ElderHostel Trip on The Fair Jeanne

September, !998

The STV (Sail Training Vessel) Fair Jeanne is 110 foot brigantine, a two masted vessel carrying square sails on the fore mast and fore and aft sails on the main mast. She was built in the late Captain T. G. Fuller's back yard, in Ottawa, between 1979 and 1982. In the fifteen years since that time she has sailed the oceans of the world, especially the Mediterranean and the Caribbean, and has logged over 130,000 nautical miles. Originally built as a private yacht, she has been operated by Bytown Brigantine as a sail training vessel since Captain Fuller's death in 1994. She now spends the summers on Lake Ontario and the winters in the Caribbean.

The Fair Jeanne spends the summer months on Lake Ontario with training and adventure programs for students. In September 1997 an elderhostel program was introduced with two one week programs of sailing. This year, in 1998, there were three one week elderhostel programs of sailing from Kingston on Lake Ontario. Pat and Dick went on the first one week cruise starting on Sunday September 6.

We arrived at the Fair Jeanne, docked beside the Holiday Inn in Kingston, at 5:00 PM Sunday where we were met by Gord Forth the ElderHostel leader for the trip. Pat went on board and Dick drove the car to the Marine Museum a few blocks away for parking.

Later we all walked to the Marine Museum for a tour and then enjoyed dinner in the adjacent tea room. We sat with Martin Stewart one of the young crew members. We found that he was a geology graduate and had recently been to Calgary looking for work and had talked to Mike Ware about employment in the oil and gas field. We later sent a message of recommendation for Martin to Mike.

When we were back on board we sat on the deck and talked to Eddy Weigl one of our co-passengers. We found out that he had taken many trips with Marine Expeditions including trips on the Kapitan Khlebnikof.

The next morning, Monday September 7, Pat and I were on the first watch. There were two watches, a red watch which was ours and a white watch, the watches changed every four hours. We had a tour of the ship then some of us climbed the rigging to get a feel for it.

We left the dock at 11:30 AM under engine power to another nearby dock for refueling. After refueling we headed for Picton. All the sails were set as soon as the ship was in open water. It was quite smooth sailing since we were in a fairly narrow channel between the islands. In the afternoon Pat and I helped with the dinner preparation. At about five PM some rain clouds appeared with the possibility of gusts of wind so the sails were quickly furled by the crew with some help from the hostellers. The ship was tied up at a fairly small dock in the narrow Picton Harbour.

Later in the evening we went for a walk with Samantha Fong through the picturesque town of Picton. Samantha was born in Hong Kong and worked at the General Hospital in Ottawa. She was under Elderhostel age but asked for special permission to come on the trip since she was so interested.

We all enjoyed a good night's sleep with the cooler temperature. Next morning we set sail to return to Kingston to pick up the cook. In the interim Kathryn Whittaker, the Executive Officer, was acting as cook. After some delay the ship was tied up at another dock near the Holiday Inn. The new cook, Noel Bullock, showed up a little later and we were soon off to Marysville on Wolfe Island. When coming in towards a small dock in shallow water near the Wolfe Island Ferry dock the ship bumped onto some shallow ground and the propellor could be heard banging on some rocks.

After dinner, all of the elderhostelers went ashore four at a time in a small boat to help lighten the ship. Some of us spent some time in the General Wolfe Hotel listening to David Pearce play some familiar old music on the grand piano. When we finally came back on board at about 11:30 PM ,the ship had been floated off and was anchored nearby for the night.

Next morning, Wednesday, we all enjoyed a somewhat later breakfast as the crew had slept late after spending much of the night working, or on anchor watch. Later in the morning there was some lessons in tying knots. Kathryn Wittaker did some diving to assess the damage to the propellor and the report was that there was minor damage. It was decided to return to Kingston to have some repairs made to the propellor if possible. On arriving in Kingston a scuba outfit was obtained and Kathryn Wittaker went underwater again with some tools and managed to do some minor repairs late in the afternoon. Access to the nearby marina showers was obtained for a much appreciated shower. Later in the evening Samantha, Pat and I went for a long walk in Kingston and saw some wonderful old buildings.

Thursday morning the ship set sail for Ganonoque through some of the thousand islands including the larger Howe Island. The weather was very nice and all sails were set for at least part of the trip. The next day the return trip took us south of Wolfe Island and in the afternoon we were in the main shipping channel. Since we were a possible danger to the large ships, it was interesting to hear them talk about us on the radio. It was quite rough out in the large area of the lake and some of us felt some motion sickness. Later in the afternoon the ship was anchored beside two islands in sight of Kingston.

This was Friday and the evening for the Naval Mess Dinner on board ship. Every one dressed for the occasion and we had been requested to perform in some manner after dinner. Gord Forth recited one of Robert Service long poems, Pat did her little skit called "When I was young boy on the farm" and I told the following story.

The Brigantine Hibernica and a Young Boy of Fifteen

This week we have heard much about the brigantine Fair Jeanne and we have had the priviledge of sailing on her. This is a story of another brigantine called the Hibernica.

The Hibernica was built in 1863 by James Henry in Shippagan, New Brunswick. She was 105 feet long,with a beam of 22 feet and weighed 165 tons. The Hibernica was owned by a Jersey Island firm called the Fruing Company that operated fish stands on the Baie Chaleur area of New Brunswick. This company traded codfish from the local fisherman and shipped salt cod back to Europe.

The Island of Jersey in the English Channel is 9 miles long and 5 miles wide. It is about 20 miles from the coast of France and the home of the well known Jersey cattle. The State of New Jersey was named after the Island of Jersey.

In 1888, a young boy of fifteen, who saw no future for himself in Jersey joined the Fruing Company as an indentured clerk and sailed to Canada on the Hibernica. The trip to Canada from Jersey would take about eighteen days and sometimes took a month. Over the next few years this young man sailed back to Jersey but returned each time to Canada. He later became the manager of the company store in Caraquet New Brunswick.

In 1904 this young man married a beautiful twenty one year old woman of Scottish descent whom he had known since she was twelve years old. This coat that I am wearing was part of the wedding suit of the groom. The wedding couple, of course, was my mother and father.