The Call of the Sea

Sailing away from home and facing harrowing experiences at sea at only nine years of age, was something my father had to face in make a living for himself and his mother, back in those early pioneer days of fishing. Sailing on schooners back then was a rugged way of life for a child of that age. For his Mother, it must have been a terrifying and heartbreaking one to endure. Father's life began on December 5,1871 in French River, Prince Edward Island. He was of Scottish decent, a son of Captain George MacLeod and his wife Margaret Helen (MacLeod) MacLeod. Captain George was lost with his schooner off Gloucester, Mass. USA leaving behind a wife, a mother, and two young sons, Wesley and William to face the hardships of those early years, to fend for themselves. Wesley in trying to provide food for the family was stricken with Tuberculosis and died in

his teen years. It was those tough times after his brother died that

William decided to become the bread winner for his mother and himself at so early an age. Leaving home as shipmate on a schooner, the sea, according to father, appealed to him as a lad. Possibly it was because all he ever heard were stories of the sea, and living so close to the fishing harbour it was a place to jump aboard the fishing vessels and have fun. His young life of trying to make a living for himself and his mother denied him