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Page 2, News, Tuesday, May 21, 1991 Chris Reid Chris Reid will be contributing the occasional column to the News. Chris grew up in Schreiber and recently returned to this area. He has been working as a maintenance engineer at the Kimberly-Clark mill since last September. Well, once again I sit back in my favourite chair, pondering yet another senseless bureaucratic decision by some faceless voice from the great Canadian nerve centre, Ottawa. The only thing that surprises me this time is the fact that I'm not yet completely jaded by the continuing insensitivity of our duly appointed policy makers (and enforcers). You'd think I'd be used to it. Through four years of university I wallowed in the administrative quagmire of trying to secure a much needed student loan while I watched my definitely less needy fellow students blow their government "fun" money at the campus pubs. I shook with injustice as the lumbering "system" topped off full coffers and slammed the future on truly needy cases because of archaic requirement standards. Now, once again, the idiocy of government bureaucracy, manifested as the dysfunctional "system", has reared its ugly head. A few years ago, a friend of mine came to Canada from Germany for a visit. She was so impressed by the country and its people that she decided to try to get her teaching degree here with the hope of being able to live and work in Canada. I was at the time, of Voices with no faces course, completely unaware of the backwardness of the current immigration policies, and offered her all the encouragement I could. To see someone else pin her hopes on a country I always took for granted was enough for me to take a new pride in the old Canadian frontier. So, a couple of years ago, my friend uprooted and moved to Canada to begin a new life. In _ spite the current administration, my new-found Canadian vigor did not wane. It was fun to see the old homeland through the colored glasses of a foreigner's perspective. We travelled together to Ottawa, the dignified offspring of the muddy logging town, Bytown, where over a hundred years ago, it was ordained by royal decree to become the capital of the new dominion. Then, onward up the mighty St. Lawrence we went, through cosmopolitan Montreal and on to historic Quebec City, where the echoes of the cannons from great battles of the Abraham Plains can still be heard. I was in the throes of a Canadiana renaissance as my friend marvelled at the vast spaces of magnificent hinterland and the friendly character of the towns and villages. Since then, she has survived Winnipeg winters and Northern Ontario summers, played baseball in a swarm of blackflies, and has ridden on the once eloquent Canadian, the pre-Mulroney cross continent Via Rail service. She Continued on page 11 of Awesome acrobatics The Tear family of Terrace Bay took advantage of the wind late In the afternoon on Mother's Day to get in some kite flying at the beach. I've been sitting on this story for over a year and a half, waiting for an official public explanation. Since none seems to be forthcoming, it's time for the lid to come off. Someone has to start asking questions in public about the death on August 12, 1989 of Reginald Barrett, from Brampton. Barrett died while diving in 300 feet of frigid Lake Superior water, examining the wreck of the Gunilda on McGarvey Shoal, off shore from Rossport. No inquest has been held into Barrett's death, even though statements given to the OPP raise questions that only an inquest can answer. The only official explanation that's ever been given for there no inquest being called is that Barrett's widow has requested there not be one. As far as I'm concerned, that's no longer a good enough reason. There are too many unanswered questions of public interest and possible wrong doing surrounding this death. This story begins nearly 80 years ago, when The Gunilda sank in August of 1911. It belonged to William Lamont Harkness, one of the sons of Steven V. Harkness, a co-founder (with John D. Rockefeller) of the Standard Oil company. Harkness managed the family's multi-million dollar Be cctmante and had enouch time left Mysterious over to indulge his fancy for very posh steamships. He owned the Gunilda. His brother Charles owned the Agawa , and his other brother Lamon the Wakiva. All three ships were noted on the Lloyd's of London registry as being the finest of their time - built at the prestigious Scottish shipyards in Leith - with solid steel hulls, with state-of- the-art coal-fired steam plants. All three were in excess of 185 feet in The rich. man's decision was a classic case of being penny wise and pound foolish. Captain Corkum successfully turned the Gunilda into Schreiber Channel, around a dangerous reef that was marked on the American charts off Copper Island, called Bread Rock. The American charts however did not mark McGarvey Shoal, a peak of granite that rises suddenly from 300 feet and is covered by only four feet of length, water, not requiring NORTHERN far from professional INSIGHTS Bread Rock. officers and ---- Thinking all large crews. by Larry Senders was Clear In August ahead after of 1911, William Harkness ordered his captain to sail the Gunilda into Nipigon Bay from the south. Captain Alexander Corkum was reluctant to do that without a local pilot at the helm. The Americans had only U.S. charts on board, and Captain Corkum was worried there might be treacherous shoals that only local fishermen would know about. At Port Coldwell, their last port of call before heading north, Captain Corkum elicited an offer from a local pilot, Donald Murray, to pilot the Gunilda into Nipigon Bay and Rossport Harbour for the princely sum of fifteen dollars. Harkness angrily rejected the offer, claiming the price was outrageous. t he See oe turning past Bread Rock, Captain Corkum ordered the Gunilda to go "full speed ahead". Minutes later, the 385 ton steamer rammed McGarvey Shoal at such a speed, it managed to come to a stop two-thirds of the way up on the submerged granite, with only a small portion of its stern section tilted down in deeper water. Harkness took his family off the Gunilda in a skiff and went by train from Rossport to Port Arthur. He arranged a salvage crew, and ordered them to pull the Gunilda off backwards - again, in a foolish attempt to save money. The experienced salvage crew suggested sending to Port "Arthur for*two more tugs, so the © death on Lake Superior Gunilda's stem could be held upright during the tow, in case it started to list. Harkness thought the salvagers were only trying to fleece him for more money, and ordered the crew to pull the Gunilda off backwards. "She went on forwards, she'll come off backwards," Harkness is reported to have said. The salvagers were right. As the tugs pulled backwards, the Gunilda started to list badly, taking on water. As the stem grew heavier, it pulled the rest of the steamer quickly into deeper water. It sank in minutes, leaving only a few deck chairs and lorries floating in some bubbles. Various efforts since then have been made to dive the wreck and salvage what is reported to be two and half million dollars worth of jewelry and other valuables in Harkness's safe. But diving in 300 feet of dark, frigid Lake Superior water is very treacherous. On August 9, 1970 the Gunilda claimed the life of Charles "King" Haig, reported to be the best scuba diver in Thunder Bay. Haig's body was never recovered. His widow told divers to stop looking for the body, claiming her husband "always wanted to die diving a wreck." Other divers before and since have suffered bad cases of "the bends", a serious injury suffered from unsafely a i continued on page.12. : Pa oe