Travel Shipwreck booty & other surprises To see the larger islands of MiquelonLanglade, we took a bus tour guided by Miquelon resident Roger Etcheberry. Showing us a sketch of some dories in a book, he explained: “Miquelon dories had cabins on top because fishermen needed shelter when they travelled three hours out to fish. Fishermen in Saint-Pierre didn’t require cabins because they fished closer to shore.” At the MiquelonMuseum, we viewedmodels of wooden dories with and without cabins. The museum also displays marine artifacts, including compasses and telescopes salvaged from the 600 to 700 shipwrecks around the islands. What’s the connection between Queen Victoria and Miquelon-Langlade’s shipwrecks? “After the wreck of a British warship in 1874, Queen Victoria offered to pay for a lighthouse to prevent future shipwrecks, but the French king decided to fund it himself,” said Roger. “The only casualty was the ship’s cook, who drowned when the rescue boat capsized before he reached the shore. He was buried in the Miquelon Cemetery.” Fog prevented us from seeing the lighthouse, but we later admired a beautiful glass engraving of a lighthouse on a door in the village of Miquelon, not far from the cemetery containing the grave of the ship’s cook. We made some surprising discoveries as we explored compact Saint-Pierre on foot. In the Arche Museum and Archives, we viewed the only guillotine ever used in North America. Its blade dropped once, in 1889, to execute a thief who had stabbed and dismembered his victim. Another unanticipated sight was the Cutty Sark house, built from recycled whisky crates after Prohibition. From 1920 to 1933, Saint-Pierre and Miquelon residents grew wealthy smuggling alcoholic contraband to rum-runners to quench thirsty North American throats. Miquelon Museum displays marine artifacts salvaged from shipwrecks Models of traditional fishing dories in Miquelon Museum Roger Etcheberry holds book with sketch of traditional fishing dories CSANews | SUMMER 2020 | 21
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