sail May 21, 1849, if sufficient freight and passengers could be obtained. John McLeod, master of the schooner Catherine, com- plained about the lack of a buoy at St. Peter’s harbour bar in the following November. E. L. Lydiard had set up a yard at Fyfe’s Ferry, where he was soon to be responsible for getting Stanley Bridge built. His schooner Alpha sailed for Liverpool on October 28, 1850, with timber, deals and spars. The Delta, another Lydiard schooner, 127 tons, was launched October 14, 1853. Mr. Morrison’s schooner, loaded with oats, etc., struck on Western shoal, New London Harbour, While attempting to go out the evening previous to the September gale of 1853. The schooner Margaret from Shippegan, N.B., was driven on shore on the east side of the har- bour in 1853. The cargo was salvaged and advertised for sale. Three to five hundred American sail visited Island waters annually at this period. The great “Yankee Gale” of October 4, 1851, wrought havoc among them. A contemporary newspaper recorded:

A person now in from New London asserts that the loss of life must exceed 300 . . . He says he saw upwards of 30 sail ashore in Malpeque harbour, huddled down to- wards the head of the bay, almost one upon the other.

As the New London Mission was vacant at the time no record of the tragedy can be read in the register of burials, but the news- paper tells that James Pidgeon buried three bodies which were washed ashore.

Community affairs appear occasionally in the press. In 1830 William Hall Profitt was appointed Constable of New London; James Pidgeon was appointed Surveyor and Landwaiter; Miss Eliza Campbell, 49, died at Park Corner. In 1831 the Campbellton estate of Duncan McEwen was being administered by J. McEwen of New London and William Clark of Darnley. In the same year Henry B. Loggie, schoolmaster, and Patrick Quirk a cooper, were drowned, In 1832 in Lot 20 Alexander Cousins and John Millman were fence viewers, Michael Ready and David Cousins were con- stables, George Campbell of New London was collector of Customs and Excise. In 1835 David Johnston offered his Long River mills for sale. Mrs. William McKay and infant died in a snowstorm on March 17 of the same year. In August 1835 William Cousins offered for sale a property then occupied by John Bowes, consist- ing of a storeshop, dwelling house and cellar, and 71 acres of land. It was advertised as the best situation on the harbour for a mer- cantile or fishing establishment. A vessel of fifty tons could load within forty yards of the shore. John Joseph Artman Betture, 107, died at New London in 1841. He had been present at the taking of Quebec in 1759. The Reverend Edward Pidgeon, former min— ister of the old Presbyterian Church, died in September, 1843. His grandsons, George and Leslie, gained prominence in the United Church of Canada in the present century. H aszard’s Gazette, J anu- ary 4, 1853, has the following notice: .

Died at New London, on the 18th December last, Mr. Francis Pillman, in the eighty-sixth year of his age, gen-

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