Ted Drover: Ships Artist

Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

Mackinnon Drover, Sheilah, 1941-, author

Ted Drover : ships artist / Sheilah Mackinnon Drover.

Includes bibliographical references.

Issued in print and electronic formats.

ISBN 978-1-77117-436-7 (softcover).--ISBN 978-1-77117-437-4 (EPUB).--

ISBN 978-1-77117-438-1 (Kindle).--ISBN 978-1-77117-439-8 (PDF)

1. Drover, Ted. 2. Ships in art. 3. Ships--Newfoundland and

Labrador--History. 4. Drawing, Canadian--Newfoundland and

Labrador-- 20th century. I. Title.

NC143.D78D76 2018 741.971 C2018-900762-1

C2018-900763-X

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

© 2018 by Sheilah Mackinnon Drover

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

Illustrated by Ted Drover

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

www.flankerpress.com

9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

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, Industry and Innovation for our publishing activities. We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts, which last year invested $157 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 157 millions de dollars pour mettre de l’art dans la vie des Canadiennes et des Canadiens de tout le pays.

DEDICATION

To Ted Drover, Newfoundland artist and mariner, and Jessie (Troake) Drover, a pillar of strength and wisdom and his support through the years.

To my husband, John Drover, whose willingness to share his knowledge of ships and things nautical and to answer my hundreds of questions helped bring this book to fruition.

CONTENTS

PREFACE

FOREWORD by Gerald Squires

INTRODUCTION Sea Breaking on Rocks

ANCIENT SHIPS: Original Ships’ Drawings Owned by Captain Mark Turner

Early Development of Ships

The Roman Grain Ship: AD 0–300

Mediterranean Grain Ship: 13th Century

Niña and Santa María: Ships of Christopher Columbus

British Merchantman: Early 17th Century—Piracy and Obstacles to Early Settlement

East Indiaman: Late 18th Century—Opening the East to Travel and Trade

SAILING VESSELS

Schooner Entering the Narrows: The Narrows and Its Importance in Newfoundland History

Ketch Seabird: From Royal Yacht Club to Newfoundland Coastal Freighter

Mermaid (1856–1915): The Whiteley Family of Bonne Espérance, Labrador and Newfoundland

Grand Bank Fishing Schooner: An Open Letter to His Excellence the Governor, 1924

Schooners and Icebergs c. 1890–1900: Fishing on the Labrador

Schooner: Close Hauled Around Mother Burke

Wing and Wing: Near Mother Burke, Cape John

The Development of the Fisheries and The Role of Women and Girls in it from the 1800

s

until the 1950

s

Women’s Work: Grand Bank Schooner c. 1890—The men catch it and the women make it.

Older-Type Schooner: Stationers—Young Girls in Fishery: Grandmother Cranford’s Story

Labrador Fishing Schooners with Boats in Tow: Floaters and Life Aboard the Schooner

Typical Banker c. 1900: The Beachwomen of Grand Bank

Typical Schooner with Trap Skiff in Tow—Women’s Work at Home: More Than Fifty Per Cent

E. J. Reddy: Six-Dory Banking Schooner

Wabby: Arthur Scammell Records Memories of Fishermen on Change Islands

Shirley C.: Movie Star with Gregory Peck as Her Captain

Annie Smith: Little Bay Islands and James Strong Ltd.

Effie M. Morrissey: Vessel with a Long History—Captain Bob Bartlett: Arctic Expeditions

John W. Miller, Tern Schooner: Lost During Christmas Season, 1930

Olive Moore, Tern Schooner: Transporting Salt from Spain in 1920 and by Freighter 1960

Sidney Smith: Three-Masted Topsail Schooner—Western Ocean Yacht from Wales

Lone Flier at the Seal Hunt: Twillingate Businesses in the 1900s

Bluenose and Another Banker: From Champion Racer to Freighter and Her Role in WWII

Sherman Zwicker: Auxiliary Schooner and Knockabout

Norma & Gladys: From Knockabout to Ambassador—From Freighter to Talk of the Town

Schooner with SS Daisy

Brigantine Trusty: John Munn of Harbour Grace—Forward Thinker and Entrepreneur

MOTOR VESSELS

MV Jessie Cull: Ted Drover’s Charter Boat

MV Topsail Star

MV Clarenville: First of the Splinter Fleet Launched from the New Shipyard

Rocks with MV Clarenville: The Fate of the Fleet

MV Bonavista

MV Hopedale/Taverner: Labrador in Summer—South Coast in Winter

STEAMSHIPS

SS D. P. Ingraham towing Jean and Mary (1864–1921): Multi-Purpose Tug D. P. Ingraham Faces Tragedy at Sea

SS Vanguard and SS Leopard in Ice: Wooden-Walled Steamers at the Hunt

SS Leopard in Loose Ice: Lucky Escape for Crew

SS Aurora and SS Vanguard: The Hunt Remembered in Song

SS Neptune: Important Ship in Canadian History—Champion of Wooden Walls at the Hunt and Canadian Expedition Ship

SS Lady Glover: Freighter, Passenger, and Party Boat

SS Plover/SS Curlew: Bishop Mullock’s Role in Advancing Communications

The Alphabet Fleet: SS Bruce to SS Meigle—An Introduction to Reid’s Yachts

SS Bruce (1897–1911): The Bruce and the Railway, Connected to Canada

SS Clyde (1900–1951): The Clyde and Botwood’s Role in WWII

SS Glencoe (1899–1959): Navigation Aids—Swinging the Compass

SS Kyle (1913–1967): Relic with a Rich History

SS Meigle (1881–1947): The Many Lives of the SS Meigle

SS Virginia Lake (1882–1909): Lifelines—Coastal Boats and Newspapers

SS Terra Nova (1884–1943): Whaler, Sealer, Arctic and Antarctic Explorer, and Coastal Boat

SS Fiona (1886–1921): Judge D. W. Prowse as Commander of a Fleet

SS Portia/SS Prospero: Captain Abram Kean—Revered or Reviled

SS Daisy (1912–1957): Customs and Revenue Cutter—Her Role After the Tsunami, 1929

SS Sagona (1912-1945): Coastal Boat, Sealer—Her Connection with the Viking Disaster

SS Silva: 1924, sold 1946. Whaling in Newfoundland—Late 1400s to 1972

Fisheries Research in Newfoundland in the 1930

s

Research Banker: Democracy—Thomas Henry Huxley speaks at International Fisheries Exhibition, 1883, Honourable Ambrose Shea and William H. Whiteley in Attendance

Banker Broadside with RV Cape Agulhas: Research out of Bay Bulls Research Station 1930–1935

SS Northern Ranger (1936–1967): Corner Brook–St. John’s and Return—Longest Run for Coastal Boat

SS Burgeo/SS Baccalieu (1948–1974): Danger from U-Boat Torpedoes During WWII

SS Bar Haven/SS Springdale (1948–1974): The Vagaries of Winter Travel—Everyone Had a Story

Ferries

SS Caribou (1925–1942): War on Our Doorstep—Caribou and Ships at Bell Island Sunk

SS Cabot Strait (1947–1974): Queen of the Gulf with Elegant Flared Bow and Cruiser Stern

REFERENCES

Acknowledgements

Artist’s Biography: Ted Drover (1907–1980)

Glossary

Notes Related to Text

Web References: Numbered in Text

Bibliography and Other Reference Sources

Author’s Biography

Drover Print Inventory held by the Provincial Museum

PREFACE

This is my book, yet it is not my book.

My purpose in publishing it is to compile, in an easily accessible format, the artistic work of Ted Drover. His personal papers indicate that it had been his intention to publish a book of seagoing crafts engaged in the fishery and general commerce of the island of Newfoundland and Labrador . . . starting with wind-powered ships and developing through sailing ships with auxiliary power to ships powered with steam and internal combustion.

His works of art are the authentic depiction of the vessels which plied the waters around this island and beyond, connecting place to place, and people to each other and to the larger world. They represent a lifestyle which has all but disappeared. More than thirty of these pieces were donated to the Province of Newfoundland and Labrador by the artist and are held at The Rooms. Although they are rarely on display for public viewing, they are accessible to researchers for study and are featured here courtesy of The Rooms.

It was not my intention to write a story. The artist’s works tell their own story and are a pictorial maritime history of Newfoundland and Labrador. What I have tried to do, in addition to giving specific information about the vessels, is to put each of the drawings into a context of the life and times of our ancestors, thus bringing our history to life through words and art. This book, which I hope is the first of two, focuses specifically on the ships with little extraneous information. The second book will feature the vessels as well as other relevant drawings of the sea and photographs with accompanying text which will give a partial social history from earliest settlement. By researching scholarly writings and using information gleaned from them as well as a variety of eclectic material such as stories, poems, anecdotes, and family histories, I hope to touch my readers in a personal way. Information sources are acknowledged elsewhere. The drawings are presented more or less in chronological order. Since each entry is a stand-alone, some information can be found in more than one entry where I felt it was needed for clarity.

The history of settlement in Newfoundland goes back many centuries, and the one thing that has been constant throughout our history is our connection to the sea. Excellent books have been written on the subject of Newfoundland and Labrador’s history and her people, many of which I have referenced and most can be found at local libraries. The periods with which I have dealt have been dictated by the drawings.

In the words of E. Keble Chatterton in 1909, quoting the curator of a naval museum who had just completely, accurately, and painstakingly restored a ship’s model, Now it will be possible for those who come after us to tell exactly how a sailing ship was rigged; in a few years’ time there won’t be a man alive who will know how to do it.

p.1

It was from a desire to preserve the past that Chatterton wrote his book; and I publish this book with that same desire—to preserve an important part of Newfoundland and Labrador’s maritime history represented by Ted Drover’s drawings, and to make more widely available to the public the work of an exceptionally talented Newfoundland artist.

Sheilah Mackinnon Drover

FOREWORD

Memorable Encounter with Ted Drover

The first time I ever heard the name Ted Drover I was living in an old grey house in Shoal Brook on the sandy shores and dark waters of Bonne Bay, Newfoundland.

My family and I had just moved back from the mainland where I hoped to be able to paint and try to survive as best I could.

We had few friends, but the ones we did have were constant visitors, doing whatever they could to make living a little bit easier for us.

One of our constant visitors was Knute Fosnaes, a Norwegian who travelled the west coast of the province for the Newfoundland Telephone Company.

Before I decided to return to Newfoundland, I had started a series of paintings titled The Wanderer, which I exhibited at the Picture Loan Gallery on Toronto’s Yonge Street. After that exhibition the paintings were crated and shipped to the Arts and Culture Centre for my first one-man show in Newfoundland. Plans were made for me to arrive in St. John’s a few days before the exhibition, and of course be there for opening night.

I told my friend Knute about my plan. Right away he insisted that I should meet with an old friend of his—sailor, painter [graphic artist], curator of the Newfoundland Nautical Museum, and a true Newfoundland icon! Don’t forget, he said, when you knock on his office door, make sure you have a flask of rum; it’s your entrance fee to his studio.

When I arrived at the Arts and Culture Centre, my paintings were already hanging on the walls of the second-floor gallery. I noticed that my name did not appear as yet; no more were the labels and titles put in place beside each painting. All these details would be in place for the opening in a few days.

I had lived with these paintings for over two years. Now, seeing these works—heavily textured images of single abstract figures against a stark and forbidding landscape—hanging impersonally in this gallery of bright white walls and startling red carpet, far removed from the intimacy of their creation, was unsettling.

Reluctantly, I knocked on Ted Drover’s door. At first, nothing, not a sound. I felt kind of relieved, as I am not good at meeting people for the first time. Especially those I’d already imagined and formed an opinion of.

The door opened slowly at first, then wide, then a voice: Ah, you must be Gerry Squires, please come in, I was expecting you. Knute phoned a few days ago to warn me, he chuckled.

I showed him the rum, glassware was produced, and talk began.

We had quite a bit in common, especially Notre Dame Bay, its people and places. I was born in Change Islands, and Ted was born in Green’s Harbour, Trinity Bay, and knew Notre Dame Bay very well as he had in fact sailed most, if not all, of the coastal communities of Newfoundland. [Ted was born in St. John’s. His roots, on his father’s side, were in Green’s Harbour.]

He showed me through his drawings of sailing ships and coastal vessels. Looking at them I was amazed at his knowledge of our sailing vessels and their history. I admired his great abilities to create such subtle detail using only charcoal [pencil]. As the afternoon moved along we talked about Newfoundland arts and how they are so underfunded, ignored, and unrecognized, ships and art, and the rugged beauty of our country, and how lucky we were as artists to have at our disposal this rare and magnificent landscape.

After a very pleasant but exhausting afternoon it was time to go, as he had a taxi waiting for him daily at around 4:30, so he closed the office, and we walked together, passing the gallery where my exhibition was installed.

Just a minute, he said, pulling me into the second-floor gallery. I want to show something.

He raised his cane and started shouting, You see, this is what we’ve been talking about! This is the kind of crap they are sending down from the mainland these days! He then walked down the stairs and out the gallery door!

I was stunned! There was no evidence to show, and I couldn’t be sure, but I sensed he knew these works were mine!

It was the last and only time I ever saw him. That was 1968.

In 1984, the Newfoundland Arts Council was formed. To honour Newfoundland artists of the past, the Council decided to name the Arts’ Council Awards after them.

The Awards were presented at a gala event in the LSPU Hall. It was a milestone event for the arts in Newfoundland.

That year,

Dr. Cyril Poole won the Ted Russell Award for humour;

Percy Janes won the Lydia Campbell Award for writing;

Andy Jones won the Neala Griffen Award for acting;

Figgy Duff won the Johnny Burke Award for music;

And I won the Ted Drover Award for Achievement in the Visual Arts.

Gerald Squires

INTRODUCTION

Who among us is not fascinated by waves as they break on the shore? There is something mesmerizing about the movement of water. Its rhythms have an almost hypnotic effect on us. We can become lost in our own world of plans, hopes, joys, and sorrows. It is said that the sea is made of mothers’ tears.

Newfoundlanders know, better than most, how quickly tragedy can strike. The sea has many moods, and very few Newfoundland families have not been affected by disasters at sea. No prose can describe the effect of the sea on the face of the earth, or on the face and the life of a woman, as succinctly and as effectively as this poem by E. J. Pratt.

Collected Poems. p.37

EROSION

It took the sea a thousand years,

A thousand years to trace

The granite features of this cliff,

In crag and scarp and base.

It took the sea an hour one night,

An hour of storm to place

The sculpture of these granite seams

Upon a woman’s face.

The drawings in this book are a representative sample of ships from the early days of sail to motor vessels, and most are of boats which served Newfoundland during the 1800 and 1900s.

The first five drawings of ships were hung as part of The History of Shipping installation in the main entrance hallway of the Fisheries College when it was housed in the former Parade Street campus of Memorial University. They are currently owned by Captain Mark Turner and used courtesy of him. We are very grateful to him for their preservation.

Ancient Ships

Original Ships’ Drawings owned by

Captain Mark Turner

Early Development of Ships

That which we call our culture and our heritage derives in no small measure from our intimate association with the sea through centuries past. Our life-styles, our community and family values, our society, our art, our music, our letters, all that we are, . . . we carry the sea in our blood and in every cell of our bodies.

— Leslie Harris, in foreword to How Deep is the Ocean?

1997. p.xii

Boats have been a part of life from the earliest days of mankind. We have no way of knowing exactly what the very first boat was like. Perhaps it was a log used on a river to move a person downstream like the dugout canoes of today. The design of today’s boats has evolved over the centuries.

To look at the development of ships and shipping, both Chatterton and Landstrom agree that we must start in Mesopotamia, considered to be the birthplace of civilization. Babylonia was one of its nation states on the huge delta between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. Babylonians moved from there to the Nile and brought with them their knowledge of boat building. A vase-like container from the Pre-Dynastic period of about 6000 BC found in Upper Egypt and attributed to the Babylonians showed a vessel with curved hull, high bow, and with what appears to be a mast and square sail.

Chatterton. p.21

There is very little information about the boats of Babylonia, but they had a great influence on the Egyptians, and we trace development of shipbuilding from them. The Egyptians sent boats out over the Mediterranean to Syria and Crete before 3000 BC, and hieroglyphics on the Palermo Stone tell us that Pharaoh Sneferu, c. 2613–c. 2589 BC, sent 40 ships to Byblos in Phoenicia to buy cedar for building of ships which were about 150 feet long constructed of cedar, pine, and other woods.

The shipping and trade history of this region is very rich. It included many city states bordering the sea such as Egypt, Sicilia, Rome, Greece, and Canaan, which comprises present-day Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Israel, and Palestine. We see Greek references to the Phoenicians–which is reference to Canaanites–whose influence was pervasive in ancient times and affects us today.

They were masters in the art of navigation, discovering and using the North Star to keep bearings at sea. They were the first to sail around Africa in about the first millennium BC, long before the sailors of Portugal. They developed trade routes to Western Asia and to Africa and traded extensively in the region. One of their many exports was wood; pine and cedar were sent primarily from Lebanon. Lebanese cedar was prized for shipbuilding for many reasons. It could be easily shaped and worked and had minimal shrinkage. Cedar also resisted decay in salt water better than most other woods. The hull planking of a 14th-century BC ship discovered in 1982 off Turkey was of Lebanese cedar. The wreck contained precious metals, ebony, ivory, and jewels.

In 1997, while searching for a sunken Israeli submarine, the US Navy located the wrecks of two eighth-century BC Phoenician vessels approximately 52 feet long and 25 feet wide with a large cargo of wine in amphorae. A good description of these ships can be found in the Old Testament of the Bible with reference to the city of Tyre.

Ezekiel 27: 2–7 . . . sing this sad dirge for Tyre: O mighty seaport city, merchant center of the world, . . . You have extended your boundaries out into the sea; your architects have made you glorious. You are like a ship built of the finest fir from Senir. They took a cedar from Lebanon to make a mast for you. They made your oars of oaks from Bashan. The walls of your cabin