Ephraim Baker was my third great grandfather. He was born about 1840 on Tancook Island in Mahone Bay in Nova Scotia. Later, his father Frederick Baker moved the family to East Jeddore in Halifax County.
Ephraim commanded a fishing boat named the Mary Jane. On December 18th, 1876 a snow storm caused the boat to run on a sandbar near Halifax. He and another crewman drowned.
The following obituary appeared in the Christian Messenger on January 10th, 1877:
Christian Messenger – Wednesday, 10 January 1877 – Page 14 –
Jeddore, Dec. 26th, 1876.
Mr. Editor, –
A cloud of gloom is hanging over this harbour, caused by the wreck of a large fishing-boat owned by Mr. Ephraim Baker. She left here on Monday, the 18th inst., for Halifax, loaded with fish. The wind being ahead and moderate, the crew thought it best to run back again rather than stay out over night. But when they came within two or three miles of the harbour, the wind breezed up from the S.E. Though late in the afternoon, they now concluded to run for Halifax. As night came on the wind increased, and brought snow with it. In the snow and darkness they ran on Thrum Cap shoal. Mr. E. Baker and F. Gould left the wreck in a small boat, and were lost in the breakers. The remainder of the crew – five in number, remained on the wreck until she broke up, when the deck, with them on it drifted ashore. The bodies of the two men drowned, were recovered next day, and taken on board the schr. Princess, owned by Mr. Enos C. Baker, brother of the deceased, and brought home on Wednesday. Mr. Ephraim Baker, was in the prime of life, aged 35 years, and an honoured member of the Baptist Church in that place. He leaves a wife and four children to mourn the loss of a kind father and loving husband. He will be greatly missed in the community, as well as in the family and the church. We trust his bereaved partner – also a loved member of the church, will be enabled by faith to pierce the gloom, and behold the bright lining beyond, for oft,
“God moves in mysterious way,
His wonders to perform;
He plants his footsteps in the sea,
And rides upon the storm.
Judge not the Lord by feeble sense,
But trust him for his grace;
Behind a frowning providence
He hides a smiling face.”
With what power and eloquence such events proclaim the words: “Be ye also ready; for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh.” I hope the event – sad as it is, may prove beneficial to many of the large number present at his funeral on the 24th inst. But impressions made by such events too often prove “like the morning cloud and the early dew.”
Yours &c.
Jas. Meadows.
