Come for a truly fascinating mariner’s tale as third-generation wharf-rat Paul Carroll recounts the saga of The Wexford, a fine English-made ship lost in Lake Huron during the Great Storm of 1913. Learn how this ocean-going trading vessel found its way to the Western Steamship Company as a “canaller” for use in the Great Lakes grain trade. A decade into her Great Lakes service, she became a much-loved ship with a well-known crew. Her amidships cabin, with its open flying bridge deck and her broad, flared bow, made her a beauty to behold. Hear the tragic story of her sinking under a young captain in the most horrific storm the Great Lakes had ever witnessed. All aboard lost their lives that day as they tried in vain to make safe refuge in the Port of Goderich.
Missing for 89 years, The Wexford was found in 2000. Carroll was a member of the Goderich-based shipwreck-finding crew which confirmed the find. He received the 2011 Ontario Marine Heritage Award from the ‘Save Ontario Shipwrecks’ Society. In 2014, his work with the Great Lakes 1913 Centenary Remembrance was recognized when he was a co-recipient of the Ontario Historical Society’s Dorothy Duncan Award as well as the Governor General’s Canada History Society Community History Award. Evening starts at 7 p.m. Admission is $7 per person, $5 for members.
