72 Commercial

interesting account written by a traveller who made the trip to the Magdal-

ens on the Beaver?” There is only one regular route to the Magdalen Islands... by the little steamer, Beaver, which has seen many years of service, quite unfitted for passenger traffic...is to be replaced during present month by a large and well appointed vessel, the St. Olaf. It was 9 at night when we boarded the Beaver at Souris amid the clatter of the donkey engine and the unloading of freight. The little vessel lay, an uncanny black hulk, moving uneasily against the wharf’s edge...At Amherst (Island)...at 6 in the morning we watched the women come to the shore with bundles ofhalfcured cod on their backs. They spread their fish on flakes and then sat down on the beach to knit, later turning and guarding the drying fish...“

It must have been in 1898 that the Beaver was taken off the run to the Magdalens and replaced by the 8.8. St. Olaf. The replacement was running less than a year when she was lost at sea. The SS. Lunenburg, which then came into service, sank in 1901 with loss ofher owner, R. J. Leslie, and some of the crew. Captain Pride was found on a beach, barely alive, with his leg entangled in the tiller rope ofa lifeboat which washed ashore. He recovered only to face trial for yielding to pressure from the owner to make the voyage, knowing the weather to be hazardous. He lost his master’s license for two years but was kept on by the Company.

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Courtesy l’Ii-turen of the Past by leards

The Lady Sybil

The SS. Amelia ran for ten years, followed by the SS. Lady Sybil, 8.8. Enterprise, 8.8. Lady Evelyn, S.S. Champlain and 8.8 R. W. Hendry, all for short periods. Beginning in 1925, the S.S.Lovat ran for twenty years. It was renamed the SS. Magdalen when ownership changed hands.“