Top and bottom: Photographed at Lac à l'Est, Charlevoix-Est, Province of Quebec, Canada, September 1935, by Louis-Philippe Dufour, via Sylvain Dufour
Center: Photograph from Landry Family Collection, BAnQ, via Sylvain Dyfour
03/31/2022. Remarks by
Johan Visschedijk: "The de Havilland Aircraft of Canada company at Toronto, Ontario, assembled seven D.H.83s from components built by the parent company in England:
'Miss Ruth 2nd' (CF-ATX) (persons unknown)
The 49th production aircraft (c/n 4049) was completed with Fairchild floats and on April 27, 1933, it was registered as CF-ATX to Robert Cockeram (trading as Prospectors Airways) of Clarkson, Ontario; he named it 'Miss Ruth 2nd'.
A year and a half later, October 11, 1934, the aircraft was briefly reregistered to Capreol & Austin Airways, Toronto. January 2, 1935, it was registered to Howard Watt of Toronto and T.B. Fraser of Montreal, Province of Quebec. Two years later, May 4, 1937, Howard Watt became the sole owner. Howard's brother, Bruce Watt, acquired the aircraft on May 21, 1938.
Subsequent owners were Elmer R. Ruddick, Long Branch, Ontario (May 15, 1940); Arthur Fecteau, Senneterre, Province of Quebec (July 17, 1942); J.N. Stevenson, Amos (September 25, 1947); Phil Larivière, Saint-Félicien (December 27, 1949), and finally Wallace F. McQuade of Toronto (March 2 to December 7, 1951)."
Read the type remarks on page
107.
03/31/2022. Remarks by
Sylvain Dufour: "Howard Watt (1900-1970) was one of the pioneers of Canadian aviation in the 1926 to 1941 era. He was one of Canada's first 250 licensed pilots, receiving his license, number 214, on March 2, 1926. In that month he started as a pilot with Jack V. Elliot Air Service of Hamilton, Ontario, flying Curtiss JN-4s (nicknamed
"Canuck").
Early in February 1931, Howard did a survey at Kapuskasing for National Air Transport of Toronto, the same month the airline started operations around Kapuskasing.
On January 1, 1934, Howard and the above mentioned T.B. 'Happy' Fraser founded St. Lawrence Airways, the first passenger air service linking the North and South Shores of the St. Lawrence River. Using two de Havilland Fox Moths, they operated from Matane in the winter, and from Lac St. Agnes, Murray Bay, in the summer. The company ceased operations in April 1936, when 'Happy' left the company. Howard kept one Fox Moth for two years, his brother Bruce, who also worked for St. Lawrence Airways, got the other.
In 1931, Bishop Félix-Antoine Savard and his friends Louis-Philippe and Élie Dufour (my grandparents) had set up the Saint-Étienne-des-Monts hunting and fishing club in the Lac à l'Est area. Later, Louis-Philippe Dufour hired Howard Watt to have easier access to the fishing and hunting territory around the Lac à l'Est.
Howard Watt (left) and probably Médéric Bouchard on the 'jetty' in front of the Saint-Étienne-des-Monts Club chalet
Médéric Bouchard was the fishery warden of the Lac à l'Est from 1935 to the end of the 1950s.
Howard Watt disposed of his Fox Moth in 1938 and it was eventually sold to Arthur Fecteau on July 17, 1942. Fecteau was another great Canadian aviation pioneer, who formed A. Fecteau Transport Aerien at Senneterre, operating in the Abitibi region before moving to Quebec in the late 1940s."
