Mother never talked about it too much because it was a frightening experience for her.

I know one thing. She kept the mailbag. They gave her the mailbag and she looked after it. She kept it safe and clean somewhere in the house. She had it folded up and it was never dirty looking.

Mother died and I had no children, so my husband and I decided to give the mailbag away. Both of us were no longer young, and if anything happened, there was nobody to take it. We thought we would put it in the Gros Morne National Park for safekeeping.

I gave it to them and I had the picture taken, and as plain as could be, there was a band of red. Because the old mailbags were that colour. A band of red and then bands of white on the outside.

A few years ago my husband's cousins visited from B.C. We took them to Bonne Bay to see the bag. When the parks fella took it out it was black. It looked like it had been in a coal bin or something. That's the truth. I said, "Gosh, that's not it."

Mainlanders are more outspoken than some of us Newfoundland women are. One of our visitors went along and said, "Mrs. Menchions is not very pleased about that mailbag. She says it is not the right mailbag."

That's one thing I'm disappointed about. Very, very upset.

My husband Clayton was a clergyman. When we lived on Walwyn Street in St. John's, we always turned on the radio in the morning for Peter Miller's show. One morning he was talking about the Ethie. Frank Galgay and Mike McCarthy had written the story and said there was no baby involved.

At this, Clayton jumped up and went to the phone. He asked for Miller. "That's a strange thing," he said. "I just listened to the radio. You're saying there's no such thing as Hilda Batten being on the Ethie. I'm sitting down eating breakfast opposite her this morning!"

I spoke to Peter Miller then myself, and I also had a call from Captain English's daughter.