Creative Writing Sample: Written Story

Sabrina Nutchey

Written Story Assignment

Saved by a Premonition

I come from a family full of people with a flair for dramatics and exaggeration. There are many stories of relatives being cursed, claiming to have premonitions, spinning strange tales or even speaking to the dead, much to the chagrin of those around them. But this time, one of my relative’s theatrics ended up paying off.

My family on my grandmother’s side moved to Canada from Ireland in the early 20^th century. They worked hard and didn’t have a lot of money when they moved here. By 1914, after years of scrimping and saving, they finally had the means to go back home to visit their families. My great grandmother Bessie, her sister Essie and her sister’s husband Bill bought their tickets for a sailing to Ireland. Their tickets were purchased months in advance, and they were looking forward to seeing family they hadn’t seen in over a decade. But not long before the much-anticipated sailing, Essie had a terrible premonition.

Essie was known for her visions of things to come and was constantly annoying the family by panicking over prophecies and messages from the other side that rarely came true. This time, she claimed that while while making a bed in an upstairs room, she heard someone come in, beckoning to her from downstairs. The voice called out, “don’t go on the Empress of Ireland”. Going down to see who could possibly have gotten in through a locked door, Essie found no one around. Mysteriously though, an expensive vase sitting on top of her piano had been moved. She was so disturbed by this event that she took it as a dire warning.

Essie immediately went out and cancelled the tickets for the sailing, despite there being no alternative sailing available for weeks. Bessie and Bill were horrified and would not agree to let her cancel their chance to go back home that had cost all their savings. Even the booking agent asked her several times if she was sure she wanted to cancel their booking because the sailing was extremely popular and had long waitlists. But Essie insisted that it must cancelled and there was no other way. The other relatives were furious that she cancelled this much anticipated trip.

Much to their surprise, on May 29, 1914 Essie’s premonition came true. Just one day after setting out from Quebec City, the Empress of Ireland collided with a freighter off Quebec’s Gaspe Peninsula in a thick blanket of fog near Pointe-au-Pere. The Empress sank in just 14 minutes. After the smash only a few lifeboats could be launched and most people travelling below deck in third class drowned in their bunks. Boats from nearby villages rescued survivors in the darkness, but hundreds died in the river. 1,012 people died, while 465 survived. It has been dubbed “Canada’s Titanic” comparing it to the luxury liner that sunk two years earlier. To this day, the Empress of Ireland is considered Canada’s worst peacetime maritime disaster in history.

Some believe the Empress was cursed. Its orange cat, Emmy, jumped off the vessel before it left Quebec City the day before the disaster. Someone caught her and brought her back to the ship, but she ran away a second time, leaving a litter of kittens behind. Sailors regard losing a ship’s cat as a terrible omen.

A newspaper report also suggested the ship's captain may have been cursed by a fugitive he helped authorities capture a few years earlier at Father Point, near the site of the Empress disaster.

Perhaps Essie picked up on these omens and bad energy, leading to here premonition. Whatever it was ended up saving them from near-certain death.

Essie, Bessie and Bill ended up getting passage on the Virginian, without incident, returning home July 17, 1914. They heard the news of the Empress sinking while away and were shocked that the premonition had come true. World War 1 commenced July 28, 1914 right after they got back to Canada. Bessie and Bill considered themselves quite lucky and begrudgingly thanked Essie for listening to her premonition.