Hamilton woman’s family heirloom discovered on First World War shipwreck
So many fascinating mementoes from history have been trampled by time, discarded into dumpsters or melted down by metal salvagers.
But today, I have two stories about a couple of intriguing items that recently escaped the ravages of abandonment to be preserved for posterity. One is coming to Hamilton. The other is leaving.
Let's start by travelling to the Dover Strait of the English Channel, 15 miles southeast of the coastal town of Ramsgate in southeast England.
In 40 metres of murky water, the wreck of the British destroyer HMS Flirt has sat since October 1916 after it was sunk by a German navy warship in the First World War, killing 60 of the ship's crew.
Last month, some diving enthusiasts from the Thanet Sub Aqua Club in England visited the site and discovered a very tarnished oval brass nameplate that said, C. Smith."
It was a common name but an uncommon discovery by diving explorers. It's unusual to come upon something that has such a strong personal connection to someone.
Our best guess is that it would have been attached to a Ditty' box, a small box that a sailor would keep personal possessions such as money, letters, photos and tobacco," Mark Watson, of the diving club told me in an email. The name had been hand stamped into the plate, possibly by Smith himself or maybe one of the engineers on board did it for him."
The box, or whatever the plate was rivetted to, had long ago disintegrated. But who was C. Smith?
I have a friend, Chris Sandwell, who is a naval historian," Watson said, and he was able to determine the nameplate must have belonged to Able Seaman Charles Robert Drake Smith, a member of the Flirt's crew. Next stop was Ancestry.com and by a large stroke of luck," Sandwell found that Amanda Boucher from Hamilton was a descendant.
Boucher, 38, lives on the east Mountain with her boyfriend and four kids. She used to work as an ambulance dispatcher and is a self-described old soul" who likes knitting, crocheting and tracing her family history.
I started taking a big interest in my family history because I was bored and stuck at home because of the pandemic and then one day I got an email saying a diving club had retrieved something that they believed was from a relative of mine," she says.
The relative was her great grandfather's older brother. Smith survived the sinking of the Flirt. He was on board a lifeboat with several other crew members - en route to try to rescue survivors from another British navy vessel hit by enemy fire - when the Flirt went down.
Two years later, the seaman would find himself in another naval disaster. At the age of 22, he perished on board the HMS Seagull on Sept. 30, 1918, after the ship collided with a British merchant vessel, the S.S. Corribb in the Firth of Clyde, just six weeks before the end of the war.
Smith's story was something that Boucher had been piecing together when she received the email from the naval historian.
The fact that the nameplate was on the ocean floor for 105 years ... It's just mind-boggling that they found it and were able to locate me," she says.
The divers cleaned and shined the nameplate and will be sending it to Boucher shortly. No charge. It is part of the family's history and belongs to her," says Watson.
This whole story has been amazing for us. From finding a plate, to discovering it had a name on it, from being able to identify him, to finding out about his life and story, and ultimately finding his relatives. It has been an amazing and interesting journey," he says. We are always looking for artifacts when we dive the wrecks but finding something with a name on it is extremely rare and makes it extra special."
So, what is Boucher going to do with it?
We just finished a renovation with a nautical theme in one of the rooms. It will go perfectly there," she says.
Back in June, I wrote about a giant, seven-ton pipe organ at Binkley United Church in Hamilton that was being offered for free to a good home.
The church at 1570 Main St. W. was closing its doors forever. And members of the congregation didn't want to see their beloved 90-year-old Casavant instrument end up being scrapped.
So, church leaders took to social media to try to find someone to take it.
Many showed interest. But after crunching numbers, they took a pass.
While the instrument itself would be free, a technician who inspected the organ said that moving, repairing and bringing it up to modern standards would probably cost $100,000 or more. But a new one of similar quality would cost $900,000.
Last week, four months after the church went public with the organ offer, I received an email from Binkley's church organist Norene Anderson.
It is my honour to let you know that the lovely old Casavant Pipe Organ at Binkley United has found a new home at Netherlands Reformed Congregation in St. Catharines near the lake," she wrote.
And ironically the organ is going back in the direction from which it came. The Binkley organ was first installed in 1931 at Morrison Street United Church in Niagara Falls, Ont. It was moved to Binkley in 1992.
John Van Koeveringe, from Netherlands Reformed Congregation on Lakeshore Road West, said the church had been looking for a replacement for its lower quality pipe organ that needed extensive repairs.
They plan to start the laborious work on the Binkley Casavant over the next few weeks. He wouldn't reveal how much they figure it will cost, only that it will be very expensive.
The organ will be moved into storage while months of repairs and maintenance take place. The St. Catharines church will be modified to accommodate the new instrument, and then finally it will be installed.
The congregation hopes to unveil the newly refurbished pipe organ in about a year.