The “Dame of Seal Island� was one grand lady

By Laurent d’Entremont



The first people to visit Seal Island, 15 miles off Yarmouth, were French explorer Samuel de Champlain and his entourage while on their way to Isle Sainte Croix, Port Royal in 1604.

The adventurers visited the place, saw hundreds of seals and named it Isles Aux Loup Marins, or Seal Island.

The beauty of the place, the abundance of fish, seals and game birds, as well as the charm of the surrounding islands impressed the French sailors.

Seal, about four or five miles long, is the biggest of this island group; the others are Mud, Flat, Round and Nuddy, and are collectively known as the Seal Islands, (an extension of the Tusket Islands) by writers, tourists and fishermen.

It would be difficult to write about Seal Island without mentioning Winnifred Crowell Hamilton, who lived on the island all 93 years of her life. When she died in February of 1982, the Yarmouth Vanguard had an article by Genevieve McCrae titled, “Winnifred Hamilton, the dame of Seal Island remembered.� The feature told a lot about Hamilton and her treasured island.

“Winnifred Hamilton, the dame of Seal Island, as Thomas Raddall referred to her in his 1932 article, is dead. A daughter of light keeper John Crowell, granddaughter of Mary and Captain Richard Hitchen, her death brings to an end 159 years of guardianship by this family of Seal Island, during which time not one shipwrecked person perished on shore�.

It was her grandparents, Mary and Captain Hitchen, who decided to do something about the unfortunate souls cast ashore on Seal Island. Many shipwrecked sailors would survive the ordeal only to die of exposure onshore. Every spring, preachers and residents of nearby counties would come to the island to bury those whose bodies had washed ashore. It was then decided to put “people of good character� to live on the island to fish, farm and give assistance to shipwrecked sailors.

A lighthouse to warn the fishermen and sailors of the many shoals in the vicinity was needed and on Nov. 28, 1831, the Seal Island lighthouse sent its first beams of light, which could be seen for miles around, at least when it wasn’t too foggy. A foghorn or whistle warned the mariners when visibility was poor.

As more fishing families moved on the island, community life developed. They grew crops, built barns, kept chickens and a few animals. They always maintained sheep on the islands and legend has it that they were put there many years ago so that stranded sailors would not die of starvation as early shipwrecked victims had done.

A small church with a steeple was built and mainland preachers that often visited the island community, conducted services and held Sunday school. Eventually, they had a small general store, post office and a school. Island children could not get out of going to school, either. In 1888, a little red schoolhouse was erected there. The first teacher was Miss Cora Nickerson from Cape Island, Shelburne County.

Happily, I can report having set foot on Seal Island, if only once. It was during the big census of 1976. I went as helper to Mike McDonough of Yarmouth, who was the census commissioner for Yarmouth and some of the islands, including Seal, fell in his district for this purpose.

He had given me the task of finding a boat to visit all the islands in the group and invited me to go along, an invitation I did not refuse. It was on a picture-perfect day without a ripple on the water, but there was one more reason why I wanted to visit this island. My grandfather had fished east, west and at both ends of Seal Island during the days of sail and had told stories about it a hundred times or more.

Setting foot on this island, mentioned so many times in my grandfather’s stories, I felt a bit like Robinson Crusoe, or even a shade of Gilligan, but we knew we were there for just a few hours. Did we meet the dame of Seal Island? You can be sure we did. Her two little yapping dogs greeted us as we made our way to her cottage to “count heads and buildings� on her island.

At 87 years of age, her red cheeks were as weather beaten as the rugged coastline after many summers in the wind, sun and fog, and I’ll always remember shaking hands with Winnifred Hamilton. After many years of hard work the palm of her hand was like sand paper. She was one grand lady and we all enjoyed chatting with her, especially me, as she dated back to my grandfather’s fishing era.

Unfortunately, I do not have the census record of that day so long ago. We visited the lighthouse, homes and outer buildings, at least those that were still occupied on the island. Before we left we paid our respects to the little island church, the memorial church, signed the register (June 1976) and left our humble donations in the collection box. Birders, (many from the Annapolis Valley) mossers, fishermen and tourists visit the island quite regularly and I hope to go back some day tp re-visit Seal Island. laudent@hotmail.com