56 In Great Waters

2. A CHAPTER OF ACCIDENTS
By T. C. COLWELL
On the William Oliver

In these pages we shall hear Mr. T. C. Colwell,
M.C., tell, among other things, about his first long
missionary journey and the accidents that befell
him. Mr. Colwell served for six and a half years at
Alert Bay. In 1926 he moved to Keremeos in the
Okanagan valley.

My First Trip. On my return from the war in
1919, I found myself in the middle of a church
year with no station. Dr. J. H. White, then our
Superintendent of Missions, offered me a charge on
the prairie unless I wanted to take Alert Bay, which
our Church wished to open up as one of our new
Marine Missions. The latter seemed the more
attractive at that time on account of the likelihood of
a new pulp mill starting at Beaver Cove. Prefer-
ring to remain with my own Conference, I ac-
cepted Marine Mission work about November 1st of
that year.

Having had no previous experience on the water
except in a row-boat, and no experience with marine
engines, Captain Oliver was deputized to give me a
few weeks’ instruction. We decided on a boat
purchased at Bella Bella from Jack Pauline, which
was to be delivered at Alert Bay. She finally ar-
rived on January 30th, 1919, and on February 1st
she did her first missionary work, three Sunday
services,—Nimpkish, the headquarters of a logging