Was murder aboard the schooner Explorer?
Article content Barely alive, when Captain John Waddell beached his lifeboat at Colpoys Bay near Wiarton on Nov. 25, 1867, he had a harrowing tale to tell. His two-masted schooner, Explorer, which was built in Chatham in 1866, had set sail from Windsor and was bound for Owen Sound on Nov. 3, 1867. It was the Explorers last run of the season, carrying a cargo of whisky and milling machinery. Manned by a crew of two good sailors, according to Waddell, the Explorer ran into hurricane force winds, snow and heavy seas north of Goderich. The gale was strong enough to split the Explorers foreboom in half. Waddell ordered the mainsails double reefed as he tried to steer the Explorer into Ship Channel leading into Georgian Bay. After a cold and exhausting night battling wind and waves, Waddells crew desperately tried to keep their vessel from capsizing when the cargo in the hold broke lose and shifted to the boats bow. The cargos weight caused the schooner to be bow heavy leaving her stern in the air. We apologize, but this video has failed to load. Try refreshing your browser. Back to video  Advertisement Story continues below This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Article content The two crewmen went below decks in an attempt to shift the cargo. In Waddells account, one of the crewmen reported that some of the whisky barrels had been stove in but they could re-adjust the load in just 20 minutes. Waddell warned them about drinking the whisky, but before long they were both jolly with grog. While the crew worked below, a great wave lifted the Explorers stern clear up almost perpendicular out of the water and jamming her nose under water. Another great wave like Niagara Falls, Waddell claimed, tore her cabin off. As water poured into the holds, Waddell felt the cargo slide forward into the vessels bow causing the two men in the hold to be jammed to pieces. Try as he might, Waddell could not right his vessel. Suffering from cold and numbness, he abandoned ship on Nov. 11 and with one oar steered his tiny yawl to the nearest shore 10 miles away on Cove Island. After landing on a barren shoreline, Waddell subsisted for a few days on just one pound of soggy biscuits. On the fourth day, weather conditions improved enough for him to sail into Wingfield Basin near Cabots Head. He encountered a lone native who sheltered and fed him for three days. Finally, after almost two miserable weeks, Waddell reached Colpoys Bay. He was so weak that he was carried to the nearest tavern. Captain Waddell was a respected citizen in Kent County. He had been the county sheriff and a militia major. Yet, there were questions about his story and rumours he had made mysterious trips north where he salvaged cargo from the allegedly lost schooner. In spring 1868, just after the Explorer tragedy, he moved his family to Goderich. Advertisement Story continues below This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Article content Whatever the truth of Waddells story, he was an ill-starred captain. Sadly, Waddell, age 53, and his 14-year-old son William, drowned when their vessel went down off Pine Point (Point Clark) on July 20, 1870. With Waddells death, the story of the schooner Explorer should have ended but, in June 1882, salvage divers raised the Explorer. Future Goderich mayor and MP E. N. Lewis, purchased the boat and had it towed into Goderich harbour for refitting. The divers gave a disturbing account of the Explorers fate that radically varied from Waddells. In a story published in June 1882 in the Port Huron Times, divers claimed the Explorer was deliberately scuttled in an insurance scam and her two crewmen murdered. Salvage diver R. G. McCulloch reported that when they discovered the Explorer, they expected to find the holds filled with her cargo of machinery and whisky. Instead they found the Explorers holds weighted down with about 15 tons of hardheads or stones. The schooner had also been stripped of her sails, blocks, tackle and rigging. More damning evidence were the 12-inch and one-half holes drilled under her limber boards. McCulloch, without explicitly blaming Waddell, theorized that the holes were drilled before the Explorer set sail. When the Explorer neared the shoals at Cove Island, the crew unloaded her cargo and hid it in caves to be retrieved later. After the cargo was unloaded, the plugs were pulled and the ship was purposely scuttled in an insurance scam. McCulloch claimed that seven plugs were found on the Explorers deck. Advertisement Story continues below This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Article content The cabin, which according to Waddell had been washed away, was found intact. McCulloch reported one perfect body found on board with a shirt and pair of pants on, and the bones and putrid flesh of another. The most disturbing claim was that the cabin door was locked from the outside. McCulloch contended that the men were either drunk or drugged when someone deliberately locked them inside the cabin and sank the ship to keep them from talking. If true, it was an act of cold-blooded murder. Perhaps it was an attempt to spare the sensitivities of Waddells widow and children when the Goderich Stars editor declared that after inspecting the ship he found no evidence that she had been scuttled. Incensed, McCulloch repeated his story and directed the Stars editor to go with the harbour master with specific instructions on where to find the drilled holes. Although E. N. Lewis, the Explorers new owner, warned McCulloch to say nothing about it in Goderich because the least told the sooner mended. McCulloch sailed into Goderich in September 1882 and insisted to the Huron Signal that his published statements were straight as string and that the Explorer had been completely cleaned out. McCulloch added that milling machinery, and blocks and tackle, and sails, and furniture and such things dont get up and walk out of a wrecked schooner. McCullochs account was partly verified by a Captain Taylor of Sarnia who recalled seeing Waddell and a boy (probably his son William) around Cove Island taking on several barrels in the shipping season after the Explorer went down. Believing they were whisky barrels, Taylors crew hooked one. When they looked inside, they were disappointed to find that the barrel was packed with sails and rope. McCulloch told the Huron Signal that he was willing to let the matter rest but when Waddells friends began to bulldoze us, and make out that we had trumped up a story, we made our mind to hold fast. Described as an intelligent looking man the Signal found McCulloch a credible witness who seems thoroughly to understand his work. McCulloch and the other divers said they were prepared to testify in court. Whatever the truth, and McCullochs story is just speculation, the Explorer was an ill-fated vessel that had an even more tragic fate in her near future. Share this article in your social network        Latest National Stories Advertisement Story continues below This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. News Near Goderich