A New Brunswick ship sank off Ireland in 1870 — only 1 lifeboat made it to shore

It's a story that many in Albert County have heard, and one that reminds New Brunswickers of the deep maritime history that runs through the province.

"This is an amazing account of survival," said Moncton historian and educator James Upham, standing next to the headstone of William Henry Balser in Lower Coverdale's Wilmot Cemetery, near Riverview.

Like many from the area at that time, Balser was a sailor. In January of 1870, he found himself aboard a New Brunswick-based wooden ship, the Barque Ansel, when it ran into trouble off the coast of Ireland. 

In the North Atlantic, the 21 crew members ended up in two life boats for a week, with little food or water. Balser's boat washed ashore, but those in the other boat were never heard from again.

Upham said Balser's headstone, which shows he died 57 years later in 1927, is another example of the links found throughout New Brunswick to our history.

"So William Henry Balser managed to have quite a long successful life after those incredible events," he said. "This guy was in an open boat in the North Atlantic in the dead of winter for a solid week."

A barque is a type of sailing ship that was popular in the 18th and 19th centuries for transporting cargo, and the Ansel was transporting iron ore destined for Boston.

There are two accounts of the tragic sinking of the Ansel. One from the daughter of the second mate who was never heard from again, and another from first mate J.D. Downey, of Carleton, N.B., who washed ashore in Ireland with Balser.

In the Saint John newspaper The Daily Telegraph, Downey tells how the ship left London on Jan. 18, 1870, and had "pleasant weather with fair winds" for a full week.

'At the mercy of the waves'

Unfortunately the winds changed and "blew a whole gale" which caused the ship to take on water. On Jan. 26, "the wind veered suddenly to N.W., with hard squalls, and the ship rolling heavily, carried away the foremast with yards and sails attached."

Downey goes on to describe how the ship was leaking, and how water gained on them fast until there were "several feet in the hold." On the morning of Jan. 28, the 21 people on board escaped into open boats equipped only with oars as they watched the Ansel sink.

"We had just time to get into the boats when the ship went down," Downey said. "Capt. Bennett then took charge of the long boat and gave me charge of the pinnace, he taking twelve of the crew, including the two women, and the remainder, eight persons, came with me."

They had only "five gallons of water and a small quantity of hard bread, wet with salt water."

Despite the meagre provisions and their only sail being "a small blanket," Downey tells how they made it to the shore of an island off the Irish coast "at the mercy of the waves in a gale with only one oar."

"On the 3rd of February, I made [Skellig's] Island on the coast of Ireland," he said. "On the 4th, the light keepers hauled us to land with ropes. We were kindly treated by the people on the island, where, on account of the heavy sea, we were forced to stay eight days, after which we were taken off by the Coast Guard boat."

Maritime tradition of Albert County

The shipwreck of a New Brunswick boat and loss of more than half the crew is a story Upham, who grew up in Albert County, remembers hearing as a child. In fact, Balser was the grandfather of Upham's grandfather, also named William Henry Balser.

Upham said there was a time when the entire province, and in particular Albert County, "was very maritime."

"We talk about the shipbuilding, we talk about the economics of it, but there's human stories everywhere, and these people went and did these things."

In another written account of the tragic sinking of the Ansel, Mrs. Newton Bennett, who grew up in Hopewell Cape, offers another perspective.

Her mother and father were in the lifeboat that did not make it to shore, and 50 years later she shared what it was like to be "orphaned when a child of three years."

"The ship was in charge of Capt. Edwin Bennett of Hopewell Cape and with him was second officer Alfred Bennett, his brother, and the latter's wife and seaman Judson Bennett, a cousin. The vessel had good fortune until about 300 miles from the coast of Ireland, when she foundered in a storm."

Alfred Bennett was her father.

"Just what occurred was never known, but it is supposed that the little craft was swamped in the heavy sea, the whole boat's company perishing."

The article, which was passed down to Upham's family, describes the Bennett family as "prominent in the community" and said the "disaster was a great shock to the little village of Hopewell Cape."

It points to this as one of the "outstanding tragedies of the sea, in which many Albert county seamen figured in days gone by."

Upham believes the article may have been written for an old county newspaper. 

'Legends that carried on'

Mrs. Newton Bennett's account of the tragedy that changed the course of her life ends with a mention of Henry Balser.

"It is of interest to note that there is living a survivor of the disaster, in the person of Henry Balser of Stoney Creek, Albert County, who was in the mate's boat and was among the saved."

For Upham, the sailors who left New Brunswick and travelled the world were "like an entirely different member of the human species."

"You could point to somebody and say, 'Yeah, actually that guy managed to survive a shipwreck in the North Atlantic. That guy used to sail regularly to Australia.'"

At a time when most people never left the area where they were born, Balser's headstone is a reminder of those who did.

"These are people who saw things, experienced things and you know they became stories — legends that carried on for a very long time."