Bones of a Saint

Bill Whelan

2026 01 23

 
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 accounted for 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 in Massachusetts. Yet there was time in his busy life for sport. He 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.