Sunday, March 21, 2010

L H. CANN

L H. CANN

Work Of Louisburg Marine Engineer Highly Praised

- LOUISBURG, March 6—Out of this publicity-neglected port today came a story on the feat of a small marine engineer who has won recognition through & repair job to a freighter which is believed unequalled in Canadian marine records. ,The engineer is L. H.Cann, own-of the Cann Machine Shop, located on the harbor front of this, bustling summer resort. The story begins in February, 1947, when the big 5,000-ton freighter, Random, owned by the Newfoundland Railway, cracked a blade in its wheel a short distance from this port.

DRY DOCK JOB

The crippled freighter made Louisburg Harbor and was berthed at the big Pier near Mr. Cann's machine shop. The damage was surveyed and marine officials were of the opinion that it was a job for a dry dock — but how to get the ship -_;to such facilities posed a major question, She was unable to navigate through the thick ice with the damaged wheel. 'Mr. Cann was approached to give an opinion and to the amazement of marine officials suggested that his machine shop could handle the task and repair the ship while it stood in the icy water. The officials with tongues in cheek, gave him the green light and the difficult task started.

Working under the direction of Mr. Cann, Doug Hahnon, machine shop foreman, and a group of employees, commenced to repair the blade from a raft. With a new part cast at the Sydney Steel Plant and with expert advice from George Beaton., mechanical superintendent! at the Steel Plant, the job was completed in three days.

REMARKABLE FEAT Marine inspectors,, who later examined the work in St. John and . Halifax, stated that it was a remarkable feat that such a welding job was successful when it was considered the work was done while a portion of the wheel was lodged in cold water and terrific heat was applied to the exposed part. It was also feared that a chemical action would result from the salt water and corrode the wheel. This, however, was not the case.

Yesterday the Random docked here after plying the coast for more than a year with the wheel still functioning first rate. Today, Mr. Cann, who has repairing ships for many years, at this port, proudly points with pride to the job that "couldn't be done" after whjch has tabbed by one leading engineer as a- "wonder job." In the above picture L. H. Cann, prominent Louisburg marine engineer, is shown Jointing with pride yesterday to a repair job that his firm accomplished on the wheel of the 5,000-ton Newfoundland Railway freighter Random. The work was done lasl March after marine experts said he cracked wheel could only be repaired on a dry dock. Mr. Cann thought different and tackled the job while the ship was standing in ¹ the icy water at Louisburg. Experts scoffed at the . idea of trying to weld the .wheel while one portion |vas submerged in cold water and ; terrific heat applied to the expos-

- ed part. Yesterday the Random docked at Louisburg—almost a year after the repair job—and Captain O'Keefe (smoking cigaret) said the wheel "worked like a charm.

- Captain O'Keefe stated that machine engineers who examined the 8 repair job in Halifax and St. John ."• described the work as a "wonder a job .believed unequalled in Canadian marine history.

On right is shown a closeup of the repair job. Mr.. Cann praised the, employees of his machine shop who', worked under his supervision andalso the expert advise supplied by George Beaton, mechanical superintendent of theSydey Steel Plant

Thursday, March 11, 2010

Local Heroes, Daring Rescue of the 709

1943 - USN submarine chaser SC 709 foundered off Louisbourg NS. Local fishermen effected a daring rescue under extremely adverse conditions. Stranded on a shoal & pounded by 12-foot seas, SC 709 quickly became weighed down by ice & began listing to starboard. Canadian naval authorities in Louisbourg judged it to be too risky to attempt a rescue. The sailors aboard SC 709 could be seen from the shore from time to time as they tried to move about on the wave-swept deck.

Mr. Yvon Chiasson, who was a crewman aboard a local fishing schooner, along with several local men, decided to try to reach them in two dories. These they had to drag across the shore ice until they reached open water. Then, they rowed into the teeth of the storm until they reached the wreck. The rescuers were able to remove eight of the sailors that were in the worst shape as the seas raged around them. Winds were blowing at 40 knots & the temperature had fallen to -20C. The American seamen were frostbitten & hypothermic by the time the rescuers reached them. "Those boys were in very poor condition, very poor indeed" Mr. Chiasson recalled. "The navy had no boat that could get close enough. When you're out there in the cold, with the water splashing all over & freezing on you, you're not going to last long." Fishing vessels, who followed Mr. Chiasson's route, saved the rest of the crew soon after. Mr. Chiasson's efforts were recognized in 2000 when he received the Silver Life-Saving Medal from the United States Navy at a ceremony held at Cleveland, Ohio. Rideau Hall has declined to honor Mr. Chiasson with the Canadian Life Saving Medal.Former Liberal cabinet minister Barney Danson, whose life is a mission dedicated to making Canada's legendary war history known to every single public school child, must be anguished. Our federal government is allowing our aging and diminishing war veterans to die off in ignonomy.

First we have federal officials refusing outright to consider an 81-year-old merchant mariner for a bravery medal. Canadian hero Yvon Chiasson, who is credited with rescuing eight American sailors off the coast of Cape Breton during the Second World War, was recognized by another country, the United States of America. The Canadian government refused on April 12, 2000 to consider the elderly Chiasson for a decoration after his son nominated him, and within just days of the United States Navy awarding him a Silver Lifesaving Medal.

Monday, March 8, 2010

Why Louisbourg matters

CAPE BRETON, N.S. -For 2008, the historical focus

has been on Quebec City, marking its

400th anniversary this year. Fair enough,

as the establishment of Quebec and the subsequent

battle over it loom large in Canadian history.

But what about Louisbourg?

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CAPE BRETON, N.S. -For 2008, the historical focus has been on Quebec City, marking its 400th anniversary this year. Fair enough, as the establishment of Quebec and the subsequent battle over it loom large in Canadian history. But what about Louisbourg?

Never heard of it? I was embarrassed a few years back to discover, at the Canadian War Museum in Ottawa, that I had never heard of a major colonial centre and site of a key battle. Perhaps growing up in Calgary, our schools focused on Western Canadian history, but even then Louisbourg should not draw the blank I would reckon it does for most Canadians.

Louisbourg was here on Ile Royale, as Cape Breton Island was called when France had it in the 18th century. Established by the French south of present-day Sydney, it was not only a strategic fortification at the entrance to the Gulf of Saint Lawrence, but an important fishing and commercial town in its own right.

During the Seven Years' War (1756-1763) -- what Winston Churchill call the "first world war" as it involved all the European powers and was fought around the globe -- the English and French fought twice for Louisbourg. The French held it in 1757. The English conquered it in 1758. This year marks the 250th anniversary of that summer battle.

Without conquering Louisbourg in 1758, would the English have taken Quebec in 1759? If they hadn't taken Quebec then, Canadian and American history would have been very different.

Louisbourg was established in 1713 as a key centre for Nouvelle France, and by the 1940s it was a fully fortified town of some 4,000 inhabitants -- not huge, but not insignificant either. The historian A. J. B. Johnston reports that in its 45 years of existence, Louisbourg had some 565 marriages, 2,200 baptisms and 1,200 burials. It was a growing and vibrant centre.

The strategic importance was recognized by both the French and English, with the former defending Louisbourg with more than 8,000 troops. The English

came in 1758 with 27,000 troops, so the Battle of Louisbourg involved nearly 40,000 people, making it a major battle in the Anglo-French war for supremacy in the North American colonies.

Louisbourg 1758 was seen as key turning point. The English has tried to take Louisbourg in 1757, but failed in the face of the French navy and bad weather. In 1757, the Seven Years' War -- at least in its North-American theatre -- was not going well for the English. They had lost a series of battles, including at Oswego and Ticonderoga, and had they lost for a second time at Louisbourg it might have moved the Seven Years' War decisively in the French direction.

But the English took Louisbourg, and then took Louisbourg out. Almost all of the French inhabitants were deported quickly back to France, as many as 12,000. The English began to dismantle the fortifications almost immediately. Louisbourg effectively disappeared and became what it is today: a largely forgotten heritage site.

The success of Louisbourg emboldened the English to press on through the Gulf of St. Lawrence into the river itself, laying siege to Quebec the following year: 1759. No doubt the battle on the Plains of Abraham, with its world-changing consequences and the poetic balance of the twin deaths of Generals Wolfe and Montcalm, is a major reason that we forget Louisbourg today. Yet without Louisbourg, it would have all been different.

Historical counterfactuals can be fun to pursue. If the French had prevailed in the Seven Years' War and kept all of Nouvelle France, would history have unfolded to make Canada all French and the United States all English? Would the French communities in America have survived to be something like Quebec would become in a majority-English Canada?

A critical consequence of the English victory was that French Catholics experienced religious liberty under the English crown, making them more favourably disposed to English rule. If the French did not have that experience, would they have accepted the American revolutionaries' plea for assistance and joined in the Revolutionary War of 1776?

Such questions come to mind on Cape Breton Island -- which we all regard as a transplanted bit of the Scottish highlands, but may have become a new world version of the French provinces. Such questions are intellectual puzzles which cannot be solved, but asking them reminds us of the importance of what took place at Louisbourg. It reminds us to remember Louisbourg at all.

Sunday, March 7, 2010

The French Ship

After The British Left, the villageof Louisbourg grew with Irish and Scottish immigrants. Houses were built on the ruins and even the foundations of the of the Fortress. There is a story from the Kehoe Family that in the 1780's there was a knock on the door one day and a French naval officer entered .

He assured them that he meant no harm. " I just want to recover something that is mine" he said, and went over to the fire place and removed a stone and pulled out a metal box. thanked them and left. They went out to watch them row to a waiting ship and sail away. Allister MacDonald