Captain Joseph Goudey |
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Tombstone of
Capt. Joseph and Sara Goudey Port Maitland Cemetary Nova Scotia |
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| 1. | Burwell Clifford Goudey | July 17, 1858 |
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| 2. | Annie Josepha Goudey | March 28, 1860 |
| 3. | Frank Byrum Goudey | Port Maitland N.S. May 31, 1864 |
| 4. | Bessie May Goudey | November 14, 1867 |
| 5. | Archie Gordon Goudey | July 11, 1870 |
| The image of Captain Joseph Goudey's ship was sent to me by "Thomas Goudey" of Harwich, Massachusetts. He digitized it from a painting of his Great-Great-Grandfather's ship. The ship is the "Banole Hero," captained by Joseph Goudey. |
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Watch Given for Saving Crew of an American Vessel
Mr. Joseph Goudy of Port Maitland N. S., is the guest of his son, Mr. Frank B. Goudy, of 1607 South Main Street. Mr. Goudy has in his possession a watch which he values very highly, as it is a present to him from President Buchanan. The watch is a solid gold watch with a chronometer balance movement, made by Jules Jorgensen of Copenhagen. Its value to the keeper may be estimated who had it officially rated an a chronometer and has used it as the official timepiece of his vessel on some of his voyages.
On the inside cover is an inscription which reads an follows: "The President of the United States to Captain J. Goudy of the British Bark 'Cora Linn' for his humane, zealous and successful efforts in rescuing the master and crew of the ship 'New England', 1858."
As Captain Goudy tells the tale of the rescue it is an interesting and thrilling story. While crossing from St. John, N.B., bound for Liverpool his bark ran into a spell of heavy weather and was sailing under her lower topsails. After several days of this weather they sighted In the vicinity of lat. 46 north, and long. 36 west an American ship which was leaking badly. It proved to be the New England and when spoken wanted to be reported. The bad weather had caused the ship to spring a leak and the crew were discharging the cargo to lighten the ship.
The cargo consisted of barrels of naphtha and as it was impossible to hoist then over the bulwarks, they were broken open on the deck and the naphtha flowed off through the scuppers.
About an hour later., while they were still within sight of the vessel, it was seen to burst into flames. The wind had taken the vapor of the naphtha into the cook's galley and it ignited at the stove there.
The ship was a mass of flames in a few seconds. The crew were divided, a portion being forward of the fire and the rest aft. These who were on the forward portion of the ship were forced to take to the rigging to escape the flames, but the heat became so intense that they were forced to jump directly into the flames on the deck in order to get aft of the fire. One man started aft on the topmast stay and when nearly across he lost his footing and swung by his hands like a pendulum. He recovered his footing, however, and succeeded in getting aft safely. Those who jumped had their clothes burned nearly off and suffered terrible burns. One man broke his hip when he jumped and the leg bone was forced through his side, but his companions succeeded in getting him aft of the flames.
As soon as the fire was observed, Captain Goudy lowered a boat, which rowed to leeward of the burning vessel and picked up about-half of the crew. The rest of the crew tried to launch the boats and two of these were stove by the waves. The third, which was a large lifeboat, lived and the rest of the crew succeeded in getting off in it.
The crew were all taken on board the Cora Linn and cared for. They had been able to save nothing and the clothing of several of them had been burned off. There were 18 in the crew, including the officers, 12 of whom had sustained burns. One man died on the voyage of his burns, but the man with the broken hip had it set on board the bark and came out all right.
A short time after, Captain Goudy received the watch from President Buchanan through the British government.
Captain Goudy has followed the sea for the larger part of his life. He was born in Yarmouth, N. S., in 1826 and made his first voyage at the age of 14. When be was 23 he made his first voyage as captain and continued in this capacity until his retirement in 1872. His father was master of a ship and his oldest son in following in his footsteps, being captain of a large English tramp steamer. The captain has a large stock of stories of incidents which have occurred to him and is an interesting story teller.
This watch and a painting of Capt. Joseph Goudey's Ship are now in the Halifax, Nova Scotia Museum.
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