from shore it's hard to even make out
what it is but that's when I agree scow
nobody paid all that much attention to
it until last week went for the first
time in a hundred years it moved it
crept closer to the falls that story
went around the world but what I'm here
in Niagara Falls to find out his weather
this rusted hunk of metal is really
something we should care about so tell
me where I moved up a boat this way here
about 50 yards and then the current wind
picked it up and spun it and tipped it
over to where it sits now Kip Finn takes
me as close as you can get to the scow
for his whole life
the wreckage has been a reminder of how
his great-grandfather risked his life
out there 100 years ago when the scow
moved what did you think about I didn't
believe it at first so I had to come
down here and take a look and yeah it
was it was heartbreaking you say
heartbreaking why heartbreak because
it's like the only monument that we can
attach William Redhill senior to in the
area there's there's nothing else down
here
August 1918 the scow breaks free from a
tugboat and heads toward the Falls with
two men on board miraculously the boat
gets hung up on the rocks above the
brink but now the two men are stuck with
no way to get to shore ropes are shot to
the sky but they get tangled enter Kip's
great-grandfather William Redhill senior
he stepped forward he volunteered and
said and he did he went out there he you
know he had to climb hand-over-hand
in certain areas to tell untangle the
ropes so he's dangling above the water
the man dangling just above the falls
William Redhill senior he just returned
from fighting in the first world war he
survived that and here he was putting
his life on the line again I don't think
he was scared at all I don't think he'd
want to be anywhere else
than hanging over that river you know
trying to save those guys doing whatever
he had to do to get out there and save
those guys and he did you know and he
was pulled back to the rooftop over here
behind us and to a round of applause and
stories say that the the firemen kind of
you know tossed him up in the air and
when he got back over there so it would
have been a really neat thing to see
it's too bad there's nothing on video or
anything like that but yeah it would
have been it would have been something
to see and for a hundred years the Scout
didn't move when it finally did it
brought the story back and all week
people have been coming here to look at
the scow people like Patrick Cirie Annie
sir how come you're looking at the well
you know it's a very important part of
our history out there and it moved the
other night and I sure hate to see it go
and disappear you know because when it
disappears we lose that history and if
it does I'm gonna go down to the
whirlpool and pick up a piece get a
souvenir give it to the History Museum
so at least we'll have something
but that's not enough for KITT he wants
a permanent memorial to his
great-grandfather down here by the river
I won't be happy until he's recognized I
don't want him to be forgotten he's he's
family no I never met him
but that's my that's my
great-grandfather and not probable what
would you like to say to him
thank you
when you see it from the shore it may
not look like much but I'm with Kip the
story of Red Hill senior and what he did
out there that shouldn't be forgotten
Nick perdón CBC News Niagara Falls