The wreck of the Auguste / Issued by National Historic Sites. : R64-191/1992E

For three days, the November gale had been raging out of the east-northeast, heaping up the sea and driving great combers onto the desolate beaches of Aspy Bay on Cape Breton's coast. Out of the grey murk and flying spume came a lurching ship with the torn remnants of sails flapping on all masts. Suddenly it ran aground about 40 yards from shore. The year was 1761 and this was the Auguste, one of Canada's most famous, and tragic, shipwrecks. Of 114 passengers and crew on the voyage to disaster, only seven survived. But there was one fortunate outcome. Survivor St-Luc de la Corne kept a vivid account of the event. More than 200 years later, divers found the wreck based on his information. The Wreck of the Auguste is also an account of the storms and politics of the time. The ship had set sail for France from Quebec two weeks before. On board were many of Montreal's illustrious fur-trading and military families. Many were native-born Canadians being repatriated to a country they had never seen before.

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