The Icelandic Canadian - 01.03.1981, Side 39

THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
37
THE SUZANN "E"
by Thordis Thompson
The motor vessel Suzann “E” of Winni-
peg a fish packer of 84 gross tonnage, was
built in 1914 by Captain Ed. Nelson for the
Selkirk Fisheries, Limited. In May, 1965,
the ownership of this vessel was transferred
to the Booth Fisheries Canadian Company
Ltd., and she made regular trips out from
Selkirk during the fishing season.
The Suzann “E” left Selkirk September
24, 1965, at 10:40 A.M. on what was re-
garded as another routine voyage to points
on the shoreline of Lake Winnipeg under
excellent weather conditions. On board was
a crew of nine — Richard Johnson, master
or captain, Bjorgvin Holm, chief engineer,
Richard Zillman, second engineer, Clifford
Everett, mate, and four deck hands, Wil-
liam Potoski, Allan Clements, Ronald Cook
and Tache Everett. The ninth member of the
crew was the cook, Christine Settee, who
had worked on the boat for several sum-
mers. There was also one passenger, Peter
Goosehead. They were all happy on this
bright morning, after a weekend spent on
shore with their families and eager to be
away on more trips. There was no premoni-
tion that the only one who would live to see
another sunrise was the mate, Clifford
Everett.
The Suzann “E” was 71 feet in length
and 18 feet in width. She was lightly loaded
with empty fish boxes and some 20 oil bar-
rels which were stowed in the hold. On the
main deck was a steel fishing boat that was
being shipped to a northern fishing station.
This boat was a little longer than the beam of
the Suzann “E”, and to make room for it the
main deck hatchway to the hold was left
open. The loading door on the port midship
side was also left open. This was not re-
garded as hazardous and cargo had been
accommodated in this manner on other
occasions. In this instance it had tragic con-
sequences, as the open door and hatchway
created a wind-tunnel which caused the
freighter to capsize as it attempted to turn
about when caught in a violent gale later on
that day.
The first port of call was to have been
Berens’ River, approximately 140 miles
distant. Towards evening the wind began to
freshen from the northwest and by the time
the freighter reached the end of the lee area
of Grindstone Point the waves were increas-
ing in strength. With the freshening winds
came flakes of snow and lower temperature.
Shortly after Grindstone they met another
freighter, the J. R. Spears, proceeding
south. It was running with the wind and
encountered no serious trouble.
As the Suzann “E” continued north,
facing the gale, she was being pounded with
increasing violence. Some three or four
miles north of Grindstone Point the Captain
evidently decided to turn about and proceed
to the shelter of Gull Harbor on Hecla
Island.
At 6 P.M. Clifford Everett 24, had
handed over the wheel to Capt. Johnson,
whose shift would be from 6 P.M. to mid-
night, and Everett went to his bunk to rest
and to try to sleep. Two or three hours later
he was aroused by the unusual rolling of the
vessel. It seemed to him as if the Captain
was trying to turn the ship about, and was in
difficulties. He dressed quickly and went up
on deck to the wheelhouse. As he later testi-
fied at the official inquiry “just about this
time, everything happened”.
In a matter of seconds the ship was on its
side and he was struggling to keep from
being tossed into the water. The primary
cause, quoting from the subsequent inquiry,
was “the entry of water through the open