Tag Archives: Eugene Francis

Transport Canada must be ‘more vigilant,’ relatives say two years after N.S. sinking

“My father said, ‘After this trip, this was it,’ because it was quite dangerous,” Michael Francis said during a recent interview at his home in Milton, N.S., a few weeks before the second anniversary of the sinking of the Chief William Saulis. The bodies of Eugene (Geno)Michael Francis, Aaron Cogswell, Leonard Gabriel, Dan Forbes and captain Charles Roberts were never recovered after the 17-metre vessel capsized on Dec. 15, 2020, just off Delaps Cove, about 50 kilometres north of Digby, N.S. The body of crew member Michael Drake was swept up on the rocky shoreline. Two years later, Francis and Lori Phillips, the mother of Cogswell, say Dec. 15 is a date that provokes painful memories, unanswered questions and frustration over a Transportation Safety Board investigation that still hasn’t officially delivered its findings. >click to read< 08:43 >Search Results for Chief William Saulis<

‘The spot is beautiful’: Chief William Saulis crew remembered with memorial

Lori Phillips was at a loss. She didn’t want to go to just any random cemetery and place a headstone with her son Aaron’s name on it. She would have no relationship to that spot, she says. It would just be a stone on a piece of land. Her son, Aaron Cogswell, was one of six fishermen who lost their lives in the Dec. 15, 2020, sinking of the Chief William Saulis scallop dragger. The others were Charles Roberts, Daniel Forbes, Michael Drake, Eugene Francis, and Leonard Gabriel. Phillips needed a place for her and others to remember the crew. >click to read< 09:01

Questions linger for mother as monument erected for lost fishermen in Nova Scotia

Questions about how a scallop dragger sank suddenly in 2020 are lingering for a crew member’s mother, who this week installed a stone monument close to where the boat was lost. The bodies of Aaron Cogswell, Leonard Gabriel, Dan Forbes, Geno Francis and captain Charles Roberts were never found after the sinking of the Chief William Saulis on Dec. 15, 2020. The body of crew member Michael Drake came ashore near Delaps Cove, a coastal village about 50 kilometres north of Digby, N.S. Lori Phillips, Cogswell’s mother, has worked alongside Darlene Roberts, the wife of the captain, to create a stone memorial to honour the men on a wilderness trail within sight of the coastal waters where the dragger went down. >please click to read< 16:22

Plans underway by mother, Yarmouth for memorials to six Nova Scotia fishermen lost at sea

Plans are underway by a mother and the town of Yarmouth, N.S., for memorials to six fishermen who died when their scallop dragger sank off the province’s southwestern coast 14 months ago. Lori Phillips, Aaron Cogswell’s mother, has ordered a stone monument to be installed in the Delaps Cove area as a place to remember her son, and it also has the names and images of the other fishermen on it. She used funeral funds provided by the Workers’ Compensation Board of Nova Scotia, and some of her own money, to pay the $6,000 cost of the stone monument, which was delivered at a reduced price. On the stone is a photo of the dragger and photos of all the crew, and it is written, “these six men held important roles in the lives near and dear to them.” >click to read< 10:26

A family’s heartache and the frustrating push to talk more about workplace deaths in Nova Scotia

Ryan Durling was 21 when he was crushed in a garbage truck while working in Port Williams, N.S. Durling’s death was one of 44 acute workplace fatalities in Nova Scotia in five years. Among those who died while working were RCMP Const. Heidi Stevenson and Kristen Beaton, a Victorian Order of Nurses community health worker. But there are other fatalities that the media never covered,,, The largest workplace event in 2020 in Atlantic Canada was the loss of the six men who were on board the scallop vessel the Chief William Saulis.,,, Durling’s parents hope that their son’s death will  prompt some change, and his mother hopes other families who suffer a workplace loss are supported as they press for answers. “The more we talk about things and be aware of things and issues and things that arise and that, you know, will bring in awareness and maybe preventative measures,” Pam Durling said. >click to read< 10:39

F/V Chief William Saulis: Royal Canadian Mounted Police end search for missing crew on sunken scallop dragger

More than a month after the crew of a scallop dragger from Nova Scotia disappeared on the Bay of Fundy, the RCMP are calling off their search for the five men suspected of going down with the vessel, citing “significant” risk to the lives of divers. The RCMP said at the time that their crews were not equipped to dive to the necessary depths to look inside, but they said they were studying their options. On Saturday, they announced in a news release that those options had been exhausted. >click to read< The RCMP is calling off its search for the Chief Willian Saulis>click to read< 11:43

Coast guard vessel with platform to help with search for missing scallop dragger

The Canadian Coast Guard has deployed a vessel with a platform to help search the Bay of Fundy for a scallop dragger that went missing two weeks ago. The coast guard vessel left Dartmouth on Wednesday and should arrive in Digby, N.S., by Friday, according to a release from the Nova Scotia RCMP. From there, the RCMP’s underwater recovery team will be able to perform sonar exploration in the area in search of the Chief William Saulis. The fishing vessel with six men on board sent out an emergency beacon near Delaps Cove, N.S., in the early morning of Dec. 15. >click to read< 19:09

RCMP resumes aerial search, C.G. planning sonar exploration for missing F/V Chief William Saulis fishermen

The search will take place about 100 kilometres off the coast from Digby Gut to Harbourville by helicopter, according to a news release. The scallop vessel sank in the early hours of Dec. 15 off the coast of Delaps Cove. The Nova Scotia RCMP and the RCMP Underwater Recovery Team are currently in the planning stages of a partnership with the Canadian Coast Guard to provide a platform which will assist in recovery efforts, including sonar exploration. >click to read< 15:44