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In January 1976 this article appeared in the Monitor. It was written by Marie (Cullen) Peters of North Rustico, after interviewing her uncle J. Thomas Reid of North Road.
“Half a century ago our baseball team, the Hope River Pirates travelled considerable distances for competitive games with other community teams.
The occasion of a double-header with the Lennox Island team and the Grand River Team proved to be more than just a couple of baseball games. We could have made the journey by car but we knew that Captain F.D. Bennett, Stanley Bridge, was the proud owner of a new well- equipped fishing boat. He was only too pleased to be asked to make the journey.
Our party of about twenty included six young ladies and a large number of men as spectators. We boarded at about 7:00 a. m. The sun was red in the sky foretelling a hot day. The passen- gers could see their hopes for a perfect day about to come true.
One member of our jovial party remarked as we cut through the calm waters of New London Bay, “We are ready for any emergency for we have aboard a doctor, a lawyer, and a clergy-
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man.
We enjoyed the jokes without a thought of any danger lurking ahead. Our Craft left New London Harbour and began to cruise westward along the north shore of Prince Edward Island toward Malpeque bay. In the distance we could see fishing boats on the placid water. The day grew warmer and the invigorating salt air caused our spirits to soar It was to be a pleasant
cruise indeed.
A passenger chanced to ask Captain Bennett how long it would be before we entered Malpeque Bay. He replied that we had been in the bay for some time. Compared to familiar New London Bay, it was quite expansive. You could not see land on both sides at the same time.
After crossing Malpeque Bay we landed at the wharf on Lennox Island in good time, just before noon.
We were welcomed at the wharf. The Indian people helped us prepare a picnic. The girls capa— bly performed the task of arranging our picnic lunch on the ground. We did note that the Indian ladies seemed to hold back from us more than the gentlemen.
We did not give our food much time to digest. Immediately after eating we engaged in a well- matched game. We could not lose any time, for the team for Grand River awaited our arrival.
At the offset, the bilingualism of the Lennox Island team proved to their advantage. They understood all instruction shouted by our team mates. We did not know what the terse Micmac
phrases being shouted meant.
A number of Hope River Pirates were quickly caught ofl base. The game evened up when we became more cautious. I believe the game ended Hope River 24 Lennox Island I 9.
Captain Bennett had begun to look anxiously at the wispy markings in the sky, which he referred to as “mare’s tails”. Meanwhile, we had found another interesting diversion in the person of
Michael Thomas who had recently returned from running in the Boston Marathon. We persuad- ed him to show us the speed he would be running when he reached the five mile mark. Of course, someone wanted to have him demonstrate his speed at the ten mile mark of the race.
Captain Bennett thought we should be on our way to Grand River but we still had to see Mr. Thomas’ speed at the fifteen and twenty mile marks of the race. One person inquired about his
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