Story of Ship Queen Victoria

Baddeck-based author John G. Langley in his book, examines the story of ship Queen Victoria, that sailed delegates to Charlottetown conference and its bell.

Maiden voyage

In 1856, the steamer Queen Victoria as well as her sister ship Napoleon each made quick stops in Sydney on their maiden voyages to their new home, Quebec City, on the St. Lawrence Seaway.

They refuelled with coal and continued to their destinations but it wouldn’t be the Queen Victoria’s last voyage to Atlantic Canada; eight years later the ship took the Fathers of Confederation from Quebec to Charlottetown and back again for the Charlottetown conference.

Hurricane that sank the ship

It would be a historic trip but unfortunately for the Queen Victoria, the ship wouldn’t make it to the actual birth of Canada in 1867.

Thanks to a hurricane off Cape Hatteras which sank the vessel.

Passengers and crew rescued

While the crew and passengers were rescued by the American brig Ponvert, what happened next is disputed until this very day.

For Baddeck-based author John G. Langley, it was a story that needed to be told.

Langley’s unveils the story

“I wrote it because you haven’t heard of it,” said Langley, a retired lawyer and founder of the Cunard Steamship Society, in a telephone interview from his home.

“The story has not been told. It’s a story about a ship but it’s the story of the founding of our nation.”

Rescuers honoured

The bell from the ship had been given to its rescuers for saving the lives of its crew and passengers. The captain from the Ponvert gave it to a school in Prospect Harbour, Maine, where it rang children to class for 75 years.

In 1953, it was presented to the local women’s club and in 2003, it went to the town of Gouldsboro, Maine, where it remains until today.

Plea to return the bell?

While the bell gathered dust in Maine, in the 1960s during planning for Canada’s 100th birthday, organizers began lobbying to have the bell returned to Canada due to its role in taking people to the Charlottetown conference in 1864.

But their pleas had little impact on those looking after the bell in Maine, where it remains.

Possession remains controversial

Although it has made the occasional trip north to be displayed and a replica has been supplied to Charlottetown, the bell is still in U.S. possession, which remains controversial.

Langley says the fact the story is ongoing, made it interesting to him to write.

Langley’s research

“As I started to research the details of the ship a few years later with the intent to write about it, the realization that there was an ongoing international situation involving the bell whetted my appetite for the bigger story and to produce the whole book. It took a couple of years to put it all together … what kept my interest is the ongoing story — it’s still going on as we speak. We’ll see what happens tomorrow,” said Langley. “The final chapter has not been written yet on that one.”

The final chapter

However, the final chapter has been written on Langley’s next book which looks at the life of Casey Baldwin, which will be published later this year, just in time for the 100th anniversary of Baldwin flying the HD-4 (hydrodome number 4, an early research hydrofoil watercraft developed by Alexander Graham Bell) to a world speed record on Baddeck Bay on Sept. 9, 1919.

“We hope to launch the book on the same day,” said Langley. “So it’s pretty exciting. A lot of people will recognize a lot of things because there are personalities from Cape Breton in it and it’s really a story about us.”

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Source: Cape Breton Post

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