Zane Grey's "Navy"
The trip from Burgeo to Grandy's Brook proved to be both ardulous and unpleasant due to the bone-chilling weather, at least for the members of Zane Grey's fishing team. (Grey's Newfoundlander guides likely found the trip to be typical of the season.)
R.C. Grey described the trip across open water.
“At Burgeo we engaged several news guides, a small power boat and four rowboats, and thus equipped we set out for Grandy’s Brook. The power boat was loaded beyond capacity and additionally burdened by towing the rowboats which held part of our camping outfit and were strung out behind us like a miniature navy… We rode by benches of wild flowers, slopes of pine and spruce, and cliffs and waterfalls, and rounded many an enchanting island. Far ahead were dark, heavily timbered mountains which hid the source of this glorious river which was so sadly misnamed a brook… After several miles, we had to abandon the powerboat and take to the skiffs.” (Outdoor Life, November 1932)
Zane Grey's brother and son, R.C. and Romer, waiting on a pier in Burgeo to board their dingies. (R.C. wore the same foul weather gear in several other images from the trip.)
Grey's team was towed by a motorboat from Burgeo to this beach identified as Lance Gut, Little Barchois, Burgeo. The man walking away from the middle boat is R.C. Grey. The image is from the Zirilli Collection with the location confirmed by Newfoundland historian, John Marsden.
When the tide rose, Grey's team was hauled single file over shallow waters from Lance Gut to the entrance to Grandy's Brook. Zane and R.C. Grey were in the motor boat towing the four wave-tossed, open boats. Bob Carney or Romer Grey would have been in the motor boat taking the picture.