La Tortue

Jose Rethone, coordinator of the civil protection office in Haiti’s Northwest Department, told The Associated Press that the boat sank around 1 p.m. as people returned to the Île de la Tortue from market day in the town of Saint-Louis-du-Nord, about an hour’s trip across the La Tortue channel.

This might be no more than a historical curiosity if were not for a simmering dispute over a $70m memorandum of intent signed last year between the Haitian government and cruise-holiday giant Carnival Corp: under the deal, Carnival – the world’s largest cruise-ship company – would lease the western tip of Île de la Tortue – or Tortuga – an island five miles off the north-west coast, as a private resort.

Joseph Rene Marcel Pronovost, as he is identified on the website of the Hockey Hall of Fame, was born on June 15, 1930, in Lac à la Tortue, a village in Quebec now part of a larger town called Shawinigan, where he grew up, the third of 12 children.

Pronovost, a native of Lac la Tortue, Quebec, made his debut for the Red Wings in the 1949-50 playoffs.

February 4, 2015: This post has been revised and updated to incorporate the Haitian government’s position on Don and Grey Pierson’s claims on the island of La Tortue.