Events The Ice Boats For more than a century, the iceboats played an important part of the Island's history by providing a link with the mainland. These open dory type boats made daily trips to transport both mail and passengers from terminals at Cape Traverse , PEI and , NB. On good days, the trip normally took from two to five hours. January 27, 1885, was not to be one of those good days! On that day three iceboats set sail from Cape Traverse and encountered a storm three quarters of the way over. They eventually became lost in the blinding drift and freezing temperatures. They spent a day and a night on the stormy and icy strait before coming aground in Argyle Shore . They spotted a light off in the distance which led them to Granger and Christy MacPhail's farm. The twenty-two men (including seven passengers) from the ships were in very poor condition. One man suffered from snow blindness, manv suffered from frostbite and some eventually had to have body parts amputated. They had burnt everything but the mail to keep warm. The MacPhail family welcomed them into their two story log home and helped them all they could, nursing them until they could get them to the hospital in Charlottetown . It was said that Christy used every sheet and any piece of material they had in the house as bandages. Apparently as their clothes thawed, the kitchen became so wet that it had to be bailed out! 79