Francis Pickmore’s Worst Winter. Ever.
Winter in Newfoundland can be truly, awful; it’s cold, wet and even in the 21st century, the food supply can be a bit unreliable.
1818, though?
Well, it set the standard for just how bad a Newfoundland winter can get. Disasters, homelessness and extreme weather set the stage for a season so bad the governor, Francis Pickmore, went back to England in a barrel of rum.
Pickmore Picks a Bad Year
In 1816 Vice Admiral Francis Pickmore, who had served in Newfoundland in the 1700s, was appointed Governor of the island.
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I’m growing tired of telling stories that begin with some variation on “it was a challenging time in Newfoundland”.
Times were always tough.
If NL ever decides to update the provincial motto I’m pitching semper arduis.
It was a particularly difficult time in Newfoundland. The fishery had been poor, in February there had been a major fire in St. John’s, and there were significant economic and social challenges.
Pickmore arrived in St. John’s in September and stayed until November — just long enough to acquaint himself with the island and appoint Commander David Buchan to administer in his absence.
It was almost a year before Pickmore returned. When he came back in September 1817 it was to stay. Pickmore he had been directed to stay the entire winter, he would be the first governor to do so. The growing population was thought to require year-round governance to keep the island’s affairs in order.
A view of St. John’s and Fort Townshend in 1786. Image: Library and Archives Canada
Pickmore didn’t think the governor’s residence at Fort Townshend was suitable for winter habitation. Reflecting on his time on the island the previous year he described it to his superiors:
[The residence is] built slightly of fir weather boarding, exposed to the north-east, or coldest winds—and though a sufficiently good one as a summer habitation, is in no way suited for a winter's residence in that climate, which I had an opportunity of experiencing the truth of even in the month of November last. The snow having in the course of a very short snow-storm, accompanied with a gale of wind, penetrated into the bedrooms.
Despite the snowdrifts in the bedroom, he was told there was no money for a new residence and that, if he thought it was necessary, when he arrived he ought to find a new place to sleep. He didn’t and that proved to be a big problem.
If Pickmore thought his experience of snow-drifts in the bedroom was bad, he was completely unprepared for what was about to unfold.
Heavy Frosts and A Frozen Harbour
In November 1817 the weather took an icy turn.
St. John’s was hit with heavy, brutal frosts. It was bitterly cold and stayed that way.
By January the harbour was frozen solid. The ice hampered the ability to receive ships, get supplies and send communications.
Major Fires
National War Memorial, St. John’s, 2023
On top of the being cold, the night of November 7th, 1817 was windy.
Around 10pm, near where the National War Memorial now sits, flames were spotted on the roof of a house. Citizens raced to contain them but it was too late. Fanned by the gale, the flames raced across the city. The fire was halted when a building at Baird’s Cove was torn down make a fire break.
When dawn broke, the scene was complete devastation— the area from Temperance Street to the current site of the courthouse was destroyed. Making matters worse, the fire had consumed the warehouses, sheds and merchant premises on the waterfront and, along with them, the provisions for the winter.
Near Bishop’s Cove, St. John’s, 2023
Governor Pickmore reached out to Halifax and England for aid. Before there could be any response the unimaginable happened: the city caught fire again.
Early in the morning on November 21st a fire started near Bishop’s Cove/Adelaide Street and, began burning eastward (once again toward the courthouse site but from the opposite side). The fire consumed more businesses, homes and provisions.
Between the two fires hundreds of homes were destroyed and 2000 people were rendered homeless. Things were dire.
Starvation
It was only November. Winter hadn’t even officially begun and the people of St. John’s we’re homeless, hungry and freezing.
Hundreds of people, without adequate clothing or food, were wandering among the smoking ruins of the city looking for warmth from the ashes. For food they had to turn to the burnt warehouses and whatever charred remains of salt fish they could find inside.
Those whose houses survived weren’t faring much better. Many families, found themselves with nothing.
Before long people were dying of cold.
The Winter of the Rals
“To add to this misery’, wrote Judge D.W. Prowse when describing the disaster in his History of Newfoundland, “gangs of half-famished, lawless men everywhere threatened the destruction of life and property.”
Assaults and robbery were so common, this period in the city’s history became known as The Winter of the Rals. With rals, in the language of time, being roughly synonymous with rowdies.
Pickmore Succumbs
While probably not reduced to eating smouldering salt cod, the Governor suffered as well.
It was an incredibly stressful period and the summer residence in which he’d been living couldn’t stand up to the bitter cold. Pickmore ‘caught a chill’ and on February 24, 1818 died of bronchial congestion.
With his premature death, he failed to make history as Newfoundland’s first governor to stay through the winter. He does have the distinction of being the first governor to die in office.
I’m not sure he’d find much consolation in that.
A funeral was held in St. John’s. Pickmore was to be interred back in England but the frozen harbour made it impossible to carry his body to a ship. He was temporarily held in the church vault.
In the weeks following, a large crew of people chopped a channel through the harbour. Blocks of ice were pulled from the water and hauled out of the way. In some places the ice was more than a metre and a half thick. The workers struggled not only make a channel but to keep it from re-freezing. Day after day they kept clearing the ice until they had built a canal to navigable water, the passage was about two and a half kilometres long.
With the channel done Pickmore was collected from the church vault, taken to the HMS Fly and carried back to England. He was laid to rest in his family’s vault at Kingston Church.
A Barrel of Rum To Go, Please
For the journey, Pickmore’s body was preserved in a barrel of rum. At least, that’s how the story goes.
Stranger still, according to some versions of the tale, the ship’s sailors didn’t think a little thing like a dead governor’s body ought to spoil a good time, so they’d help themselves to a drink from Pickmore’s barrel.
I mean, surely it had been a tough winter but I find that a little hard to swallow… and I’m sure the sailors would have too.
Pickmore’s Legacy
Government House on a Sunny September Day, 2022
Pickmore is generally remembered for dealing well with the challenges of The Winter of the Rals. He was considered to have died in service to the people.
His experience in Newfoundland — well, mostly his death on the island — bolstered the argument to replace the governor’s residence.
In 1827 work began on a new house. It was to be a stone structure, away from the waterfront and the fire-prone core of the town. Land above the city, on an area called ‘the barrens’ was selected.
Known as Government House, the building was completed in 1831. It still serves as the official residence of Newfoundland and Labrador’s Lt. Governor to this day.
It stands as a strange reminder of a difficult time in Newfoundland history… and a governor who had to shovel snow from his bedroom.
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Naval Governors, Heritage NL
Around & About, Paul O’Neill, The Monitor, 1977
Ral, Dictionary of Newfoundland English
Francis Pickmore, Heritage NL
Francis Pickmore, Dictionary of Canadian Biography
History, Government House
A History of Newfoundland, D.W. Prowse
Tracing Nfld History, Gordon Duff, Daily News, 1965
