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him in_ About seven or eight feet. say fiftccn or eighteen feet up from thaI
they stnned trawling and hooked me father.
I don't know whether they blowed out the candle or the candle went out.
They were talking about it. I don't know \\hich but there was something
about the candle. [Here Mr. Walsh paused for a moment seemingly
remembering that night.]
Uncle Jim Doyle, your grandfather. was in the boat too looking for the
bodies. lie was out once or twice. I heard him talking about that.
Definitely they were all there. There must hl1\'c been h\enty-fi\-e or thiny
\\hen they was dressing up the bodies in the shoal. I don't kno\\ ho\\
many they were. I don-t know just who lhcy were. The) was an a\\ful
mess anyhow. But everybody knew them I suppose that was stllying there.
Just the same as you go to a wake now, eh Jake?
Yes. my dear child, I guarantee it was a hard nighl though. Very hard
night. That was October (1932).
lie concluded the story by asking about my father's version ofthe story." ow
was it close 10 what I'm telling youT he askoo. 2 6-1
In this narrative told 53 years after the event look place, Mr. Walsh scts the scene.
then follows the process from the drowning on the L.1brador to thc burial in
Newfoundland. J had litcrally walked in ofT the road 10 ask him about his experiences on
the Lnbrador. I had been talking 10 Chris Cullen's son who cOllldn't rcmember what year
the drowning took place. Mr. Walsh scI the time in October of 1932 and went on to tell
me about being on the Labrador. When I asked ifhe had been down on the Labrador the
year his father's boat swamped, he proceeded to tell me the story knowing Ihat I had
heard it told in pan or in whole by four other people. I asked only one question
throughout the narrative: I-lad the bodies been found immediately? The question sparked
"" MU FLA 86-013. C8635.
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