from the Wadhams. After a couple of minutes of general conversation, Roger and Larry noted that the weather wasn’t as good as they had hoped, with thick fog and gusty winds that were kicking up whitecaps on the ocean. Yes, perhaps we’d have been better off staying home, Roger laughed, as the two fishermen friends wished each other good luck birdin’.

Irving knew the area like the back of his hand. Not only had he hunted there dozens of times before, he also took tour groups to both the Offer and Inner Wadhams in summer. However, even though he had a GPS, it appears they steamed south of Small Island. Eventually, Irving gave up looking for the small island in the dense fog and decided to head for the much larger Offer Wadham Island.

Unlike the large fishing vessel Lady Easton, the little speedboat Darlene and Dianne was not equipped with radar and other sophisticated electronic equipment to pinpoint their exact location, and although Irving found the Offer Wadham, he wound up on the south side of the island instead of the north side as he intended. In the fog there were no visuals for Irving and the guys to use as reference points. With an increasing southerly wind, they would have been far more comfortable on the north side in the lee of the island, with the land providing a natural shield from the winds and seas.

Sometime around 5:30 a.m., Irving was guiding the boat along the rocky shoreline, keeping a close eye out for rocks. It would be daylight within the hour, and they wanted to be ready before the ducks took to wing.

It was foggy and chilly, but the men were all experienced outdoorsmen and were dressed appropriately for winter weather. Despite the unfavourable conditions, they should still have a successful hunt. But a good hunting trip was not to be that day.

Suddenly, without warning, all hell broke loose.

Dion Faulkner is still not sure what happened.

He and the other five men were in relative comfort while his dad, Irving, manoeuvred the speedboat near the rocky shores on the south side of Offer Wadham Island, and all six peered through the dense fog looking for a place to land.

The stiff southerly winds were kicking up a bumpy sea, but nothing more than their boat had handled many times before.

Suddenly, something unexplainable happened.

Dion remembers the boat rising up high on a wave that was also tipping the boat off its even keel, pushing it up and twisting it far to its port side.

According to Dion, it seemed surreal. He remembers exchanging an anxious and inquisitive quick glance with one of his brothers, who also had a shocked look on his face that indicated he too felt the same disbelief that they could suddenly be in the midst of something huge and serious.

It was like a giant monster’s hand or something that reached down and grabbed the [starboard] gunwale and lifted us up and tossed us over, and then when we came down, we were all in the water and the boat was bottom up.

He was trapped underneath the capsized boat, but the other five were thrown clear and surfaced outside, although Dion says he is almost certain that when the boat landed in the water, Roger and his brother Danny were struck a heavy blow when one of the gunwales landed directly on top of them.

Dion figures the force of the boat’s weight, as it crashed down on top of Danny and Roger, probably knocked them out or may have even killed them instantly. Either way, he never saw them again.

Fortunately, the boat didn’t strike Dion when it fell, but being trapped underneath the boat was not the best-case scenario either. Water quickly rose to the bottom of the overturned boat that was now on top of his head, with no breathing space remaining. Still, Dion was composed enough to consider his options, and instead of following his instinct to try to get out from beneath the speedboat right away, he realized that he needed time to plan for that—and he needed air, immediately.

Dion thought there might have been an air pocket inside the locker in the cuddy, which just happened to be located right next to where he had surfaced.

Normally the bow of a capsized speedboat is slightly elevated because the weight of the outboard motor on the stern drags the aft section lower. Pulling himself partly inside the compartment door, his hunch was verified. Sure enough, the water had not completely filled that room yet. He took a few deep breaths and tried to calm down a bit before assessing his next move.

After sizing things up, he realized he would have to swim down through the water column from the boat, past a door, a rail, and the gunwales before he could turn back up toward the surface. He was wearing a floater jacket, which was designed to try and push him up to the surface, so swimming down was going to be a challenge. Removing the jacket wasn’t an option because he would need it if and when he could get away from the boat and swim to the island. Dion remembers rationalizing his situation.

I knew I had to get to the island. I said to myself that I might perish there, but at least I wouldn’t drown.

Without wasting any more precious time and letting the below-freezing water sap his strength, Dion forced himself underwater and swam with all his might downward, and then out from under the gunwales.

Resurfacing, he soon realized that he had at least one bit of luck going his way. The small boat they had been towing was just inches away.

I didn’t even need to swim to get it—I just reached up and grabbed the side of her and held on.

Dion’s thoughts turned from his own well-being to that of his dad, Irving Faulkner, his bothers, Danny and Darren, and his two friends, Roger Hann and Draper Fahey. He couldn’t see any of them. He called their names several times, but there was no answer.

With a heavy heart, Dion knew he had to try and save himself.

Using the small boat as support, he paddled his way toward the rocky shores of the Offer Wadham Island and the relative safety of land.

He eventually made it close enough to shore to let the boat go and managed to stumble and crawl across the icy rocks of the island, away from the water’s edge, far enough to be safe from the breaking waves.

All I could think about was the boys, he says. "It kept going around in my head they’re all gone, they’re all gone."

But he had another thought. His seven-year-old son, Myles, his wife, Sue, his mom, Margaret, and the rest of the family would need him more than ever.

There wasn’t much time to wonder about what-ifs, but even when his own survival required all the will he could find, he was acutely aware that there was no indication that anyone else had survived the capsizing and that