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ody for the Iinal voyage. 267 The body was kept on deck and stories arc told ofusing the
makeshift coffin as a card table on the return voyage. Its presence supposedly did not
completely darken the mood ofthose returning home aner 3 good summer.
No song was composed to commemorate the drowning ofthcse two men. perhaps
becausc they had been foolish to go out on a rough sca in an o\erloaded boat. Similarly,
to my kno\\lcdge, no song exists to mark the loss ofa vcsscl and ninc livcs from Colliers
in 1857, pfCviously mentioned. Only the direct descendants oflhe owner ofthe \"essel
have preserved the story. The incident was seldom mentioned \\;thin the family, probably
becausc as one member speculated:
"1 suppose he felt bad about the eleven lives lost:' Although two, ifnOlthree, of
my ancestors perished on that vessel. there is no mention of it in family tradition.
Sometimes tragedy could be averted by the sharing bet\\ccn Labradorians and
Newfoundlanders of psychic experiences. George narrated a story his father had told him
about seeing one Sunday evening a phantom schooner thaI no one clse had scen.
So anyway he was sat down in the window the next Sunduy evening and
he seen the samc schooner coming through the Tickle. lie went out to
Uncle Albert and laid him, "There's the schooner now I seen last Sunday
coming though the Ticklc." The schooner came in .md anchored. The
skipl>cr and two or three more of them came ashore. And my father said to
them: "Did you pass lhrough the Icc Tickles here Inst Sunday?" The
skipper snid, "No, I never came lhrough here. I came on lip now", My
futher laid him, "j saw your schooner come through here Inst Sunday
evening handy about the same time:' "Well:' he said. "I dare say you did.
The night before I left home, my mother saw me stood up to her bedside
Wilh my oilcloths on. So for the reason that you saw l11e cOllle through last
Sunday and my mother saw me before -I was intcnding to go home
straight. I'm going to tum to shore. I'm not going to leave Isight oflandj
'" MUNFLA. ms.• 84-218.
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