Lachine Rapids and the watery deaths it has caused

Dorion - lost life

Rough waters in the Lachine Rapids

   The Lachine Rapids are a force so terrifying for boaters that Montreal owes much of its wealth to the fact that ship captains were too scared to try passing through the rocky waters.
  Instead the ships unloaded in Montreal and the city got rich off the process.
  So while Montreal owes much to the wavy section of the river, the rapids have also demanded many lives.
   It's an old time Verdun tradition to get in a leaky boat then paddle out to one of the little islands off shore.
   Amazingly most of those survived to tell the tale and seemed to consider it a good bit of fun.

Towers -had kayak stolen

  Marc Andre Doiron, 23, manged to get to Rock Island, one kilometer off the shore from Verdun, to hang out with friends on Victoria Day weekend.
  It was a Saturday night and Dorion stole Jonathan Towers' kayak - surely he meant only to borrow it - but he was carried away by the Lachine Rapids and his body has finally found on June 1, 11 days later 40 km downriver at Vercheres.
   Here are some of the others claimed off the shores of Verdun throughout the ages:

•  Rachel Muldoon and Hannah Brash drown rowing near Verdun 1901 
•  Woman, attempted rescuer John Cain drown off Dixie Island 1909  
•  Albert Ellis Newby yachtsman, drowns at Verdun Pier 1913
•  Paul Emile Rodrigue, 17, drowns at Woodland after friend rocks boat for fun 1923
•  Robert Grant, 16, drowns near Grand Trunk Boating Club 1928
•  Roland Hebert, 9, leaps out of boat, drowns near Verdun 500 Club 1928
• Gonda Featherstone, 8, drowns in little boat 20 feet from Verdun shore 1929
• Three brothers drown returning from Heron Island Verdun 1933.
• Man, 23, drowns in canoe off Verdun 1943
• Woman found drowned in Verdun 1944