My sole surviving maternal aunt, an enthusiastic genealogical researcher, has been digging away at the 1903 Eldorado adventure, and has now discovered an Irish grandson of a member of the ship’s crew who has also been digging away enthusiastically and has published this recording. To recapitulate, one of my maternal great grandfathers was captain of a ship, the Eldorado, which was hired by a fur company to cross the Atlantic and head up the Hudson Bay route to replenish a fur station. The ship, with its 23 passengers (including a little girl) and 24 crew, was wrecked off Fort George. The survivors, led by Captain William Berry, made their way in small boats through high seas to a trading post at Charlton Island, and from there set off on a grueling 300 + mile journey through the interior, in temperatures reaching -30° C and below and with few provisions. They finally made it to the Ottawa River and from there to Quebec. Surreally, in the midst of the wilderness they came one day across a British Army Major who was out big game hunting. He couldn’t help them, but did tell them who had won the Americas Cup race the previous month! Such were communications at the time that the world only learnt about the wreck and their almost miraculous survival when they themselves arrived back in civilisation to recount it.
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