Never Trust the Ice in the Tickle (Al Sheppard)
Mr. Short, the Anglican Minister here, was going away to get married and Al Sheppard and his brother George were going to take him as far as Lomond by dog team on the first leg of his journey. Uncle Billy Prebble, who was a warden here, came down and said to father, “Alf, tell the boys not to go way outside (the tickle) today before going up the arm, just go across to Rattling Brook because the ice is perfect. Go over and you’ll see an ox footin’ where Jack Samms went along with his ox this morning with a load of hay. Just follow the ox footin’ along and the ice should be perfect.” That would save us some time so that’s what we did.
Mr. Short was in a sleeping bag, all wrapped up, I was on the back of the sled and George was up between the guiders. By and by, George, wanting to be sure of the thickness of the ice, shouted out and said, “Al, jump off and try the ice!” When I jumped off, I went right down to my armpits! A few seconds after that, down goes the coach box with Reverend Short in it! We had his suitcases aboard as well as a grubbox and a couple buckets of herring for the dogs and that went everywhere too!
When all this was going on, George made for the lead dog and kept about
fifty feet from the coachbox. Father always told us that if we ever got caught in the ice, never to stand by the sled because the dogs will come back around, get you tangled up in the lines and drown ya! That’s what happened to Johnny Tucker from Norris Point when he drowned coming across the bay. The dogs drowned him. I was makin’ for the shore!
I pulled myself out and got about fifty feet on the ice and down I goes again! Mr. Short bawled out, “come back and get me outta this box”! I got down on the ice and made my way back to him again and hauled him out of the sleeping bag and after a while I dragged him to the shore. George was still out by the leader!
By this time, Bryant Harding from Norris Point had seen us because we were almost over there to Black Point across from Norris Point. He and Jack Samms and Ike Welsh from Gadd’s Harbour and six or seven men were coming up around the shore with lumber on their backs. They had rope and a net mooring that just reached out to George. George got on his stomach and crawled back to the dogs, unhooking them as he went. They all ran ashore on the ice. Then he tied the rope on to the leader's harness and the men hauled the sled ashore. It was a close call but everyone was safe!
It’s hard to believe that 7 or 8 o’clock that morning, Jack Samms went down on the ice with an eight hundred pound ox hauling a load of hay! That’s how fast the tide can eat the ice out in the tickle!
By Charlie Payne
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