Something is lurking in the St-Lawrence

Toward the end of WWII aunt Alice Young was working at a dining room at The Bic a few miles from Rimouski, Quebec. On that particular morning she noticed something unusual in the St-Lawrence river. At first she thought it was a big fish but looking closely it was something else, nothing that was familiar to this young lady who left home with her thirteen siblings left behind. She was one of the eldest of the family. So she had to go to work to help the family.

Setting tables before the guest woke up for their breakfast was her daily routine. Her two sons related the same incredible story to me so it must be true. The odd object in the cold water of the river was a German submarine. Towards the end of the war Germany was out of fuel. The sub was stranded in the St-Lawrence seaway. In the early morning the submarine would surface without any light to keep from being detected but this young lady was a witness and couln't keep it a secret so she alerted her employer who alerted the authorities. The submarine was intercepted by the Canadian Army. It appears that the reason the ship was behaving as such was because the people on board were hungry as they ran out for rations and were sneaking at the cover of darkness to go to neighbouring farms to steel eggs and whatever else they could find to eat or clothing to move undetected dressed as civilians. 

They were busted by this sharp teenager with a keen eye. Years later aunt Alice is working at her restaurant in St-Jerome Que. a man walked in with a German accent. His name was Shultz she learned. Commandant Shultz. Apparently this Commandant was the same one who was aboard the submarine a few year prior. Alice and Mr. Shultz became friends for years to come. When my cousins were narrating this amazing tale I was in awe. This was the first time I had heard anything about a member of my family having any close encounter with anything to do with WWII. Wait a minute not so true. My mother use to tell me when I was a child about her cousin Adrian who was like her big brother as they were both adopted by their uncle Polydore and aunt Maggie from Eel River Crossings N.B. Adrian was around twenty years old when he was drafted to go abroad to fight for the Canadian Army but he chose to go hide in the Yukon until the end of the was. Adrian while he was on the run from the authorities contracted tuberculosis and died. Later on my mother was sick with tuberculosis  but after about eight months in the hospital came back home. 

Two members of the same Young family dead at the same railway crossing a few years apart. A coincidence?

A few years ago I came across the story of Frank Young a fellow from Bathurst who was involved in a car crash at a railway crossing. Him and another young man had borrowed a car and perished when they crossed the path of an uncoming train. Here is the news paper article: 

A collision between a freight train and a car at a level crossing not far from the C.N.R. Station attracted a large crowd on September 28, 1926. Cormier noted on his negative that a gentleman by the name of Fraser lost his life under a freight car while Frank Young, driving Mr. Charles Miller’s car was also killed by the impact. One can understand that such an accident would attract a large crowd.

Keeping that article in mind the other day I came across another interesting story and it had a link to this one. Here is the death certificate of Frank Young.

There is another accident that occured at a crossing in Bathurst N.B. It involved a teen by the name of Gertrude Young. Here is the news paper article: YOUNG; Gertrude age 21 died on the 8th/February/1936, she had been staying at the home of Mrs. James McGibbons since early November and was planning to leave for Montreal on Saturday she went to visit her mother at South Bathurst when she left she was seen walking on the train tracks toward Newcastle the trainman seen her by the McIntyre’s crossing about two miles from Bathurst, she crossed the track when they blew the whistle she then knelt down facing the oncoming train which being so close was unable to stop. She leaves her mother Mrs. James Daigle, her step-father James Daigle, two sisters, Miss. Katherine Young at home, and Miss. Isabelle Young of South Tetagouche three brothers, Leonard Caraquet, Edmond South Bathurst, and Joseph of Jacquet River. Her brother was killed at the same crossing 5 years ago when his car was struck by the train. Here is her death certificate.

It appears that she had never got over the fact that her brother was killed by the train, she wanted to go the same way a few years later.