Marco Polo Project

Thomas Gallant, centre, and his son Phil, right, in front of the Marco Polo replica with Barry Ogden of the Marco Polo Project.

As anniversary nears, islander recalls finding ship
Marco Polo P.E.I. man discovered sunken vessel, which went down 126 years ago on Saturday

SANDRA DAVIS
TELEGRAPH-JOURNAL
THURSDAY, JULY 23, 2009

   One lovely morning around 1960, the waters of the Gulf of St. Lawrence were so clear that Thomas Gallant could count lobsters crawling along the seabed.
   "I said to my brother, `My father tells me the Marco Polo is down here somewhere'and be-gosh-darn, I seen it laying on the bottom.
   "I said to my brother, `Holy Christmas, I'll take landmarks and I'll know right where she's at.
   "I took an old dead tree and a green tree and I lined it up. Then I got a diver - he thought I was crazy, too - but down he went, right into her."
   Saturday marks the 126th anniversary of the sinking of the Marco Polo. Once known as the fastest ship in the world, she was the first to circumnavigate the globe in less than six months - five months, 21 days, to be precise. She grounded at Cavendish Beach, P.E.I., on July 25,1883.
   When Thomas Gallant was a boy of eight, Henry Gallant told his son about going with his own father to watch him salvage lumber off the doomed ship.
   "She was already down when my father's father went up there;' Thomas Gallant said. "The insurance company took her over and they were taking the lumber off of the Marco Polo."
    Later, when Thomas Gallant was 14 years old and started fishing, his father told him he was fishing directly on top of the ship's wreckage.
   "I thought he was kidding," Thomas Gallant recalls.
    "That's when he told me he was up there with his father and his father helped the farmers haul timber off of the Marco Polo. He said, `You're fishing in the area where she went down.
   "I finally found the wreck, so he was right."
   There she was, in eight metres of water, he said.
   "The stern plaque had broken off with the heavy ice in the Gulf of St Lawrence;' Thomas Gallant remembers. "She was laying southeast and nor-west on the bottom. The deck had fallen in and she was pretty well covered with sand. There wasn't much you could see but there was a big pile of chain - that's what she used to anchor with - on the bow and she listed on one side.
   "The big pile of chain fell off her bow on the bottom. It just looked like a haystack."
   A pair of bookends made from the chain is all Thomas Gallant has of the memorabilia that was brought up from the ship. Thomas Gallant recalls his father telling him of the spectacle the ship made.
   "He said it was a great big ship. He said it looked like a great big house sitting on the water. It was beautiful. It was a blue colour and the trim was pure white.
   "The farmers went near crazy. They jumped in their horse and wagons and drove down there just to see it. It was a quite a thing because there was no big boats around here at that time."
    Last spring, Thomas Gallant, now 87, came to see the non-sailing replica of the Marco Polo being built in Saint John.
   "They made a great job building it," he said.
   The Marco Polo was built in Saint John in 1851 by Saint John shipwright James Smith and sailed for 32 years, from 1851 to 1883.
   For the past 22 years, local high school teacher Barry Ogden has made it his mission to make sure the Marco Polo is never forgotten.
   He's spearheading a project to build a one-third scale replica of the storied ship that will be 27 metres long and about 19 metres high. The original ship's mast would have been seen above City Hall when she sat in the harbour.
   The replica will cost about $300,000 to build.
   "It's getting very close," Ogden said. "The hull's in very good shape. They have done an excellent job. They're really starting to get into some detail and finishing the top of the bow."
   The deck cabins are on her, but she has yet to be painted and caulked and there is no plan to finish the interior.
   Nevertheless, there is a possibility the ship will be ready to move into place at a yet-to-be-determined spot along the Saint John waterfront, Ogden said.
   "The thought is to go somewhere between Long Wharf and Water Street. There are so many projects going on along the waterfront that we kind of have to wait."
    If a spot is secured, Ogden said he will be ready to move the replica.
   "We have a beautiful crib that was donated by Ocean Steel and put together by the ironworkers. That can be a permanent base," he said.
   DMK has agreed to supply a barge to carry the replica across the harbour and Logistec will move it, Ogden said.
   The mast and bowsprit will be put on when it reaches its final destination.
   More donations of time and money are needed and may be offered by calling Ogden at 849-4650. Ogden would also like to hear what people's ideas are for finishing the interior.

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