Andy was going to take his fishing boat and travel down the bay to check on some property that might be for sale. He took his ten year old son with him and a shotgun in case they saw some grouse.
Their home was located on the north side of the bay, high up on a hill that gave them a great view of the lake. They left in the afternoon, November 11th, 1968, and headed southeast, four miles down the bay which is two miles wide. The weather was reasonable for this time of the year and there was little wind. Snow covered the ground, several inches deep, but the lake had not yet started to freeze over.
They left in a small aluminum boat and motor with two life jackets and a single paddle. The father had lived in the area all his life, was an experienced boater, and knew the lake well.
When the pair had not returned and it started to get dark, his wife began to get concerned. Because the house sat up high on the shore, its lights could be seen for some considerable distance down the lake. She made sure the outside lights were on so it would make it easier for the boaters to head for home when crossing the lake in the dark..
When they were a couple of hours overdue she phoned a neighbor who was a commercial fisherman on the bay and who was very familiar with the lake. He agreed to locate them and bring them home. It was thought they could have had motor problems and were stranded somewhere.
The fisherman was soon headed down the lake in his big boat that was equipped with a large spotlight. A careful search towards the end of the bay failed to see any sign of the smaller boat. Tracks in the snow at the landing showed where the boy and man had gone ashore and returned to the boat. The search was then continued on the lake but there was no sign of them anywhere between the landing and their home.
The fisherman then widened his search in case the motor had broken down and the light wind had pushed them into some small bay or island. A number of times he returned to the house in case he passed the missing boaters in the dark, and they made it home. It was impossible to see anything in the dark without the spotlight.
About 11 pm that night he discovered a life jacket floating in the water some distance to the south of the boat’s normal track home. The wind was from the northeast so they proceeded up wind looking for the boat or survivors. A short time later their spotlight settled on the nose of a boat bobbing in the water. A quick check in the surrounding waters showed no signs of the man or boy. They turned off the boat engine and called out their names but got no reply. It was deathly quiet on the lake
An aluminum fishing boat is built with floatation tanks under the seats and in the nose so that it will float if filled with water. However a motor on the rear of the boat would cause it to sink further until the boat was vertical under water and only a foot or so of the bow would show.
When it was confirmed there was no sign of the boat occupants, the fisherman used his radio phone to contact the Ontario Provincial Police. He reported the details of the accident and gave his location on the lake. While waiting for the police, other local neighbors were contacted and they headed out onto the lake to hunt for signs of the survivors.
Word quickly spread and in due course a large number of boats, including the police, were searching the lake and miles of shoreline. It was a very dark night and not all the boats had proper lights. When daylight came and more boats arrived to help, the police organized an in-depth search.
In the daylight a second life jacket, cap, and one paddle were found down wind from the original location where the sunken boat was first seen. The thorough daylight search failed to find any other items or the bodies.
By this time the boat had been recovered and carefully examined. It had no damage to the hull or to the outboard motor. What was unusual was the motor bracket that normally held the bottom of the motor out of the water when not in use had been broken. Enquiries established that it had been broken many months ago. It was surmised that the shotgun had been used to wedge the motor up out of the water so the boat would drift ashore faster, or to make the boat easier to paddle.
Eventually police divers were put to work and spent many hours searching the bottom of the lake but failed to find anything. The water depth ranged from 50 to as much as 100 feet. As the days passed it turned windy and the temperature dropped. Ice started to build up on the boats and equipment and the search was called off due to the deteriorating weather conditions. When the last boats came in they were covered in ice from the freezing spray. It was obvious that anyone who may have reached shore would have died from the cold.
At the time the search was called off the entire bay area and shoreline had been thoroughly searched. In the weeks that passed additional searches found not the slighted sign of the man or boy. Soon the lake froze over and deep snow made any hope of finding a trace of them passed.
Many theories were proposed as to what might have happened. The one that made the most sense was the possibility the motor of the boat failed at some point on the way home. The boat had only one paddle so it could not be paddled from the side as it would simply turn in a circle. The only reasonable way was to move up to the nose of the boat and paddle from the front.
If the motor was left in the water it would cause drag and slow the boat down. Since the lock that normally held the motor out of the water was broken, the shotgun was used to wedge it in the up position.
The wind was starting to pick up from the northeast and would help them towards a southerly shore. Paddling an aluminum boat from the nose is very difficult because the narrow bow of the boat leave little room to stand. It is very easy to lose your footing. If a cold wet foot slips, you pitch forward and can easily fall out of the boat and into the water. It is a very awkward and tiring job to paddle in this manner.
It would have been impossible to paddle the many miles needed to reach home in the dark so it was believed they would head down wind for the nearest shore which happens to be Hay Island. No homes or cabins are on the island. Once off the lake they could wait for help that was sure to come when they became overdue. During this difficult period of time it was possible for them to see the lights of their home, a couple of miles across the bay to the north.
It is believed that the father must have slipped from his awkward location in the bow and fallen overboard.
Or it is also possible the son fell overboard in the same manner while taking his turn paddling. The water was almost at the freezing point so neither one would not have lasted long in the water.
There would have been a frantic effort to get back into the boat as quickly as possible. In attempting to climb over the side into the boat it must have filled with water, and then sank. Neither occupant was wearing a life jacket so the cold water would have made it difficult, if not impossible to get one on while swimming in a winter jacket. If they were able to hang onto the nose of the boot, they soon became numb from the water, passed out and drowned Their bodies sank into the cold depths and could have drifted under water for some considerable time and distance before coming to rest..
It is important to consider that even if they had both been wearing life jackets they would not have lasted a half hour in the very cold water. With the life jackets off or on, their chance of survival differed only by a short time. It is an established fact that people who drown in the deeper parts of the Lake of the Woods stay on the bottom The cold water keeps the body from rapidly decomposing so they fail to rise to the surface as usually happens in warmer, shallower water.
For years, people on that part of the lake always kept on the lookout for the slightest signs that might give some clue as to what happened, but nothing more was ever learned (nor were the remains ever found.)
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