According to another well-after-the-fact claim associated with a world famous event, one Fox Harbour man had a close association with the two principal characters of the Atlantic Meeting. Supposedly, Maurice Murray “skippered the launch that ferried Prime Minister Churchill and President Roosevelt back and forth between the Prince of Wales and the Augusta because he knew the waters well.” Several Fox Harbour residents were under the impression that the marker-buoy which was located just outside the boundary of Fox Harbour until the 1970s was placed there in 1941 to mark the “exact spot where the Atlantic Charter was signed by Prime Minister Churchill and President Roosevelt.” First of all, the Atlantic Meeting did not take place in the stretch of water between Fox Harbour and Argentia. The area between Isaac Point and Point Roche, Argentia had not been dredged up to that time and the larger vessels, most notably the HMS Prince of Wales, could not pass through into the inner harbour. Secondly, and as stared in other sections of argentia.org, there is no such document — signed and sealed with wax — as the Atlantic Charter. However, many writers, journalists, and other high-profile personalities continue to make references to “the Atlantic Charter, which was signed by Prime Minister Churchill and President Roosevelt.” Hopefully, the repetition here will help people remember the facts! The only items signed in Placentia Bay were several cards with an extract from the poem O Ship of State by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and two 8 by 10 photographs. Prime Minister Churchill and President Roosevelt each signed photograph of himself and gave it to his counterpart.
When the Anglo-American agreement was finalized on August 12, President Roosevelt and Prime Minister Churchill mutually decided that they would not formally sign the eight agreed upon principles. It was an understanding between two gentlemen … and gentlemen always kept their word! As for the name, Atlantic Charter, it did not originate with anyone involved with the highly-secretive meeting. It was Percival Thomas Cudlipp (1905–1962) in his editorial in the London Daily Herald on Friday, August 15, 1941 who coined the term “Atlantic Charter,” while referring to it as a “matchless weapon of propaganda for our cause.” It could not be determined through research if Maurice Murray or some of his friends and relatives initiated the story, but the claim that the Fox Harbour resident had anything to do with the Atlantic Meeting is a complete falsehood. For doubters, here are the reasons why: • The famous meeting took place in deep water without any form of navigational hazards, so there was no need to have someone who “knew the waters well.” Nobody knew the water in the entire region better than the Americans because they had water depths recorded at the center of every six square feet. They also had the depths and outlines of various underwater formations — the most noted of which were the Moratties Shoals near Ship Harbour — recorded for every-day stand-ins and stand-outs. • The two leaders' vessels were stationed approximately 1,400 yards (1,280 meters) apart. The USS Augusta was anchored at the point described as 240° T, 700 yards off Sparrow Point, Ship Harbour; more specifically, at coordinates 47° 20' 43" N by 53° 55' 47" W. The HMS Prince of Wales was anchored at the point described as 78.5° off Cooper Head beacon and 356° off Ship Harbour Point beacon; more specifically, at coordinates 47° 20' 18" N by 53° 56' 12" W. Thus, there were no special navigational skills required to get from one vessel to another. • President Roosevelt was handicapped as a result of having had polio. He was not able to go over the side of the Augusta and into a motor launch. Indeed, when it was time for him to go aboard the Prince of Wales, the destroyer USS McDougal was used to transport the president. The main reason for using the McDougal was because its bow was the same height as the main deck of the USS Augusta and the starboard side of the stern section of the HMS Prince of Wales. That allowed the president to walk from one ship to the other via a ramp. • When he went aboard the Augusta, Prime Minister Churchill was transported aboard a motor launch from the Prince of Wales, and its pilot was one of the battle ship's regular motor launch operators. The famous event was recorded on film, and a section of it shows that motor launch. • Also, other than the Governor Sir Humphrey Walwyn representing the Commission of Government, there were no Newfoundlanders associated with the Atlantic Meeting, not even in the most minor of roles. The same thing applied to the average Americans who were in Argentia at the time. Like the Newfoundlanders, they did not know what had occurred in the outer harbour of U.S. Naval Operating Base, Argentia until the news had been made public by White House officials in Washington and British War Cabinet officials in London. Like most of the misconceptions and fabrications about Argentia's history that have been propagated over the past half century, that particular one is now mistakenly believed by many Fox Harbour residents as being “absolutely true.” As for the lighted marker-buoy near Fox Harbour, it was placed there as a warning to vessels not to proceed north of it because of insufficient depth. Quite often, when all docking facilities were in use at Argentia, vessels were directed to anchor in the deep channel known as Placentia Sound and near the mouth of Fox Harbour. They were sent to those positions so that traffic in and out of the inner harbour would not be impeded and there would be no chance of collisions. The marker-buoy, which many Fox Harbour residents mistakenly believed marked the exact spot of the Atlantic Meeting, was removed in 1974. That was a year after the Northside closed and a year before the emergency use of Bristol Airfield was officially eliminated. |
