Extrait de The
History of Caraquet and Pokemouche by
William Francis Ganong
Ph.D., LL.D., F.R.S.C.
Historical Studies No.6
The New Brunswick Museum, Saint John
1948
While speaking of the natural
phenomena of Caraquet, we must not omit mention of another
that has recently aroused somewhat wide interest: the fire-ship.
Everybody in Caraquet has heard of it, and many claim to have
seen it. Stripped of all fancies, the stories seem to hold
a kernel of truth, tending to show that a curious light does
appear on the bay at times, especially before a storm, and
has a form which may be imagined into the shape of a burning
boat. Science, of course, will hear of no mysterious explanation,
but would hold that it is a natural phenomenon, probably electric,
somewhat like the Saint Elmo's fire seen at sea about the
masts of ships. It is all fully discussed from the scientific
view-point in the "Bulletin of the Natural History Society
of New Brunswick," Volume V, page 419.
...The information I have myself
been able to collect from those who have seen the light is
as follows. Of course I have sifted all testimony to the best
of my ability, eliminating all exaggerations and embellishments,
whether these be due to the habit of all humanity to make
a story as big and good as possible, or to the common tendency
to gull an impressionable stranger, or to mere ignorance,
superstition or mendacity.
Four years ago Captain Turner
of Riverside, Albert County, a clear-headed sea captain, told
me, in answer to my mention of the fire-ship as a freak of
the imagination, that he had himself seen it and hence knew
it to exist. Later on my first visit to Caraquet, I was told
by a lady in whose word I have absolute confidence, that her
attention was attracted one night by a light off Caraquet,
which looked so much like a vessel afire that she supposed
it to be one of her husband's schooners, and called in alarm,
only to find out that it was the fire-ship. A prominent resident
of Miscou, Mr. James Harper, told me he has seen it but once,
in the winter on the ice off Clifton. It was seemingly some
miles away and kept rising and falling, dying down to a very
small scarcely visible flame, then rising slowly into a column
"looking thirty feet high." It was not in the form
of a ship, but a column, but people told him it was the fire-ship.
He was told it preceded a storm, but he took notice that no
storm followed. Mr. Robert Wilson of Miscou, who sails much
on Bay Chaleur, tells me he has seen the fire-ship, (or as
he calls it, the "burning ship") several times.
The time he was nearest it was about eleven years ago off
Caraquet on a very dark night. The light appeared ahead, and
finally he came near and passed within one hundred yards to
windward of it, so that he saw it with perfect clearness.
It was somewhat the shape of a half-moon resting on the water,
flat side down, or like a vessel on the water with a bowsprit
but no masts, etc., and "all glowing like a hot coal."
He dared not run nearer and passed it, keeping his eyes upon
it until far beyond.
On other occasions he has seen
it, at various distances, and has come to pay little attention
to it. Sometimes it looked somewhat like a ship, sometimes
not, and sometimes it vanished while he was watching it. Usually
it is dancing or vibrating. Again he has seen it as one tail
light which would settle down and rise again as three, which
would again settle, and so on. Recently I have been told by
Dr. J. Orne Green of Boston, whose connection with Miscou
is mentioned below, that Mr. Wilson reports seeing the light
this (1905) autumn; it appeared ahead of his boat as he sailed
up the bay, vanished as he neared it, and in a few minutes
re-appeared astern. Mr. Andrew Wilson, another leading resident
of Miscou has also seen it, when it resembled a whaleboat,
not a ship, in form. Mr. McConnell, keeper of the light at
Miscou Gulley, tells me that he has seen the fire-ship, about
two miles away, but it did not look to him like a ship, but
more like a big bonfire. Several others have told me that
they have seen it, (the great majority of the residents in
the region averring that they have seen it at one time or
another), most of them agreeing that at times it looks like
a ship on fire, but that at other times more like a round
light. All agree that it usually precedes a storm, and is
seen over the ice in winter as well as over the water in summer.
On the other hand, other trustworthy residents of Miscou,
notably Mr. James Bruno and Mr. Ed. Vibert, both of whom sail
much on the bay, tell me they have never seen it, and do not
believe in its existence.
So much for local testimony.
But it receives confirmation from another source. For many
years past Dr. J. Orne Green of Boston, a Professor in the
Harvard Medical School, has spent several weeks on Miscou
and has taken a great interest in all that relates to the
region. He tells me that he has himself seen a light which
he was told was the fire-ship. Many years ago when running
at night towards Caraquet, he saw a fire off in the bay, and
called the attention of his companions to it, but finally
thought it must be a woods fire on the north side of the bay.
Reaching Caraquet, however, he found the people excited, because
they said the fire-ship was out in the bay. He told them of
his belief that it was a woods fire, but they declared this
could not be, because it had moved. The wind at the time was
gentle, from the south-west, but it was followed the next
day by a great northwester. His interest being thus aroused
Dr. Green, in later years, attempted to investigate the phenomenon.
He found that was reported not only in Bay Chaleur but also
in the Gulf of St. Lawrence as far south as Northumberland
Straits. He came to the conclusion that while the stories
were mostly exaggerated and distorted there was nevertheless
some basis for them in fact, and that there does occur in
this region some natural light of the general nature of "St.
Elmo's Fire," This was exactly the conclusion to which
I had come independently, as stated in this note when originally
read before this Society.
Grouping together all the evidence
it seems plain, -- first, that a physical light is frequently
seen over the waters of Bay Chaleur and vicinity; second,
that it occurs at all seasons, or at least in winter as well
as in summer; third, that it usually precedes a storm; fourth,
that its usual form is roughly hemispherical with the flat
side to the water, and that at times it simply glows without
much change of form, but that at other times it rises into
slender moving columns, giving rise to an appearance capable
of interpretation as the flaming rigging of a ship, its vibrating
and dancing movements increasing the illusion; fifth, its
origin is probably electrical, and it is very likely a phase
of the phenomenon known to sailors as St. Elmo's Fire...
W.F. Ganong.
Bulletin of Natural History Society of New Brunswick.
Vol V. page 419.
Université de Moncton,
Centre d'études acadiennes, Fonds Catherine-Jolicoeur,
63.022
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