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A good friend had offered to motor me to Wiscasset, Maine, where I was to join "Maraval." Leaving home June 22, I reported on board "Maraval" the following day.

On Grenfell's Ship.

Lying near the "Maraval" was the schooner "Bowdoin" of Captain Donald MacMillan, all ready for a voyage to Labrador and Baffin Land, and in whose company it had been arranged we should sail. A large crowd of friends of Sir Wilfred and Captain MacMillan had assembled to see the ships off and bid them bon voyage. The ships were gaily dressed in colors and the scene was a very spirited one. Boats were plying between them and the shore, bringing off the many friends of Sir Wilfred and Lady Grenfell and Captain MacMillan, and stores for the two vessels. Photographers and newspaper reporters were much in evidence.

My shipmates of "Maraval" were Captain Albert Gould, a Boston lawyer and director of the International Grenfell association in command," Donald Smith from Sydney, Nova Scotia, engineer, Gibbs Sherrill, a Yale senor, assistant engineer, J. L. Faunce of Philadelphia (who had generously volunteered to serve as cook for a crowd of men with ravenous appetites), and Nelson and Laurence Rockefeller of New York, Dudley Merrill, a Harvard medical student, Wilfred Grenfell, jr., Hoyt Pease of New Britain, Conn., and Ames of New York, as fine fellows, all of them, as one could ask to sail with.

Sir Wilfred and Lady Grenfell had come to see the ships off, but were returning to Labrador by steamer.

It was late in the afternoon before the last stores were on board and the last farewells said. The good ships then got under way and started down river, anchoring an hour later at Christmas Cove, a charming summer resort, known to many Connecticut people. Here we remained over Sunday in a dense fog.

Early Monday we were under way again, and ran along the Maine coast some 30 or 40 miles to Penobscot Bay and up the bay to Belfast. The Rotary club of Belfast had arranged a farewell dinner for captain MacMillan, to which we of the "Maraval" were invited.

The dinner was largely attended. There were speeches and singing and Captain MacMillan gave a very interesting talk. He is a native of Provincetown, Mass., and a graduate of Bowdoin college, and has hosts of friends. In his address he told an amusing incident that had occurred when recently lecturing in a nearby city. He was being introduced to the

[[image]]
[[caption]] The Karluk (Eskimo for Fish), George G. Williams' forty-foot motor cruiser in which he visits Labrador every summer. [[/caption]]

audience by a prominent citizen, who alluded to his experiences and fame as an Arctic explorer, and just before introducing him turned to the Captain and said, "Captain, is this your first visit to America?"

The following day was spent at Southwest Harbor, Mount Desert Island. While there we were invited to see the beautiful summer home of John D. Rockefeller, jr., at Seal Harbor.

Early the next morning we left Southwest Harbor and shaped our course across the Bay of Fundy, for Cape Sable, Novia Scotia. The Bay of Fundy, lying between the coast of Maine and Nova Scotia had a bad reputation owing to its strong tides and fogs. One writer refers to "Famous Fundy's fog mouth", which pretty well describes it. In one of my trips across it, from Cape Sable to Cape Cod, I was hove to in my small schooner in a gale for eighteen hours, which was not a pleasant experience.

We were fortunate this time in having clear weather and a smooth sea, and at midnight rounded Cape Sable, running the remainder of the night and all the next day and night along the Nova Scotia coast.

On board "Maraval" we had the regular sea watches of four hours on and four hours off for the crew, so that we felt decidedly nautical.

During the day we were in sight of the "Bowdoin", and at night her lights were nearly always visible. For this reason navigation was comparatively simple.

Through Cape Breton.

Rounding Cape Canso, the northern point of Nova Scotia, we entered the Bras D'Or Lakes, the lovely body of water which divided the Island of Cape Breton into two parts. The sail through the lakes is a beautiful one. Part of the way is between narrow wooded shores, then the lake broadens in places to a width of five to eight miles. Again it narrows up and we sail between hills on a thousand or more feet high on one side and, on the other, are well-kept farms whose green fields slope down to the water's edge. 

We passed the island where Dr. Graham Bell had his summer residence, and anchored not far from the Baddeck, made famous by Charles Dudley Warner's book, "Baddeck and Thereabouts." The following day found us at Sydney, Cape Breton, where Captain MacMillan has many friends and where he always calls on his way north. 

After two days here, during which there was much festivity, we started across the Newfoundland, a sail of about a hundred miles. Late at night we picked up the light on Cape Ray, the southern point of the island. Following along the coast the next afternoon we man into the Bay of Islands and anchored at Curling, some twenty miles from the mouth of the bay. 

Aboard the Karluk.

Here my voyage on "Maraval" ended. I was reluctant to leave the good ship and her very agreeable company, but my own boat "Karluk" was awaiting me, ready to start north.  

Transcription Notes:
[[image: photo of "The Karluk", boat of George G Williams']]