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humorous anecdote suggests, was only in order in the case of an elderly person,
particularly male:
When Skipper Ben died at 92, we were all sorry but no one was sad. I-Ie
had lived a long and fairly happy life and his death came as no surprise. Ii
was January, and on the day of his funeral, the wind blew half a gale.
The harbour ice was like polished glass, so they put Skipper Ben on a
catamaran slide with a reefed punt's sail spread to take advantage of the
fair wind which blew from the house on one side of the harbour to the
church on the other. The parson and the sexton were waiting in the church
porch, peering through the frosty window from time to time to see if the
funeral was coming. The sexton was the first to catch sight of the cortege
and burst into yells of laughter. Shocked at this unexpected and unseemly
behaviour the minister exclaimed: "William! William! What on eanh has
got into you? Remember where you are!"
"That's all right, Parson," said William, and slapping his thighs and
pointing to the window, he said through his laughter: "look! What a
surprise the Almighty be gain' to get when He sees old Skippcr BCll
comin' into port under double reefed canvas."1
The greatest sorrow was for those whose life prospect was interrup1ed before their
ambitions and responsibilities had becn achieved, especially young adults, spouses and
parents. Their wakes were sadly solemn: "All were saddened by the death of my father
(72) but all concluded that "he had led a good life, but the whole cOTllTllunity was
shocked by the death of my sister (35) who left six littlc children behind (she died by
accident)."2 Father O. testifies: "Now I never saw--and I'm 46 years a priest--I never
saw uncontrollable grief in my life. The only time--not for an ordinary death--nor for
people they knew were going to die--for unexpected deaths, yes."3
A fortiori, the death of those who were lost at sea and whose oodies were not
recovered was the "hardest." Local tradition did not leave people hopeless or, at the
least. unsatisfied that everything humanly possible had not been attempted:
To find the body of a drowned person: place a lighted candle in a loaf of
bread and pull it after the boat, when the candle goes out the body will be
found underneath.
1Sparkes 150. Elisabeth Greenleaf collected the well-known story locally of the corpse
wrapped and buried in sail for want of anything more suitable. The punehline, "I was just
thinking what the Lord will say when he sees mother coming under double-reefed
foresail," is easy to recognize here; inNewfoundland Summers, cd. R.D. Madison,
(Westerly, R.1.: Ullcr, 1982) 29.
2MUNFLA ms. 80-120, p. 50.
31\1UNFLA 87-159/CI2030.