The old "Grand Manan III"

Old pictures of the ferry "Grand Manan III" have been posted on Facebook recently, with lots of comments of people's memories of the old vessel.  So it seems like a good time to bring up a picture of a painting I did of the old ship several years ago.

The "Grand Manan III" was never built to be a ferry.  Originally a yacht, she was pressed into service in World War II in North Atlantic patrol.  Right after the War, she was purchased in Sydney, Cape Breton, from War Assets, refitted as a ferry in Saint John, able to carry six cars.

The cars were hoisted aboard the stern deck with metal slings on each wheel, with a pole slid through eyes in slings on each side to keep the slings lined up.  In the mid 1950's, her deck accommodations were modified to increase the capacity from 6 cars to 9 cars.

The ferry carried the Island's freight in the fore hold, which required time both on mainland and on Grand Manan for loading and unloading freight in slings lifted by the winch and forward boom.

In the 1960's, before being replaced in 1965, the ferry made five round trips to the mainland each week.  On Monday, she went to St. Andrews and back, stopping at Wilsons Beach.  On Tuesday, she went to Saint John (I think she stopped at Wilsons Beach).  Staying in Saint John on Tuesday night, she returned to Grand Manan on Wednesday, carrying much of the Island's freight.  On Thursday it was St. Andrews and back.  Friday was a long day, going directly to Saint John, and returning the same day.  And Saturday was St. Andrews and back.

(When the "Grand Manan" arrived in 1965, with her 25 car capacity, one old timer remarked "she'll never be full"!)

Gulls on the Open Sea

The summer gulls have been back with us at Our Cove for a couple of weeks now.  In fact we have a pair of gulls who stay here, right in the cove, all summer long.  Oh, they come and go, and fly off at high tide to do whatever gulls do, but they spend most of their time right here.

All this reminded me to feature a print of seagulls over the open sea; so I put up an 8 x 10 framed print on the Etsy shop.

This print features herring gulls, the most common kind in the waters off Grand Manan. 

They are graceful in flight, social and yet very competitive.  And it is a delight to watch gulls soar in gale force winds, winds that ground lesser birds.

At home in the air and comfortable on the surface of the ocean, gulls are admirably adapted for life on the Bay of Fundy

And of course a painting of the sea in the Bay of Fundy would be lacking something if we didn't add a lobster buoy to give it a real Maritime flavour.

Seagulls at home on the open Bay of Fundy

"Choosers"

It's no secret that Grand Manan is a tad isolated; that's what happens when geography plops you out in the middle of the Bay of Fundy.  This led to a simple classification system for the entire population of the world: those who were born and brought up on Grand Manan, and those who weren't.

Sometimes the Grand Manan attitude toward others hasn't really been as warm as it should: while non-Islanders might be the finest kind of people, they just didn't have that Grand Manan pedigree.  Hopefully that sort of thinking is becoming a thing of the past, and if a recent thread of comments on Facebook is any indication, I think it is.

While conversation was positive, a term was still used that doesn't really help:  "CFA's" or "Come From Aways".  With comments going back and forth, a recent enthusiast for our Island community talked about choosing to live here, and a term was coined: "Chooser".  At that point a Grand Mananer said he "chooses" to live here too.  So there you have it.

The neat thing about the word "chooser" is that it is deliberately positive.  It doesn't matter where you were born and brought up, if you are here because you deliberately want to be; you are a "Chooser".

So, take that, Wikipedia, you heard it in a Grand Manan Facebook converstion first:  "Chooser - someone who deliberately chooses a particular community to call home."

Remembering the "Lord Ashburton"

Fifty-five years ago today, the 1,009-ton barque Lord Ashburton, under command of Captain Evan Clarke Crerar, of Pictou, while bound from Toulon, France, for Saint John in ballast, ran ashore and was totally wrecked at the north end of Grand Manan in a northeast snowstorm at 2 a.m. on January 19. 

Eight men were saved, twenty-one men, including all the officers, perished.  Most of the bodies were so badly mutilated that they could not be identified. 

The headland where she struck is now known as "Ashburton Head".  She was built at Brandy Cove, St. Andrews in 1843 by Joshua Briggs for Nehemiah Marks.  One of the survivors, James Lawson, originally from Denmark, following his convalescence, returned to Grand Manan and settled there.  His oft retelling of the story of the wreck of the Lord Ashburton etched the story indelibly in Island lore.

Snow With Your Winter

For those of you who would like some snow with your winter, I have decided to feature a winter lighthouse print this evening: "West Quoddy Winter"

West Quoddy Light, near Lubec, Maine, is the easternmost point of the United States.  At the northeast corner of the US, this lighthouse sees its share of snow storms.  In fact, because the ground there is so often covered with snow, the lighthouse was painted with red stripes so that mariners out at sea could more easily see the lighthouse on winter days against the backdrop of snow.  During the day, a lighthouse used to be a more essential visible landmark to allow a mariner to reckon his position.

In keeping with the sense of nautical heritage that is harkened when we think of pre-radar, pre-GPS navigation, when mariners needed to see their landmarks, I have included a schooner in the painting.  And, of course, snowy ground.

So, although we don't have any snow on the ground around Our Cove, we can enjoy the white stuff in a painting or print on the wall.  Actually snow in a painting isn't really white (but don't get me going on that, since snow really reflects the colour and intensity of light with which you see it), but you know what I mean.  And of course, black in a painting isn't really black, but reflects a variety of colours and intensity, as can be seen in the lantern cap

So enjoy your snow vicariously, in a painting or print; snow you don't have to shovel, or trudge through, or get stuck in.  Actually, I am just fine with an open winter, but we Canadians think we have to have snow with our winters, so here is some that won't melt and won't freeze your toes.

Dory Fishing Christmas Cards

Last week at the market, a customer who was interested in my print of dory lobster fishing, asked me if I could make her some Christmas cards from the print.  After deciding on the layout and the choice of lettering style, I spent some time experimenting with the colour of the Christmas greeting, until I ended up with a colour a little redder and darker than the dory, but not a bright red.  For me, it works quite nicely.

Well satisfied with how the new cards turned out, I decided to make some more in case others might like these very nautical cards of Christmas greeting.

If these appeal to you, I can provide a pack of 12 cards, with envelopes, for $20, plus $4.00 for shipping (unless you happen to live on Grand Manan and want to drop by to pick some up).

Market Day Picks

Over the last few days, leading up to Grand Manan Christmas Market, which will be open at the Grand Manan Community Centre today from 10 until 4, I have covered the various series of prints of my marine paintings; today I will provide a pick from each series.  It might be a personal favorite, a popular one, an interesting one.

From the Lighthouse series, because I like the sea and the mood in the painting, I am picking "Gannet Rock Afternoon":

From the Age of Sail series,for the muted tones and mood, "Fog":

From Steam and Diesel, the ship fondly regarded for bailing out our Island community when other vessels let us down, and retiring from service finally this year, "Grand Manan":

Among the paintings of Fundy natural living things, the whimsical "Lumpfish":

Shipwrecks tell us that the sea is a whole lot more powerful than we humans; I like the way the awe and power of the sea in "Perseverance":

And for good measure, my newest print of a recent painting, "Dory Lobster Fishing":

Even though I cannot have a print of everything in every size, I will have on hand an illustrated list of prints, in case there is one you would like to order.  I have prints and frames on hand and can make up the order very quickly.