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; The crew of the MS Amherst Is- 1' lander spent their second night on ,. board, stuck in the middle of the chan- ; nel between the island and the main- land. Captain Willard reported ,the f ship still had enough fuel on board to i keep the crew quarters warm for two , or three days. 5, --Kingston Whig-Standard ,; . ' February 6, 1964 "Being a ferry captain isn't the eas- iest job in the world, you know." F 7 5 -- Captain Joe Sisty ' ' 1 MS Wolfe Islander; 1950 3 HE AFTERNOON SUN FILTERS 1 through the tall evergreen trees ' lined along the Millhaven shore at 3 the outer edge of Bath Road. The west-bound commuter traffic out of , Kingston has all but stopped on the . : Loyalist Parkway for another sum- ; mer day * High up on the bridge of the _ Amherst Island ferry Frontenac II, Senior Captain Earle Willard ad- justs his cap to shield the sun from his eyes as he prepares to de- part the mainland ,dock. Stepping be- tween the control consoles, he swings the for- . ¢ ' ward steering col- umn out and watches the dial as the '* indicator shows the huge propeller ' unit coming around. ' Gently, the big ferry swings away f from the dock, with seven cars, sever- 3 a1 passengers and five crew members ' _- all bound for nearby Amherst Island, I directly across the channel. ' ~ I Earle is the last of us ferry skippers ~ lto', wear the traditional navy blue offi- * cer's cap with the shiny black peak * complete with the Canadian Mer- chant Marine badge. ' But he wears it well; it fits the char- l acter of a guy who has spent the bet- -3 ter part of his life as a ferry captain. I An individual who, by the nature of I I his work, ensures his neighbours get 91.: BRIAN , JOHNSON 3 school, sick and injured get to hospi- , tal and everyone gets across the I. . l sometimes tumultuous channel safe- : ly. No matter what the weather: 1 Now, after 42 seasons of calm sum- __ . 5 mer nights, late fall gales with heav- . _ E ing seas and spray followed close by . ' sometimes harsh winters and mov- ' . - ~ ing ice, Captain Earle Willard 13 final- ,1 1y ready to hang up his cap. ' , 5 "Yeah, I guess it's time," he says, v" , i pausing for a minute to look out the "' ' I side Window one more time at anoth- I er beautiful sunset from the bridge of 5 his ship , / - ' 7 l . Crew member Dianne Marshall re- ' i lieves the captain from his steering § duties. 5 :3 (11 I71" II-l : i to mainland jobs, their children get to I A Senior Captain Earle Willard, shown aboard the Amherst Island ferry, will 1;. --. ,4 '/,' \ "m ' a! (Z'jlf'x 4 _ After 42 years at the helm, Earle Willard sets a course DianeWillard pItI hang up his captain' s hat after more than four decades at the helm. pper Sails Into sunSet ; g "I didn't start with the ferry until g the winter of 1965," says Earle, taking a chair by the edge of the window. "I wasn't aboard when the Amherst Islander was stuck that time in '64." The captain back then was the late Captain Eldon Willard, a distant .; , cousin. Even so, the winters contin- i ued to be harsh on both crew and ves- " ' sel and Earle had his turn the follow- " ing winter. "We were about 700 feet off the dock in Millhaven when we lost the shaft ' on the ferry, due to ice," he remem- bers. . _ "We got a 700 foot length of line, I ' T know, I walked it back from the dock "'5' to the boat. We tied it to the boat, took ,, a turn around a tree on shore and hooked on to the end of a snow plow. ' , 'We got her in, eventually." ' a, Joining the ferry service was really just a walk down the road. , "Well, I needed a job," Willard says, ' 1,, with a laugh. "So, I signed on as a _ deckhand, under Captain Norman ' Brooks. He was a nice guy, with a - _ wooden leg." ' . Later 1n the season, young Willard ' would learn just what it was like to be a sailor. "We had just cleared Fish Point on ,' Amherst Island," he remembers. "The wind was blowing hard, oh, gale force, I guess, from the northeast. Well, the Amherst Islander got in the - ' trough of the waves and she laid over , so far, her lifeboats touched the water, if you can believe it. Everything flew everywhere. I almost fell out the, wheelhouse door and Captain Brooks had to hang on to both the spinning steering wheel and the Chadburn to stay upright. But you know, I knew then she would never upset." ' The 34-car ferry Frontenac II is the Amherst Island ferry today. Captain Willard has most of his memories with the former boat, Amher'st Is- lander (3), with her gleaming black him and white superstructure. ' This sturdy 18-car vessel, built at ' the Kingston Shipyard in 1955, re- placed the former Second World War Tank Landing Craft Amherst Is- lander (2), which had been in service since December, 1947. She, in turn, re- placed the worn, wooden hulled smaller ferry of the same name , which came from Midland, Ont, in 1929. Appointed to captain in 0ctober, 1968, Earle never took the daily rou- tine of his job for granted, then or now. ' ' ' , "If you let your guard down, even once," he points out, "the 01' boat would catch you, every time. Your. perfect set-up with the dock could ' change with a sudden gust of wind. One time, on the Amherst Islander, setting out from the island, the Wind was blowing southwest somewhere around 60-70 knots. We were almost sideways, going across. She'd ride . right up on one wave, lean over hard, then almost disappear in the trough. She didn't have quite enough power. ' It was a struggle holding her up, into . the sea." The long hours for the ferry crews . were different then, too. I , ' days, you did a double shift then '_ ' . morning, and then started the whole " WolfeIslanderIII. . "There were just two crews back . - ' when I started," Earle says. "You ' . worked seven days in a row. On Sun'- . . switched to night shift for six of them. You worked until Sunday thing over again on Monday. Approaching the dock at Stella, , Captain Willard watches as Dianne ' brings the Frontenac II alongside, us- ing time honoured "marks," long es- tablished by the captains of yester- I . day. a Down below on the car deck, the crew throws the mooring lines with practised ease, the large "eyes" con; necting perfectly with the dock bol- lards. "You know, I'll miss the Crew," Ear- le says, watching the cars drive off. "They've been good to me, over the years." "What are your plans, Earle?" I ask, ' . somewhat anxiously, because, after1 all, just where do retired ferry skip. pers go, after you've rung "finished with engines" for the final time. "My wife Donna has set that up," he says, laughing. , "I've been told I've got to help out , more in the kitchen." Well, well. Maybe I better polish up on my culinary skills too, for that fi nal day, sometime down the road. Yeah. .right! ' One long and two short blasts, Ear- le. Have a Happy Retirement! ElBrian Johnson is the Captain of the < ~11 11': for retirement If you let your guard down even Once, the ol boat would catch you, . every time. ' , V 'g ' - Senior Captain Earle Willard ' Photo courtesy Brian johnson The first Amherst Islander, which was built in Midland, Ont., was a small, wooden-hulled ferry that came into service in Loyalist Township in I 92 9. Photo courtesy Brian Johnson The second Amherst Islander' Is shown In December; I947. It was a former Second World War tank landing craft. Photo courtesy Brian johnson The third Amherst Islander. was a sturdy I8-vessel boat, built at the Kingston shipyards' In I955. . . . . , . Photo courtesy Brian johnson High water levels In the summer of l95l resulted In the ferry dock on ' Amherst Island being submerged. 1 ~ ' p - « . . ~ g