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From the Wheelhouse by Horace L Beaton Story of Great Lakes Captain: HL Beaton
From the Wheelhouse by Horace L Beaton
The story of a Great Lakes Captain: Horace L Beaton
Soft Cover Some spotting - see photos
79 pages
Copyright 1979
CONTENTS
Prologue
1 The Beginnings
2 Back to the Lakes
3 Captain at Last
4 Fire
5 About the Fire
6 The Fort York
7 The Fort Chambly
Epilogue
PROLOGUE
My father has always been a great storyteller, and the stories are best told when he is with other Great Lakes sailors. In such company, the drama and the humour of life on the ships is revealed in the most colourful language you can imagine.
My children, now teenagers, have been fascinated with their Grandfather Beaton. They are too young to remember most of the ships, but they liked his stories. Whenever the family got together, they would often ask, "Grandpa, tell us about the time ... ", and the captain would tell another familiar story, just the way he had told it many times before with all the appropriate dramatic action.
Gradually, it dawned on me that we were sharing in a living history of a very special part of Canada. The Great Lakes system is a unique chain of fresh water which allows shipping to and from the heart of the North American continent. The lakes have their own history - of early sailing days, shipwrecks, passenger boats, and giant ore and grain carriers. A lot has been written about the lore of the lakes and various shipping disasters, but little has been written by the men who sailed the Great Lakes ships. Why was that? Perhaps they didn't think of their jobs as all that important. Most of them regarded work on the ships as just another job. Their jobs, however, involved some danger and a great deal of skill.
My father's career began in one era and ended in another. He can remember old captains who could run certain parts of Georgian Bay in a thick fog without any navigation aids, and tell how far off shore they were by the smell of the cedar trees. He retired as master of a new fast ship with all the electronic navigation aids and diesel engines controlled directly from the wheelhouse. It was a ship that could almost run itself.
My attempts to gather my dad's stories by using a tape recorder and rewriting them met with frustration. Dad was intimidated by "that gadget" and I couldn't get him to talk into it with any sense of continuity. So, I asked him to write down all of the ships on which he sailed, and make note of any interesting events he could remember. Dad did so well on this that he filled two school scribblers, top to bottom, front to back. What follows is his story, just the way he wrote it, with some minor editing on grammar and the formulation of paragraphs and chapters.
I trust that "From the Wheelhouse, The Story of a Great Lakes Captain" will be interesting and enjoyable for all who read it.
Rev. Charles P. Beaton, B.A., B.D. Trinity United Church,Acton, OntarioApril, 1979.
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