WELLAND CANAL
Life had already dealt a tough blow to young Francis Fernley Bassett before he boarded the ship S.S. Ausonia with his family in July 1913 to come to Canada.
His mother, Edith, had died when he was about six years old. Fernley, as he was known, was moving to a new country with his father William, stepmother Phoebe (Stacey) and sister Phyllis, while left behind in England was another sister, Elsie M., whose birth had resulted in the death of their mother in childbirth. New opportunities and a fresh start awaited them.
In the 1920s the family moved to Welland. In February 1929, Francis Bassett started work as a labourer for Hamilton Bridge Co., the same company which employed his father, William Bassett.
Hamilton Bridge Co. was responsible for constructing the two vertical lift bridges over the new canal in Port Colborne. Bridge No. 20 would carry the Buffalo to Goderich tracks of the Canadian National Railway, while Bridge No. 21 at Clarence Street was for automobile traffic.
Erecting those structures required the use of cranes, including a large locomotive crane that operated on railway tracks. The crane had an engineer, a fireman, and a crane operator responsible for its operation. The crane itself was mounted on a turntable on a platform similar to a flat car, which allowed the crane to turn when needed for lifting.
As a yardman at Bridge No. 20, part of Francis Bassett’s job was to follow the crane and hook on whatever was being lifted, as well as opening switches as the crane moved around and blocking the wheels when the crane was lifting. As the inquest jury later learned, he was not supposed to ride on the locomotive crane when it was moving, although for long trips the labourers often did, to save walking.
It was almost 4 p.m. on Saturday, April 6, 1929. Bassett and several other workers had been asked to move a truck onto a siding while the locomotive crane was to go lift some material off the road. The engineer moving it had to swing the crane on its turntable so the crane boom would not hit some overhead telegraph wires. He could not see that Bassett was sitting on the crane platform, and only realized there was a problem when he heard a scream.
Bassett was caught between the boom and the platform of the crane, his abdomen crushed. His father was within sight of the accident, also at work on the bridge. Workers rushed to the younger Bassett’s aid.
By the time Dr. Moffatt reached the scene fifteen minutes later,
Bassett was in the back of an ambulance on West Street. The doctor saw Bassett take his last breath, knowing there was nothing he could do to save him. His internal injuries were just too severe. William Bassett had lost his only son.
At the inquest, witnesses agreed that Francis Bassett should not have been on the locomotive crane. The jury returned a verdict of accidental death.
Bassett was buried in Woodlawn Cemetery in Welland. Left behind to mourn his loss was his father, stepmother, sisters Phyllis and Elsie, and a half-sister (Muriel ‘Ruby’).
Bassett was the first worker to die while working on the construction of the vertical lift bridges at Port Colborne.
Within a few months, his father would also lose his life while at work on the adjacent road bridge.
— 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 will be unveiled during a special ceremony at Lock 3 on Sunday, Nov. 12, at 2 p.m. The public is invited to attend. To learn more or to make a donation for the memorial, visit