Bill Wilson was a hard working fisherman who lived in Little Merasheen and who spent a lot of time working in the woods. He was a man who truly believed in ghosts and was very nervous in the woods alone. Once when in a thick droke of woods down to "Murray’s Hill” he thought he felt something grab him by the head. In a panic, he ran all the way down "Murray's Scrape", and when he reached the bottom, only the brim of the straw hat he was wearing remained on his head. It had tangled in a limb and the whole hat raveled out as he ran.

Bill and his son, Johnny, had a smack named “The Old Tommy.” One night when anchored on Bennett's Bank a storm came up and being tossed about, the “Old Tommy" became leaky taking on so much water that they couldn’t keep her free. Bill told his son to go down for’d, get some flour and ashes and mix it up. When he had done this, Bill told him to throw the mixture on the water in front of the boat and haul up. After sailing through this mixture, they went home without taking on another drop of water.

Bill was a good hand at putting songs together and wrote two songs about events in his life. They are “Sandy Harbour Town" and "The August Gale”.

 John Tobias Pearson singing the August Gale

The August Gale

On the twenty-fifth of August the gale began to rise,
It left so many orphans and took so many lives.
Leaving their friends, and loved ones, their homes to see no more,
The ocean waves did roll that day like they never done before.

The wind it blew a fearful force and no let up that day,
The boats were anchored on the grounds around Placentia Bay.
When empty boats turned bottom up, and not a soul was saved,
Some forty fishermen or more did meet a watery grave.

John Follett in his little boat, about ten tons or more,
Was anchored on the fishing grounds, ‘bout twelve miles from the shore.
And when the gale began to rise, he made a run for the nearest port,
But a heavy sea rolled over them, capsized their little boat.

John Follett and one of his sons, clung to the wreck that day,
For eighteen miles they drifted, exposed to wind and sea.
God spared the lives of those poor boys to tell the mournful tale,
But his eldest son got drowned in that great August gale.

Danny Cheeseman from Rushoon also went down that day,
The boat was met with her two spars gone, ‘bout half ways in the bay.
To think on what they suffered, a stone would heave a sigh,
There was three men clinging to the wreck, when Harris passed her by.

He tried his best to save them, but his boat she did mistay,
And with aching hearts, they were forced to part, and run before the sea.
He done his best endeavour to see what he could do,
May the Lord have mercy on the souls of Dan Cheeseman and his crew.

Another schooner branded new, built up in Mortier Bay,
Commanded by John Laughlin, from Red Harbour sailed away;
Since he was anchored on Cape Pine, to the westward of the light,
He had a dory gone astray that dark and stormy night.

The Annie from Fox Harbour, also went down that day,
With seven hearty fishermen, no more to plough the sea,
And all of them being married men, which made the loss run high,
Excepting one, the skipper’s son, he was a single boy.

There's six young widows left to mourn, l know them all quite well,
With children small, no help at all, for to bear their troubles well.
If God Himself will lend a hand, look down on them l hope,
May the Lord have mercy on their souls, it was an awful stroke.

Editors note: The August Gale of 1927, Jim Harris' boat was the M & J Hayden, Dan Cheeseman's boat was the Hilda Gertrude.