Marc Guylaine
| History | |
|---|---|
 Canada
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| Name: |
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| Port of registry: | Vancouver (from 1977) |
| Builder: | Saint John Shipbuilding, Saint John, New Brunswick |
| Yard number: | 1095 |
| Launched: | 1969 |
| Identification: |
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| Status: | in active service, as of 2012[update] |
| General characteristics | |
| Type: | Fishing boat |
| Tonnage: | |
| Length: | 22.13 m (72 ft 7 in) |
| Beam: | 6.77 m (22 ft 3 in) |
| Depth: | 3.05 m (10 ft 0 in) |
| Propulsion: | 1 × 798 bhp (595 kW) diesel engine |
| Speed: | 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph) |
Marc Guylaine was a Canadian herring seiner built in 1969, along with its two sister ships, the Lady Dorianne and Lady Audette. After its two sister ships both mysteriously sank in the Acadian peninsula, drowning nine men, and the only two other ships built to the same specifications met identical fates, the Marc Guylaine became the subject of great fear that it would meet a similar end.
The government eventually agreed to purchase the "cursed" ship from its captain, and subsequently renamed it and moved it out of Atlantic Canada, selling it to a fishing corporation on the Pacific Coast where it remains in service today as the Freeport.
In 1969, Saint John Shipbuilding built three identical 126-tonne fishing trawlers named the Lady Audette II, the Marc Guylaine II and the Lady Dorianne II. The original engineering records for the Dorianne and Audette were obtained by the Marine Museum of the Great Lakes at Kingston for their records-collection.
The Marc Guylaine was sold to Gélas Haché, and the Lady Audette was sold to A. Chaisson.
On November 23, 1970, the Lady Dorianne departed from Havre-Aubert en route to Shippagan following a storm. It was alternatively reported as having five or six men aboard, including the captain Sylvio Noël, when it disappeared off the coast of Miscou Island. Everybody aboard was presumed killed, although the ship and bodies were never found. In December, the Ministry of Transportation was urged to not give up its search for the ship, since the previous sinkings of two identical ships were still unexplained and it was hoped that the wreckage might provide a clue to its fate. It was never found, although searches turned up an uninflated life raft from the ship.
On April 23, 1971 the Lady Audette radioed the trawler Apollo III, addressing its captain Roméo Michon: "Roméo, come quickly to us, we are sinking." The Lady Audette is believed to have inexplicably sunk near the Rochers aux Oiseaux off Magdalen Islands, and could not be found. Three men drowned but, unlike the sinking of her sister ship, there were also four or five survivors. Two years later, the wreckage was discovered.
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