Old camera. Old film. Old propellers.

A few weeks ago I dug out my Kodak Instamatic 500 camera and shot a

roll of 30-odd-year-old film in it. The results were pretty much as

I expected. This was one of the pictures. It shows the propellers

off the much-storied ferry the Motor Vessel William Carson. The

Carson was the main ferry connecting this island with the rest of

North America all through my childhood. I remember crossing to the

mainland in 1964 on that famous boat. It served until the 1970s when

it was replaced by more modern and larger ships. it went to the

Labrador run in the mid-1970s but, in its second year there, it hit

some ice and sank. No one was injured or lost. I was in Labrador

that year and some people were very distressed because it was the

first run of the year and the ship was carrying a lot of needed

supplies for the coast of Labrador. Included in that loss, I was told,

was the entire year's supply of beer -- all now at the bottom of the

sea!



Some time later, someone retrieved the Carson's propellers (not the

beer, though) and they now lie on the lawn of the university's Marine

institute.