The citizens of a small Downeast town have a decision before them, and it has international implications. One-hundred-fifty years ago this September, a party of colonial legislators sailed up the St. Lawrence River from Quebec to Prince Edward Island on a ship called the SS Queen Victoria. That trip turned out to be an important one: It led to the birth of the nation we know as Canada. All that's left now of the Victoria is the ship's bell. But it doesn't hang in Charlottetown or Ottawa; rather, it's kept under lock and key in Gouldsboro, Maine. But now, Canada wants to borrow the bell - a request that the town has repeatedly denied in the past.
It's a saga of heroism, and international intrigue - and, of course, history.
Audio from old film: "...Deep divisions plagued the two Canadas."
In the mid 19th century, Canada was a group of disunited British provinces. But it all changed in 1864 when politicians from so-called Upper Canada gate-crashed a meeting of the Maritime provinces held in Prince Edward Island. While so-called Lower Canada wanted to talk amongst themselves about a Maritime union, the Upper Canadians wanted to talk, instead about creating a new nation, as heard in this 1961 history film, The Impossible Idea.
Audio from film: "The riches of both our oceans, the forests of our east and west joined with our vast prairies, our land secure at last against the American malady that threatens..."
Americans might need to be reminded, at this point, that Canada and the U.S. weren't always bosom buddies. The violence of the American Civil War was making Canadians nervous, so delegates from Upper Canada - including the new nation's future first prime minister - piled aboard a government steamer ship, the SS Queen Victoria, and in early September of 1864, they steamed into Charlottetown harbor for one of the most important meetings in world history.
But the townsfolk had missed the memo - and besides, they had another event to attend.
"The people in town were going to a circus," says PEI historian Catherine Hennessey. "There was a circus in town. That was more important than these men coming from Upper Canada."
It was a trifle awkward. But, says Hennessey, with all the dock workers off watching Slaymaker and Nichols' Troupe of Acting Dogs, one of the maritime politicians had to paddle out in a row boat to fetch the VIPS. From there, things deteriorated. Talks didn't go well initially, and a unified nation was looking less and less likely until - as the story goes - the delegates from Upper Canada invited everyone down to the Queen Victoria for a sumptuous on-board luncheon.
Catherine Hennessey: "Lots of fish, lots of champagne..."
Jennifer Mitchell: "So, the champagne flowed?"
Catherine Hennessey: "I think the champagne flowed, yes. Yes. That's a good way to build a country. We didn't shape our country with war or aggression. We were congenial. And the ship provided one of the settings for one of the important parties that happened that week."
And the ship's bell bore witness to it all. But that's not the end of the tale. So after the Confederation meetings, the Victoria went about its business, steaming up and down the North American coast, until one stormy night in 1866 when the vessel was caught in a hurricaine and wrecked off the North Carolina coast.
PEI tourism minister Robert Henderson says the Victoria went to the bottom of the sea, but its brass bell was saved, "and was then donated by the crew of that boat to the person who rescued them, and eventually wound up in Gouldsboro, Maine."
The person who rescued them was Rufus Henry Allen, a Maine sea captain who accepted the bell and brought it home to Prospect Harbor where it's been ever since. But now, the Canadian Museum of History would like to borrow the bell as the country prepares for its 150th Confederation Conference anniversary.
"Let me jump in here - I don't mean to be negative, but the facts need to come out," says Gouldsboro's select board chair, Dana Rice. He says while loaning the cross-border treasure sounds perfectly reasonable, many of the townspeople are afraid that once it goes over the border, they'll never see it again.
There have been too many attempts over the years to try and take the bell back permanently, he says. There was a campaign to repatriate the bell to Canada in 1988. But it was the events 25 years earlier that really soured relations, says Rice.
Representatives of the Canadian government came to the town of Gouldsboro, basically unannounced, and said, 'We're here to take the bell!'" Rice says.
What really happened, the board admits, is cloaked in some mystery. Older residents of the town say they remember the day the helicopter landed. Others say the whole incident was a big misunderstanding. But, as a compromise some years later, the town of Gouldsboro raised funds and had a replica of the bell cast by a local artisan, Dick Fisher. That bell is now hanging in Charlottetown.
But the museum in Ottawa wants the real thing. Selectman Roger Bowen is acting as a liaison between the museum and the town.
"The bell is an important part of our history, reflecting our tradition of seafaring captains, and Captain Rufus Allen, who rescued the ship reflects that tradition and he's buried here in Prospect Harbor," Bowen says.
But, says Bowen, the museum would like the town to understand the bell's importance to Canada. "The curator has likened the SS Victoria Bell to our Liberty Bell. We can debate whether that's a fair analogy, but that's the Canadian perspective," he says. "So to them, it's quite important."
And Bowen says, the museum is highly prestigious - basically Canada's equivalent of the Smithsonian. They exhibit priceless treasures on loan, everyday, and they've personally guaranteed that the bell will be returned to Gouldsboro.
But the issue has proven to be a deeply controversial and emotional one, says board chair Dana Rice. So, like that historic Charlottetown meeting, the matter will be settled democratically: On June 11, the people of Gouldsboro will decide whether the bell of SS Victoria will be going home - for the first time in 150 years.
