Ships & the Strait

Asadalia — 5 November 1827

Asadalia is the earliest documented shipwreck in this exhibit. On 10 December 1827, The Standard of London printed a short notice in ‘Ship News — By This Day’s Post’ on page 3:

‘The Asadalia, from Liverpool, was lost on Pictou Island, on the 5th ult.’

‘Ult.’ means the previous month: the notice reports a loss on 5 November 1827. The notice says the vessel came from Liverpool and was lost on Pictou Island.

Local fishermen associate the wreck with Asadalia Reef southwest of the East End breakwater. The newspaper records the Island loss; the reef’s name and more specific location are preserved through local knowledge.

Known from shore and water

Asadalia Reef lies southwest of the East End breakwater. Islanders describe a reef visible from shore and familiar to people who travel these waters by boat. Fishermen know to keep clear of it, particularly at low tide.

The reef’s name lives on in local knowledge of the shore and sea. It is separate from East End Reef and the Seal Rock locality beyond the Island’s northern tip.

The remembered shipwreck

Local accounts associate Asadalia Reef with a shipwreck remembered as Asadalia. The reef and the wreck story remain familiar to former Island fishermen, connecting maritime history with a hazard that people still recognize today.

Local accounts recorded in September 2026 include recollections from former fishermen Ron MacDonald, Darrell Rankin and Almer MacDonald. Darrell described the reef and its wreck association; the other accounts corroborated familiarity with both. A local account identified the locality as southwest of the breakwater.

These local accounts connect the reef with the shipwreck. The newspaper notice records Asadalia’s loss at Pictou Island in 1827.

A name carried forward

According to Darrell Rankin, his son, Jason Rankin, named Asadalia Fisheries in honour of the reef and shipwreck’s history. The name carries that maritime memory into a later generation of the fishing family.

A 2021 Fisheries and Aquaculture Loan Board profile identifies Jason with Asadalia Fisheries Ltd. and shows Jason and his father, Darrell, fishing together off Pictou Island’s East End. The explanation of the company’s name is attributed to Darrell’s account.

Locating the reef

The map marks the reef’s approximate location southwest of the breakwater. It does not show the reef’s surveyed extent, the wreck’s position on the seabed or a safe passage. No particular wreck remains have been identified here.

A regular route into bad weather

The Fairy Queen was a mail and passenger steamer serving routes that included Charlottetown and Pictou. An advertisement published in the summer of 1853 shows the vessel scheduled for Pictou twice a week, evidence that the crossing was part of an ordinary transportation network rather than an exceptional voyage.

On Friday, 7 October 1853, the steamer left Charlottetown for Pictou in poor weather. Duncan Campbell’s 1875 History of Prince Edward Island records that, after the vessel passed Point Prim, heavy seas damaged the gangways. Near Pictou Island the tiller rope broke, leaving the vessel difficult to control.

Passengers help—then the ship breaks apart

Passengers helped splice the tiller rope, but the steamer continued to make little progress. Campbell records that the captain and some crew left in a boat. After repeated heavy seas, part of the upper deck separated from the vessel and became an improvised raft for a group of survivors.

Among those who survived on the detached deck were Martin I. Wilkins of Pictou, Edward Lydiard and Mr. Pineo. Campbell says they eventually reached the north side of Merigomish Island after hours exposed to the storm and cold. Campbell’s later account implies seven deaths, but other surviving sources give different totals. The total number of deaths remains uncertain.

Confusion in the first reports

A Royal Gazette telegraphic dispatch printed on 10 October initially named Wilkins, Pineo and Lydiard among the lost. A second dispatch printed immediately afterward listed all three among those saved. The report acknowledged uncertainty and indicated that a formal inquiry would follow.

Accounts differ on how many people died. Campbell’s later account implies seven deaths, while James F. Smith’s 1973 history lists six passengers and four crew. A contemporary Public Ledger reprint gives several other figures as news of the disaster unfolded.

The inquiry and conflicting casualty records

James F. Smith’s 1973 history draws on newspaper accounts of an inquiry by a Pictou magistrate and a manslaughter charge brought by a grand jury on 28 October. Smith could not find the final outcome of the case. His list of ten people drowned differs from Campbell’s account of seven.

The Public Ledger reprinted an early Halifax Colonist report: its headline said eleven were presumed drowned, its list named seven people still missing, and an adjoining editorial mentioned nine deaths. These were uncertain early reports; someone reported missing was not necessarily confirmed dead. The reprint says the captain and crew were arrested, but does not give a verdict.

Why this belongs in Island history

The Fairy Queen was not owned on Pictou Island, but it travelled the waters connecting the Island, Prince Edward Island and the mainland. The disaster also became part of Maritime folklore, where stories grew around the wreck.

Grounded at East Point

The Inveralt was a British steamship of 841 tons, registered at Liverpool. A contemporary Canadian government report states that, while travelling from Montreal to Pictou, the vessel went aground on the East Point of Pictou Island on 4 August 1884. The night was described as very thick and foggy.

The investigation found that because the master did not know the locality, he should not have continued in thick weather without a pilot. Several attempts by a wrecking company to free the steamer were unsuccessful.

Eight men die during the salvage

James W. Hogg acquired the salvage rights, and work continued into November. On 15 November 1884, eleven wreckers tried to come ashore in a lifeboat during a northerly gale. The boat overturned on the reef and eight men died.

The clipping reports eight deaths, but its closing list appears to contain nine names. The list therefore cannot be treated as a confirmed roll of those lost. The older Hugh MacFarlane of Pictou Island (c.1859/60–15 November 1884) was among those lost. Lewis Lawrence had been an Island resident and had married into the Patterson family. The loss affected Island families as well as the men working at the wreck. Contemporary reporting dated 16 November says the disaster occurred ‘yesterday,’ and the federal recognition record gives the service date as 15 November 1884. These contemporary records point to 15 November; MacCallum’s later account gives 17 November.

Island boats answer the emergency

William Allard first put out alone in a small dory but lost an oar. James Currie and another Islander then launched a larger boat and reached the overturned lifeboat. A second Island party led by James Hogg pursued the boats in an open sailboat.

Survivors and rescuers were carried away from the Island by the gale; the rescue party ultimately reached the mainland and the lifeboat crew landed at Big Island the following morning.

The Island crew remembered

Government records list silver watches for Captain James Currie, W. Wales, William Allard, Daniel McCallum and Andrew MacFarlane, and a binocular glass for James W. Hogg. A proposed East End monument was introduced to Pictou County Council in January 1885 but failed for want of a seconder.

The summer grounding led to months of salvage work and, ultimately, a disaster that claimed eight lives and touched Island families. The federal life-saving station opened in 1889. One of the rescuers, Andrew MacFarlane, later became keeper of the East Lighthouse; his appointment was recorded on 8 June 1892.

In July 1885 the Eastern Chronicle reported plans to try again to float the Inveralt. That November an advertisement invited offers to buy the hull or cut it up during the winter. The notices do not say whether either plan went ahead.

On 23 September 1886, the Eastern Chronicle reported that engines and machinery of the steamer it called “Inverault” had been bought by unnamed American purchasers. It said shipment to Salem, Massachusetts, was intended. The report does not establish that the machinery was shipped or that the separate hull was sold or dismantled.

A different Stanley: the rescue of 1893

On 30 September 1893, Donald McLean, coxswain of the Pictou Island lifeboat, and his crew rescued thirteen men from the Norwegian barque Stanley on a shoal off the Island’s west end. This sailing vessel was distinct from the government steamer Stanley involved in the ice emergencies of 1903 and 1907.

The federal reward table published in 1894 records $3 for each of the seven lifeboat men, $21 in all, with a further $70 for wages and expenses after the boat and crew were weather-bound for six days at Pictou. The table names Donald McLean but does not individually identify the other six rescuers. Their reward was money, distinct from the watches and binocular glass awarded for the Inveralt rescue.

A separate Canadian casualty return records a Norwegian Stanley on 29 September 1893 at Cariboo/Middle Shore, reporting a partial loss of $1,000. Lloyd’s return gives a Norwegian Stanley wrecked off Pictou Harbour on 3 October, with different tonnage and voyage details. Neither newly compared entry has been securely joined to the 30 September Island rescue; the three dates must not be turned into a proven sequence.

Alfred Ogden’s inspection report, dated 25 September 1893, describes a drill at the Island station on 3 July. It records the crew launching within thirty minutes of notification and recommends repairs estimated at $12. Those are inspection observations and proposed costs, rather than a rescue-response measurement or completed expenditure. Ogden attributed the boathouse land to James William Hogg (printed J. W. Hogg) and recommended obtaining a deed; his report is not a conveyance.

An ice emergency brings travellers ashore

In early March 1907, severe ice forced passengers from the government steamer Stanley onto Pictou Island. The Moncton Transcript of 4 March reported about fifty passengers ashore. Its 5 March account identified the Abegweit hockey team, Jere McAuliffe’s Comedy Company and about thirty other passengers as a group that had landed on Friday, 1 March, when the vessel was in danger of being crushed by ice. The reports record different passenger movements and do not establish one landing or departure time for everyone.

A Charlottetown dispatch in the Washington Evening Star on 5 March reported 40 Stanley passengers sheltering on the Island, including the performers and hockey team. The Moncton report gave about fifty; people arrived and left at different times.

Marooned on Pictou Island

The 5 March report said the company, hockey team and other passengers were still marooned, with the Minto expected to collect them when conditions permitted. By 8 March the Stanley was at Georgetown while the Minto was stuck off Pictou Island, and the McAuliffe company was still described as marooned.

The reports show that different groups left at different times. Colonel Stanton, the company’s business manager, and several others reached the Caribou shore on 5 March and then travelled to Pictou.

The post office becomes a theatre

On Monday night, 4 March, the company gave a concert in the Pictou Island post office. The Moncton Transcript called it the first theatrical performance on the Island.

The reports do not describe the programme, costumes or audience, and do not say exactly where the performers stayed or when everyone left.

Hospitality and the outside view

Some newspapers described the Island as bleak and its shelter as poor. Kenneth MacCallum’s later history tells a different story: members of the company stayed with Island families and were generously welcomed. His account does not name the households or say how long each passenger stayed.

In the Pictou Advocate of 16 April 1907, Evangeline Heartz described a community of about 150 inhabitants with a school, hall, post office, lobster industry, lighthouses, farming and fishing. Her estimate captures a visitor’s impression rather than a census count. Her account thanked Islanders for their hospitality to passengers stranded by ice during the Stanley episode.

Why this matters

When ice interrupted their journey, a travelling company turned the Island post office into a stage. Their visit became part of both the Island’s winter travel story and its social life.

1911

Alex. Currie (coxswain)

Angus MacDonald

Hugh McCallum

Robt. McFarlane

Chas. A. McCallum

George D. Rankin

Torquil McLean

1912 replacement crew

Duncan McCallum (coxswain)

Allan McFarlane

John W. McDonald

John A. Rankin

J. Ward McCallum

Charles McIver

Dan Hector McLean