Of Curses and Myth- Portrait of Lucy Publicover
I curse this headland; this place
- it's dreams cast about,
Just as I watched my sons go down
So,
shall you watch your
family daughter out.
Lucy Publicover is a myth; a piece of folklore passed around the winter table when I lived in Fox Island many years ago. The telling of it to me is only a distant memory now, the details and accuracy are as vague as a ship disappearing into the fog. Perhaps I should have written it down, but at the time it just didn't seem that important to me. I had other things to do. So, I filed it away where most stories go, deep into the subconscious, until one day - provoked by a gesture and a winters dream, the memory of this myth returned to me long enough to recognise that a community's psychological characteristics can be bound up in a moments pose. The time, facts and the image of the event are now irrelevant, but the dream is not.
It was the women of fishing communities, of course who suffered the brunt of tragedies at sea. They lost lovers and children, siblings and fathers. As Ruskin said, "Human effort and sorrow going on perpetually from age to age, brave lives dashed away about the rattling beach, like weeds forever...". Fishing; one of the most dangerous occupations we know of. So it goes when you are committed to the boat.
So out at sea, a ship along with several local fishermen, gets caught up in an August gale. They attempt to make it back into port. The seas are way too rough, impeding their way back to safety, but from the headland townsfolk can see the spectacle of the ship in peril. I can't imagine what two brothers saw. Close but not close enough. A narrative better scripted for the British painter Turner than I.
Lucy Publicover, in panic and with the image of her two sons on the ship, implores her immediate family to not wait, but, with their own boat, attempt a rescue before fate deals its ugly blow. A classic dammed if you do, dammed if you don't situation. Ships are obliged to render assistance at sea as enshrined in both tradition and international conventions. When attempting a rescue of mariners in peril (as symbolized by an upside down distress flag), we see created the classic human equation.
http://books.google.ca/books?id=0V4u-NDQQVkC&pg=PA40&lpg=PA40&dq=ships+required+by+law+to+rescue+another+ship+with+its+distress+flag+up&source=bl&ots=ouS8V0GbgK&sig=xjXez_trP3UXrdLP9wiqOypmnuw&hl=en&sa=X&ei=6lg0T9WuNYGD0QH84eXcAg&ved=0CCcQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=ships%20required%20by%20law%20to%20rescue%20another%20ship%20with%20its%20distress%20flag%20up&f=false
The results are tragic. No attempt is made to rescue her sons and the other fishermen. Lucy Publicover watches for hours only to helplessly witness the final conclusion transforming herself and sons into myth. She curses her family, and eventually goes mad. It is said her curse manifested as the family eventually daughtered out. But what of the community?
Myths etch into the fibre of communities the way economic variables influence the tone of the next Canadian census and maritime out migration statistics. Lennie Gallant has mastered the art of the mariner protest and dirge. In Peter's Dream the ethos is about curse and transition.
Someone sang an old sea shanty
And Nealy told a mainland joke
Kelly cursed and swore until his voice gave out
And then he asked me for a smoke
And then he took his father's shotgun
Walked to the harbour, through the town
He fired fourteen times, woke everyone up
And we all watched that boat go down
Myth and symbols always underline tragedy, patiently waiting for the bare facts of dawn.
Steven Rhude, Wolfville, NS
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| A Portrait of Lucy Publicover, Graphite on Paper, 9"x14", Steven Rhude |
- it's dreams cast about,
Just as I watched my sons go down
So,
shall you watch your
family daughter out.
Lucy Publicover is a myth; a piece of folklore passed around the winter table when I lived in Fox Island many years ago. The telling of it to me is only a distant memory now, the details and accuracy are as vague as a ship disappearing into the fog. Perhaps I should have written it down, but at the time it just didn't seem that important to me. I had other things to do. So, I filed it away where most stories go, deep into the subconscious, until one day - provoked by a gesture and a winters dream, the memory of this myth returned to me long enough to recognise that a community's psychological characteristics can be bound up in a moments pose. The time, facts and the image of the event are now irrelevant, but the dream is not.
It was the women of fishing communities, of course who suffered the brunt of tragedies at sea. They lost lovers and children, siblings and fathers. As Ruskin said, "Human effort and sorrow going on perpetually from age to age, brave lives dashed away about the rattling beach, like weeds forever...". Fishing; one of the most dangerous occupations we know of. So it goes when you are committed to the boat.
So out at sea, a ship along with several local fishermen, gets caught up in an August gale. They attempt to make it back into port. The seas are way too rough, impeding their way back to safety, but from the headland townsfolk can see the spectacle of the ship in peril. I can't imagine what two brothers saw. Close but not close enough. A narrative better scripted for the British painter Turner than I.
Lucy Publicover, in panic and with the image of her two sons on the ship, implores her immediate family to not wait, but, with their own boat, attempt a rescue before fate deals its ugly blow. A classic dammed if you do, dammed if you don't situation. Ships are obliged to render assistance at sea as enshrined in both tradition and international conventions. When attempting a rescue of mariners in peril (as symbolized by an upside down distress flag), we see created the classic human equation.
http://books.google.ca/books?id=0V4u-NDQQVkC&pg=PA40&lpg=PA40&dq=ships+required+by+law+to+rescue+another+ship+with+its+distress+flag+up&source=bl&ots=ouS8V0GbgK&sig=xjXez_trP3UXrdLP9wiqOypmnuw&hl=en&sa=X&ei=6lg0T9WuNYGD0QH84eXcAg&ved=0CCcQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=ships%20required%20by%20law%20to%20rescue%20another%20ship%20with%20its%20distress%20flag%20up&f=false
The results are tragic. No attempt is made to rescue her sons and the other fishermen. Lucy Publicover watches for hours only to helplessly witness the final conclusion transforming herself and sons into myth. She curses her family, and eventually goes mad. It is said her curse manifested as the family eventually daughtered out. But what of the community?
Myths etch into the fibre of communities the way economic variables influence the tone of the next Canadian census and maritime out migration statistics. Lennie Gallant has mastered the art of the mariner protest and dirge. In Peter's Dream the ethos is about curse and transition.
Someone sang an old sea shanty
And Nealy told a mainland joke
Kelly cursed and swore until his voice gave out
And then he asked me for a smoke
And then he took his father's shotgun
Walked to the harbour, through the town
He fired fourteen times, woke everyone up
And we all watched that boat go down
Myth and symbols always underline tragedy, patiently waiting for the bare facts of dawn.
Steven Rhude, Wolfville, NS
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