"When the ship rolled away from you," said Howell, "you could almost walk upright on the rigging. But when she came back, you had to hang on for your life."

The two men reached the topsail and capped it. Then they began the dangerous climb down. They got back on the deck safely. By morning the ship was still afloat and the wind had died down.

It was in the latter years of sailing on the Labrador that Howell became shipwrecked. He was working on a boat that was collecting salmon from the Labrador fishermen. Howell related, "I was the engineer that time. We had a new engine in the boat and the wind from the southwest was helping us along; we were really moving. It was foggy and for some reason we were off course."

"When we struck, the ship went up into the air like a ski-doo. When she came down, she cracked in the middle. The ship started taking on water. The captain gave the order to abandon ship. I had to go below to wake some of the crew who slept through the racket."

The ship was in no danger of sinking right away because of the wooden fish boxes below deck. While they were making preparations to leave the ship, the fog lifted. A fishing boat came into view and saw the ship was in trouble. The crew took the ship in tow and beached her in a harbour. The wreck commissioner later wrote her off as a total loss.

They returned home on the Kyle. At first they were refused passage because they had no money. The skipper had seventy dollars, but that wasn't enough for all of them. The skipper was arguing with the purser of the Kyle when a man named Mr. Westlo, who knew the skipper, stepped forward and offered to pay for their passage.

"That was the way it was," said Howell. "Long hours of work, with little or no reward."