The 1927 August Gale in Saint Croix Cove

Looking up to Saint Croix Cove Falls, photograph taken by Isabel Luce in May 2021

By the Bay of Fundy, between Hampton and Port Lorne is a little community called Saint Croix Cove. In 1913, at the top of the Saint Croix Cove waterfall, James Roland Healy (called Roll for short) cleared some land and built a saw mill where the Shore road is now.

Years later in August 1927, a horrible storm rolled in. According to the Bridgetown Monitor, “an almost steady downpour of rain on Wednesday continued through the night combined with a gale which did havoc all over the province.” The storm shook Roll’s saw mill all day. At suppertime he shut the mill down and walked out the door just as the wind was finally too much and the mill fell over the falls landing into the pool below. One piece of the mill was eventually recovered, a large crank piece, that was kept for years on display in a shop down the road, and now no evidence of the old mill remains.

Photos from “Stories of Port Lorne: Heroes and Poets” by Dean Sabean and Ken Banks, on page 11, showing the old mill with James Roland Healy inside

On the same stormy day in 1927 that knocked Roll Healy’s mill into Saint Croix Cove (mentioned in my last post), Roll’s son Malcolm (Mac) Healy was out working by Hampton. He decided to take his new fishing boat home instead of taking the road, so that he could be back in time for dinner. His friends warned him not to go because of the wild south gale blowing through, but he went anyways.

Photograph inside of a fish shack on the Bay of Fundy, taken by Isabel Luce on May 2021

Mac soon discovered that his motor wasn’t working, and the storm pushed him further into the Bay with only a burlap bag for a sail. Meanwhile, Mac’s brother Walter called the coast guard but they said it was too dangerous to go look for him. Walter then consulted a local fortune teller, living west of Hampton. She told him that Mac had survived.

Mac eventually came ashore in St. Martin’s, New Brunswick without a penny in his pockets. He found a logging job where he worked for several days to save enough to pay for a telegram to his mother, letting her know he was alive. Myrna Poole received the telegram at St. Croix Cove (as the Healys did not own a phone) and brought it to Mac’s distraught mother, who was in the middle of making arrangements for her son’s funeral. She thought he had surely died in that horrific storm as she had not heard from him for days. Mac eventually returned, married Myrna’s older sister Minnie, and settled in Phinneys Cove where they had four children.

Lookout at the Bay of Fundy, photographed by Isabel Luce in May 2021

For more information, read “Stories of Port Lorne: Heroes and Poets” by Dean Sabean and Ken Banks.