BARRY STORIES

Joe Barry

Joe Barry went to the 1948 seal hunt in the Gulf of St Lawrence as Captain of the motor vessel Teazer. He was back from service in the United States Navy in the war just over. Twenty men from the Magdalen Islands (the Maggies) were his sealing crew.

The 1948 seal hunt had the benefit of air cover.  A DC-3 aircraft piloted by Captain HS Jones sighted Teazer about 20 miles north of the Magdalen Islands on the 23^rd of March. The vessel was embedded in a sheet of ice, which would carry her along to southern waters, according to the Daily News of St John’s.   Captain Jones could see many patches of blood on the ice.

The next report in the Daily News:

These were Teazer and Monica Walters. The ice rafted on the morning of Thursday, the 25^th, and broke six timbers of Teazer.   Captain Barry knew that was the end of it.  He ordered provisions onto the ice and two dories. He got in touch with his brother by radio and reported the situation. Fred Barry was in charge of the Gorton-Pew fish plant on the Magdalen Islands.

The crew left Teazer as the ice rafted again. The vessel sank soon after the second rafting, taking 5000 valuable pelts.  At the last minute, Captain Barry went down to his cabin, the water up to his knees by then, to retrieve the gold ring given him by his bride-to-be, Rose Anita Whelan.  He left behind a fine watch, his grandfather Garrett’s gold hunter.

Captain Barry and the Teazer crew spent the day on the ice, sheltering in a tent in winds of about 65 mph and the temperature 20 below zero Farenheit. That is 52 degrees of frost, Newfoundland measure. That evening they sighted the northeast light of St Paul Island, about 14 miles away over the ice, and got a bearing on that. They set out, dragging two dories in case there was open water between the ice and the island. But dragging the dories over the very rough ice took too much out of the men. They left the dories behind. Though four of the men were so exhausted they had to be carried the last few miles, the men from Teazer stepped off the ice directly onto the hard rocky ground of St Paul Island. Captain Barry said later he did not know what he would have done, had there been open water between the ice and St Paul Island.

The schooner Monica Walters, out of Port aux Basques, was also crushed by the rafting ice, not far from Teazer. Captain Hounsell and his crew of 16 Newfoundlanders made their own way to St. Paul after spending the night on the ice.

The lighthouse people were quick to care for the sealers. Fred Barry later made sure that ample food was supplied to replace the food cooked for the sealers. Dark rum was supplied as a special thank you, in the Newfoundland way.

The Boston Post gave the Teazer story front page coverage because of the Gloucester connection of Captain Barry and his father before him, Captain James Barry of Curling and Gloucester.   The Post reported that Captain Joe Barry, 29, had been wounded twice during his service in the US Navy, had been awarded the Purple Heart and commended. He had served as Chief Boatswains Mate in the destroyer mine sweeper USS Dennis, giving close support to the assault on Iwo Jima. He was a seaman par excellence said J Carroll O’Connor in the Yankee magazine.

Joe Barry lived in Massachusetts with his father for a time after his war service but was intent on returning to Newfoundland to follow his father James and grandfather Garrett in the Barry fisheries based in Curling in the Bay of Islands. The Barry fisheries continue today as the Barry Group.

Barry family history has it that the Barry immigrants, from County Cork in Ireland, settled first on Red Island in Placentia Bay and that Garrett Barry moved on to the Labrador fishery and then to Birchy Cove (now Curling) in the Bay of Islands for its abundant herring fishery. Garrett’s son, James, was a vigorous fisherman and businessman who made a connection with the Gorton-Pew firm in Gloucester, Massachusetts. Teazer was owned by Gorton-Pew and captained by James Barry’s son, evidence of a very sound connection.

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Bones of a Saint

James Barry was born in 1870 on the Labrador, at West St Modeste, on board his father Garrett’s schooner. It seems they had a goat on board to feed the baby in case the mother died. His mother did not die but James drank the goat milk. Perhaps this assured his success in life?

Barry family tradition has it that as a young man James Barry was a dory fisherman on the Grand Banks. He was lost at sea for 11 days before being found by a French vessel bound for the French island St Pierre. He was cared for by nuns in St Pierre, one of whom gave him a holy relic from France. He credited this relic (bones of a very old saint) with his survival and carried it on every vessel he captained. The relic remained with the Barry family for many years.

James became a Master Mariner. Still held by the family is James’ master’s ticket for ocean-going steamships issued by the US Coast Guard in 1912 for unlimited tonnage.

Another family holding is a letter, dated 1906, from the Gorton-Pew Company in Gloucester seeking to buy herring from James, herring in quantity, when their vessels came to the Bay of Islands that Fall. The letter also congratulated him on becoming a naturalized American as it was a big advantage for him to sail his own vessels to the USA and clear customs without delay. James was a busy man, founder in Newfoundland of the Bay of Islands Fisheries Company which did a strong trade with Gloucester. Yet there was time in his busy life for sport.

James raced sailboats. In August of 1904 the Western Star newspaper reported that the Annual Picnic and Regatta held at Woods Island in the Bay of Islands was a decided success. Amusements included rings, field racing, dancing, boat racing, football, etc. The weather was favourable. Four centre-board boats entered the boat race, but at the start the crew on board Joseph Camier’s boat misunderstood the course and gave up the race. It was then left to Messrs. James Barry, Peter Bernard and TK Kennedy to show what their boats could do. The race was over a three-mile course, a triangle, with a stiff breeze blowing. Nancy Hanks, Barry’s boat, was first to reach the winning buoy, with Kennedy’s eight minutes behind, and Bernard’s twelve. The prize for this race was $10.

Woods Island is deserted now but was a thriving place in James’ time, a well-suited port for vessels to load fish cargoes to carry overseas. Dr William Michael Whelan was the Woods Island doctor in those days. His daughter Rose Anita married Joe Barry.  For reasons lost in the mists of time, Anita discarded James’s bones of a saint.

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Ned & Dave

said the St John’s Daily News late in December of 1910. The storm started on Friday at noon from the northeast.  A sudden gale with snow and frost caught 30 boats on their nets in North Arm on the 16^th. About 100 men were involved. They dropped everything and threw herring overboard to lighten the boats. The men made for shore as best they could. One boat was swept onto the rocks at Barber’s Head. Two men died.

Some fishermen reached shore on the west side of North Arm but found themselves hemmed in on all sides by mountainous cliffs. The wind was blowing with hurricane force. It appeared that these fishermen must wait out the storm there, without food or shelter. The   Barry boys, Ned and Dave, went to the rescue, crossing North Arm in their little motorboat at the height of the storm. The Western Star called it A Deed of Heroism and was proud to bring it to the attention of the public. Deeds of heroism are daily occurrences among the Newfoundland seamen who ply their avocations in the north Atlantic fisheries, and it is seldom they find their way into the public press. The storm continued from Friday to Monday, chopping around to the northwest on Saturday, blowing with snow and the temperature well below freezing. The rescued men were glad to be out of it.

Five years earlier, in 1905, the Western Star reported the return of Edward Barry from the Labrador fishery. He secured his voyage at Domino Run, a long way down the shore. He brought in 150 quintals, his second year in charge of the schooner Manilla at that fishery. Ned Barry was 19 years old.

Birchy Cove was the centre of the Bay of Islands herring fishery.  This was big business. When the Barry brothers performed their deed of heroism in December of 1910 there were 31 Gloucester schooners in the Bay of Islands looking for herring cargoes and another 30 at Bonne Bay. They paid up to $2.40 per barrel for herring, from the nets, for the US market.   Money came into Birchy Cove to pay for it. The coming of the Gloucester captains in springtime with Yankee gold to settle-up for the herring was an important ritual, well noted by the Western Star.

ENDS