WELLAND CANAL
SARAH KING HEAD
SPECIAL TO POSTMEDIA NETWORK
Born in the poor coastal village of Kilrush in County Clare, Ireland, to an illiterate father and semiliterate mother, Joseph Carrig arrived in North America “full of hope for life in the new world,” less than a year before his tragic death in the summer of 1928.
Sailing aboard the Scythia, he arrived in New York City in October 1927. He boarded first with his sister and her family in the Bronx before crossingintoCanadaatNiagaraFalls in May 1928. He took up residence as a lodger in the home of Edgar and Julia McIntosh on Richmond Street in Thorold. Although it is not possible to prove a stronger familial connection, it is known that Mrs. McIntosh hailed from the same village in County Clare as Carrig, having herself immigrated in 1908. Thus, while the border manifest associated with his immigration to Canada indicated a firm offer of employment, it was undoubtedly a bonus that he was able to live with someone from his hometown.
Tragically, Carrig’s hopes for a new life came to an abrupt end a mere two months later when the gate crash at Lock 6 killed him and nine others. His remains were identified by his landlady.
Of the 10 men to die on Aug. 1, 1928, it is the Irishman alone who had the posthumous recognition of being the focus of the inquest, on behalf of all of the deceased, that was called a week after the accident.
After meeting at Williams’ Undertaking rooms in Thorold to view the body, Dr. W.H. McMillan testified that his post mortem concluded the Irishman’s death “had been due to shock, haemorrhage and loss of brain tissue induced by a heavy weight falling on him.”
A month later, when the inquest reassembled in Thorold, the jury ruled that:
Joseph Carrig came to his death at lock No. 6, New Welland Ship Canal on or about ten minutes to 12 o’clock on August 1, 1928, through the falling of crane No. 7, specified in the evidence given, and we find that the cause of death was accidental...
Scathing in its assessment of the circumstances of the accident, the jury strongly urged, that in all operations of a similar nature the field of operation be cleared of all men not essential to the work in hand and that a more thorough inspection of cranes and machinery used in handling weights be made.
Carrig’s was one of 10 entirely preventable deaths that day in August 1928.
Tragedies like this do, however, often reveal a resiliency of spirit, which, in this case, would appear to have been the cementing of kinship bonds. Thus, while it was his landlady and compatriot, Julia McIntosh, who had the unenviable task of identifying her tenant’s body, it was presumably this connection that ensured his nearest relative’s ability to attend the funeral. With only a day’s notice, Maggie Doyle arrived from New York City just as the service was concluding at Holy Rosary Church in Thorold: “The casket was [thus] re-opened in order that she might have a last look at the face of her brother,” reported the Thorold Post.
With the promise of a new life continuing to outweigh the very real risks that cheap migrant labour so often suffered more often than not, hundreds of thousands continued to flood through North American ports for decades to come. Carrig’s brother Cornelius, aged 21, was a case in point. He arrived in New York City exactly three weeks after his brother’s death. But, unlike him, the younger Carrig remained in the Bronx with their sister’s family. He became a United States citizen in 1940. This article is part of a series remembering the men whose lives were lost in the construction of the Welland Ship Canal. The Welland Canal Fallen Workers Memorial Task Force is a volunteer group established to design, finance, and build a memorial to recognize workers who were killed during construction of the Welland Ship Canal. For more information about the Memorial, or to contribute to the project, visit: www.stcatharines. ca/ CanalWorkersMemorial