I was going through some of my mother's papers the other day and came across several sheets of three-ring binder paper, my grandad had used to write about his life in Canada including this story about how he arrived here. His own words, written post-retirement in 1971, cleared up a puzzle I had been trying to figure out: which ship he came on.
The Rev. Canon Edmund Graff Nicholls Grant was born on April 28th, 1887. He died
in January1979. This little excerpt is taken from what he called Reminiscences 1906 -1964.
He left by train from Cardiff to catch the ship in Liverpool. Quite an adventure for a 17-year-old.
Grandad Grant's voyage
away from home in Wales to a new life in Canada:
The next day I found the vessel, a CPR
ship, called "Lake Manitoba" which was to take me across the
Atlantic.
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| The Lake Manitoba [Source:http://www.norwayheritage.com/p_ship.asp?sh=lamam] |
After getting on board, I was shown to my
"stateroom," which was the hold of the ship and which the portholes
were on a level with the ocean. As far as I can remember, there were about 100
men in this hold, which is a cavity in a ship below deck. We slept and had
meals in the hold.
I spent the greater part of my time on
deck, although it was chilly. The journey took 12 days, weather at times pretty
rough, & 1 day (24 hours) we only made 50 miles. I was not sea-sick at all,
but lots of passengers were. We landed at St. John NB on a cool and frosty
morning where I took the train for Toronto. I stayed for a day in that city and
took the train for Sutton, via the Grand Trunk RR.
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| Sutton Railway Station in 1906 http://www.trha.ca/trha/history/stations-2/sutton-station/ |
