Two ships that didn’t pass in the night resulted in a love story that is now 75 years strong.
Mike and Lenore Didychuk met after both survived the collision of the W.S. Newton and Luana III on Lake Winnipeg on Sept. 8, 1947.
“I never would have met her if my ship hadn’t sunk,” Mike, 96, said recently, while celebrating his 75th wedding anniversary with Lenore. “I remember that day like it happened yesterday. But my wife still says we haven’t been married 75 years — she can’t believe it — but it is true.”
It was a Monday when Lenore Johnson boarded the 65-ton freighter Luana III for a ride home to see her family on Hecla Island. Shortly before midnight, the ship made a stop in Gimli before pulling out of the harbour and heading north on the lake.
“That was the only way you got around then — by boat,” said Lenore, 95. “It wasn’t a passenger ship — we had no business being on the boat — but if you knew the crew and there was room, you could get a ride. So that’s why I was on the boat and out on the deck. It wasn’t like you had a room you could go to.”
Lenore said the stars were aligned that fateful night as the Luana passengers were steaming north in the middle of the south basin of the lake.
“It was dark and the lake was calm — it was just like glass,” she said.
“It’s a good thing the weather was good. If it hadn’t been, we both would have gone down.”
Unbeknown to Lenore, Mike, along with seven other crew members on the 53-ton freighter W.S. Newton, were sailing south on the lake, loaded with a cargo of fish.
Mike had been sleeping in his bunk, but awoke to go on watch duty.
“We were changing shifts at midnight,” he said. “I was in the kitchen finishing a coffee before I went on watch when all of a sudden I heard a bang — it threw me off my seat.”
Mike said things moved fast on the stricken vessel.
“We all jumped into a lifeboat when somebody yelled ‘The cook!’ I jumped out and there was already water on the deck. I kicked the door in — he was standing there scared and naked — and I threw him out and into the lifeboat.
“Within five minutes of being hit, the boat was out of sight. Everyone got off, but we all lost everything we had.”
Turned out, it was the Luana that had struck the W.S. Newton. After the collision, the Luana quickly turned around to rescue W.S. Newton’s crew and bring them onboard. The Luana’s crew also found clothes for the cook.
Lenore said the W.S. Newton was left with a large gash in its side.
“You could have rode a team of horses through,” she said.
A story on the front page of the Free Press on Sept. 10, 1947, with the headline ‘Lake Ship Crash Baffles Captain,’ quoted W.S. Newton Captain Joe Sigurdur saying: “This fellow just sailed into us. That’s all we know.”
Carl Tomasson, Luana’s captain, was quoted as saying: “I had just left the wheel for a few minutes and put a crew member on it while I called the mate to take his watch. These things just happen, I guess. Anyway, nobody was hurt and everybody kept cool.”
Mike said he later heard a different story — that a crew member was told something else by the captain.
“He told him, ‘When you see the first light, head straight for it.’ But (the captain) meant the lighthouse on Hecla. Instead, when he saw the light, he headed straight for the Newton.”
As the W.S. Newton’s wheelhouse, cabins and kitchen slid off into the lake, part of the ship stayed above the surface allowing the Luana captain to tie a rope to it and tow the vessel back to Selkirk.
That’s when Mike first saw Lenore. He spoke with her and others onboard briefly, but didn’t have a chance to exchange contact information before they reached Selkirk.
“I saw a glimpse of her on shore,” he said. “I saw a lot of girls but there was nobody like her.
“People were asking questions about what happened and I turned and looked and I saw her running up the hill. That was the last I saw of her.”
A few months later, Mike — now a crew member on the Luana — stopped in Hecla on a mission to pick up lumber.
“We heard music playing and I said, ‘Let’s go and see what’s happening at the hall,’” he said.
“The first thing I saw was a bunch of guys and girls — and then I saw her. I walked straight up to her and asked her to dance. I remembered her face. I never forget a face.
“I knew I was going to marry her.”
Less than two years later, on Aug. 27, 1949, the couple tied the knot. They settled in Winnipeg, where Mike worked as a bus driver, mostly with Beaver Bus and Fehr-Way tours, for decades.
They would have a son, Blair Didychuk (now 72), and a daughter, Candyce Hawkins (now 71), and be blessed with seven grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.
While everyone survived the mishap that night, the years slipping by haven’t been as kind.
“All the guys on my ship have passed away,” Mike said wistfully. “And all the ones for the Luana, too.
“Even my sister is the only one left from our wedding party.”
While his ship sunk and he lost all his belongings, Mike said he still came out ahead.
“I never would have met her if I hadn’t been on the Newton that night and I never would have met her again if I wasn’t on the Luana.
“I’m a lucky man.”
Kevin Rollason
Reporter
Kevin Rollason is a general assignment reporter at the Free Press. He graduated from Western University with a Masters of Journalism in 1985 and worked at the Winnipeg Sun until 1988, when he joined the Free Press. He has served as the Free Press’s city hall and law courts reporter and has won several awards, including a National Newspaper Award. Read more about Kevin.
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