The Yankee Gale of '51 - Kildare Capes, PEI
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T0SHEA
N 46° 53.232 W 063° 58.590
20T E 425605 N 5193091
This is the first of two memorials to the 160 sailors who perished in the Yankee Gale of 1851. It has been placed at the entrance to Christ Church in Kildare Capes, just off Highway 12.
Waymark Code: WMP6BE
Location: Prince Edward Island, Canada
Date Posted: 07/08/2015
Views: 2
Christ Anglican Church, begun in 1850, stands along Highway 12 about one kilometre south of Kildare Capes. The Church has an interesting history. The church began with the death of Hannah Garland (St. John’s) Travers, who was buried on the family farm, a part of which became the cemetery at the rear of this church. Hannah died in 1850 and the next year, on October 3-5 of 1851, a huge gale descended on the fleet which was fishing off Prince Edward Island in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, comprised almost entirely of American ships. Before the gale had subsided 90 American Schooners and 160 men were lost to the storm.
Three bodies had washed up on shore at Kildare Capes and were buried near Hannah Travers. Before the end of October a dozen more bodies had been discovered in the area and were also buried in the cemetery. The exact location of their graves is unknown.
Around 1995 this and another memorial to the 160 dead were placed at the church. The other one, an engraved granite slab, stands at the rear of the cemetery.
Yankee Gale
In October 1851, there was a great storm called “The Yankee Gale”. At the time there were hundreds of American schooners fishing mackerel in the Gulf. Before the storm subsided 90 ships and 160 men were lost. The battered bodies of those sailors were washed up all along the coast.
It must have been a terrible time for the local farmers on that Monday morning, after the wind died down, to find among the kelp piled high on the shore, the badly battered bodies of three sailors. There were also pieces of spars, barrels, hulls and sailcloth. They collected the bodies, wrapped them in what sailcloth they could find, and loaded them on a horse drawn cart. ---Now what to do? There were no ministers or lawyers to get advice from and the religion of the sailors was unknown.
The Travers family decided that the sailors should be buried in their family graveyard and so they were buried a little distance from Hannah’s grave, three bodies wrapped together in sailcloth. The exact spot was forgotten until 1996 when gravediggers unearthed their remains including pieces of sailcloth.
Before the end of October of 1851 twelve more bodies were found and buried in this graveyard. The exact location is still unknown.
From Christ Church