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1918
The Florizel
The S. S. Florizel was one of the ships of the Red Cross
Line owned by Bowering’s of
The Florizel was one of the world’s first icebreakers. The ship carried passengers on the
The ship sailed from St. John’s at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, February 22, 1918 in spite of the fact that a storm was raging outside the snug harbour of St. John’s. The ship had 138 people on board including 78 passengers, among them nine women and six children. Here is what happened:
Sunday-February 23
Monday-February 24
A little girl called Betty Munn
drowned when the Florizel sank. In
Betty’s memory the statue of Peter Pan was placed in
1942
The Caribou
In 1942 World War II was well underway and there were many
navy ships and merchant supply vessels at anchor in
In the city of
They were badly frightened on
The Caribou was carrying 237 people of which 46 were crewmembers, 73 were civilians and 118 were military personnel. 136 men, women and children died.
Historians describe the sinking as “…an unprovoked, cowardly attack on a defenseless ferry.”
For twenty-five years claims were made that there were no records among German documents to show that the Caribou had been sunk. But the U-boat commander did keep a log book and the records were later discovered.
1942
U.S.S. Truxtun and U.S.S. Pollux
On the night of
At
The Wilkes managed to back off the beach but the Truxtun and the Pollux were not so lucky.
Almost at the same time, the U.S.S. Pollux ran aground at Lawn Point and the U.S.S. Truxtun ran aground at Chambers Cove.
It was a stormy night with high winds, wild seas and icy
winds. Prospects were very dim for the
sailors until a group of sailors from the U. S. S. Truxtun managed to reach
shore using an inflated rubber raft. One
sailor from the U. S. S. Truxtun managed to reach Iron Spring Mine in
Immediately all work stopped at the mine. The miners and people of Lawn rushed to the scene. Hours of intense rescue followed with the miners using ropes and risking their lives on the ice covered cliffs to save the sailors. They managed to save 183 sailors but despite their courageous efforts 203 American sailors died.
In gratitude to the people of St. Lawrence, the American government built the St. Lawrence Memorial Hospital in 1954.
In 1992, a monument called “Echoes of Valour” was erected to commemorate the rescue.
1977
M. V. William Carson
The M. V. William Carson was the
Later, the
That night there were 109 crew and 29 passengers on the ship.
The crew was calm and professional. All passengers and crew members made it safely away from the sinking ship, many of them shivering in light clothing under their lifejackets. As the passengers and crew watched, some in a life boat, but most on the ice the ship went down bow first, raised her stern briefly in the moonlight and growled almost as though she was angry as she slipped through the pack ice to the bottom.
All people on the ship were rescued.
1982
The Ocean Ranger
On
All 84 crewmen aboard were lost including 69 Canadians, 56 of whom were Newfoundlanders.
The largest of its kind when built in
On the night of February 14th a tremendous storm began to lash the oil rig. Eighty foot waves swept across its decks. One of the waves broke the control room port hole and tons of salt water poured over the electrical balance switches. By morning the rig had capsized and all 84 crew perished with no one to rescue them.
1970
S.S. Patrick Morris
The S.S. Patrick Morris was built in 1951 and was first used between
In 1965 it became the
On
The captain’s last words were “Boys, I think you better get that (life) boat
out as fast as you can. You haven’t much time.”
The giant wave overwhelmed the ship.
The Patrick Morris sank stern first.
Ships that were answering the first mayday call of the
