Slippery surface leads to death
Working on a canal project places workers next to a lot of water. Yet, surprisingly, many of the workers on the Welland Ship Canal never learned how to swim, despite the possibility that such skills might save their life or someone else’s.
János Fater, a young man working on the canal, paid the ultimate price for not being able to swim.
Fater was born in Hungary, to Steve Fater and Rose Rustan. He had an elder sister also named Rose, married to Steve Varga. The Vargas moved to Canada at some point, followed by János Fater in 1926.
Fater arrived in Quebec aboard the S. S. Melita on Sept. 3, 1926. Fortunately for him, he had already managed to secure employment as a farmhand, so his passage was paid by his employer, John Taylor of Galt, Ont.
Fater later made his way to Niagara and it was reported that he had resided in the area for only two weeks when he met with an unfortunate accident.
He was part of a crew working for Canadian Dredging Co., which used tugs, dredges and scows in its part of the construction work on the canal.
Fater was routinely transferring coal from a coal scow to the dredge Monarch when it seems that he must have slipped on a piece of coal on the deck, falling into the water. Witnesses later reported that the tug, dredge and scow were all tied together and so the chance that the scow had suffered a freak wave without it affecting either of the other vessels was very unlikely.
Witnesses reported that Fater’s arms were stretched upwards out of the water in a plaintive plea for help. Martin Rowan, one of the workers on the tugboat, tossed him a lifebuoy, but Fater was not able to grab hold of it. His head never surfaced above the water.
After a few minutes the rescuers were able to grab him and brought him ashore. With the assistance of Dr. Grant N. Black, they tried for ninety minutes to resuscitate his lifeless body. It was too late — Fater was beyond the point of being saved.
His body was taken to Sutherland’s morgue where a jury was empanelled and an inquest opened.
Fater was laid to rest in an unmarked grave at Holy Cross Cemetery in Welland.
— 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 was unveiled during a special ceremony at Lock 3 last weekend. To learn more or to make a donation for the memorial, visit www. stcatharines. ca/ donate.