Tag Archives: Kean

Southern Cross Reported

Archival Moment

March 31, 1914

On March 31 or the early morning April 1, 1914, the SS Southern Cross sank while returning to Newfoundland from the Gulf of St. Lawrence, taking with it 173 men.

The last sighting of the sealing vessel was made by the crew of the coastal steamer SS Portia, passing the Southern Cross near Cape Pine, off the southern Avalon Peninsula. Although the Portia was headed for St. Mary’s Bay to wait out a worsening blizzard, the Southern Cross, low in the water with its large cargo of seal pelts, seemed headed for Cape Race. The steamer was not seen again, and because no wireless equipment was on board, communication with other vessels was impossible.

The Captain of the S.S. Portia, Captain Connors did have the Marconi wireless and on spotting the Southern Cross wired the owners of the vessel Messrs Bowring Brothers stating:

“Passed the Southern Cross, 5 miles W.N.W. of Cape Pine, at 11:00 a.m. yesterday (March 31, 1914) . It is supposed that she ran into St. Mary’s Bay and harbored at North Harbor.”

Captain George Clarke of the Southern Cross did not run into St. Mary’s Bay as supposed it is likely he pressed through the storm because he was anxious for the recognition and the small prize traditionally awarded to the first arrival back from the seal hunt.

The theory is that in the height of the storm the ship’s heavy cargo may have shifted capsizing the steamer.

Whatever the cause, the sinking of the Southern Cross resulted in more deaths than any other single disaster in Newfoundland and Labrador sealing history.

Recommended Archival Collection: At the Rooms Provincial Archives see GN 121 this collection consists of the evidence taken before the Commission of Enquiry regarding the S.S. Newfoundland. The collection includes the Sealers Crew Agreement and the evidence given by the surviving members of the crew. Evidence entered concerning the loss of the SS Southern Cross is also included on this collection.

Recommended Reading: PERISHED by Jenny Higgins, Boulder Press, St. John’s. (2014) offers unique, illustrative look at the 1914 sealing disaster through pull-out facsimile archival documents.

Home from the Sea Memorial, Elliston: Learn more about “Home from The Sea, Sealers Memorial” in Elliston, Trinity Bay http://www.homefromthesea.ca/

“Tears stood on the cheeks of men …”

Archival Moments

April 2, 2014

Photo Credit: the rooms Provincial Archives, LS 50. Bodies of the frozen sealers on the deck of the S.S. Bellaventure.

On April 2, 1914 news about the disaster on the icefields that would claim the lives of 78 men of the sealing vessel the S.S. Newfoundland began t reach St. John’s. The St. John’s newspaper the Evening Telegram reported:

“The waiting rooms of the Postal Telegram Offices were thronged with anxious mothers and fathers, brothers and sisters, who made heart rendering entreaties of the clerks for the lists of the dead.

At 9:30 p.m. the clerk of the Postal Telegraphs amid a breathless silence posted up another message that was forwarded on from the Fogo Station. After a short silence, the following was read:

On Board the Bellaventure are fifty eight dead and thirty five survivors, on board the Florizel, five dead. On board the Stephano, one dead and two survivors.

Tears stood on the cheeks of men who had often trod the frozen pans and knew well the nature of the experience of a night on the ice, particularly during such as blizzard as we had on Tuesday. Woman gave expression to their grief by weeping and could only with great difficulty be consoled at all.

Shortly after the forgoing message was read it was reported that the steamers Bellaventure, Stephano and Florizel were passing Cape St. Francis and would arrive here (St. John’s) about midnight. Hundreds wended their way to the waterfront, regardless of the weather conditions and for several hours patiently waited for the coming of the ships.”

Recommended Archival Collection: At the Rooms Provincial Archives see GN 121 this collection consists of the evidence taken before the Commission of Enquiry regarding the S.S. Newfoundland. The collection includes the Sealers Crew Agreement and the evidence given by the surviving members of the crew. Evidence entered concerning the loss of the SS Southern Cross is also included on this collection.

Recommended Reading: PERISHED by Jenny Higgins (2014) offers unique, illustrative look at the 1914 sealing disaster through pull-out facsimile archival documents. A first for the Newfoundland and Labrador publishing industry, as readers turn the pages of Perished they’ll find maps, log book entries, telegrams, a sealer’s ticket for the SS Newfoundland, and more that can be pulled out and examined. These are the primary source materials that ignite the imagination of history buffs and students alike and are among more than 200 rarely seen archival photos and documents that illustrate this amazing book. (NEW PUBLICATION)

Recommended Exhibit: Death on the Front: The Sealing Disaster 1914. March 26 – November 16 – Level 3 Museum Alcove. This small display features artifacts from the Rooms Provincial Museum and archival imagery from The Rooms Provincial Archives connected to these tragedies. One of the artifacts featured is a flag that was once flown on the Southern Cross. The National Film Board’s documentary 54 Hours written by Michael Crummey, using animation, survivor testimony and archival footage will be running as part of the Death at the Front exhibition. You can also view the short film from your own home at https://www.nfb.ca/film/54_hours

Crew List: In the days and months following the loss of the S.S. Southern Cross and the tragedy of the loss of the men of the S.S. Newfoundland there was much confusion about the names and the number of men that did die. You will find the definitive list of all those that did die as well as the survivors at http://www.homefromthesea.ca/

“Man frozen fast in a floating ice cake”

Archival Moment

March 31, 1914

Some of the men who signed up never came home .

This is the weekend that we remember those that died in the sealing disasters of 1914. It was on this weekend (March 31 – April 2, 1914) that 77 men froze to death on the ice, crew members of the S.S. Newfoundland, another was to succumb to his injuries in St. John’s. In another tragedy on this same weekend 100 years ago, 176 men on the S.S. Southern Cross never came home. The theory is that in the height of the storm, somewhere in St. Mary’s Bay the ship’s heavy cargo of seal pelts may have shifted capsizing the steamer.

There was no trace of the 176 men of the Southern Cross, families mourned without the comfort of a proper funeral.

Eight of the men of the S.S. Newfoundland never came home. It is believed that they froze to death on small pans of ice or ice cakes forever separated from their companions.

A month following the disaster, the eight families without the comfort of a body for a proper burial read that a body had been spotted;.The daily newspaper, the Halifax Chronicle, Halifax, Nova Scotia on May 11, 1914 reported:

“On Sunday morning, a lobster fishermen employed by S.C. Clarke’s factory at Bloomingdale Point (Prince Edward Island) on the North side of the island, found the body of a man frozen fast in a floating ice cake about a half mile from land. Having nothing with which to cut the body loose from the ice, the fisherman had to abandon it; a heavy gale coming up, the boat had to make for land, and could not return to the body, which was carried out to sea.

The dead man was evidently a sailor or fisherman judging from his clothing and it is thought to be one of the Newfoundland sealers…”

The man frozen fast in a floating ice cake would have been one of the eight of the S.S. Newfoundland that went missing. The missing men are:

Henry Jordan, D

David Locke

Michael Murray

Art Mouland,

"Uncle Ezra" Melendy

Henry Dowden

James Howell

Philip Holloway

Recommended Archival Collection: At the Rooms Provincial Archives see GN 121 this collection consists of the evidence taken before the Commission of Enquiry regarding the S.S. Newfoundland. The collection includes the Sealers Crew Agreement and the evidence given by the surviving members of the crew. Evidence entered concerning the loss of the SS Southern Cross is also included on this collection.

Recommended Exhibit: Death on the Front: The Sealing Disaster 1914. March 26 – November 16 – Level 3 Museum Alcove. This small display features artifacts from the Rooms Provincial Museum and archival imagery from The Rooms Provincial Archives connected to these tragedies. One of the artifacts featured is a flag that was once flown on the Southern Cross. The National Film Board’s documentary 54 Hours written by Michael Crummey, using animation, survivor testimony and archival footage will be running as part of the Death at the Front exhibition. You can also view the short film from your own home at https://www.nfb.ca/film/54_hours

Crew List: In the days and months following the loss of the S.S. Southern Cross and the tragedy of the loss of the men of the S.S. Newfoundland there was much confusion about the names and the number of men that did die. You will find the definitive list of all those that did die as well as the survivors at http://www.homefromthesea.ca/

Recommended Reading: PERISHED by Jenny Higgins (2014) offers unique, illustrative look at the 1914 sealing disaster through pull-out facsimile archival documents. A first for the Newfoundland and Labrador publishing industry, as readers turn the pages of Perished they’ll find maps, log book entries, telegrams, a sealer’s ticket for the SS Newfoundland, and more that can be pulled out and examined. These are the primary source materials that ignite the imagination of history buffs and students alike and are among more than 200 rarely seen archival photos and documents that illustrate this amazing book. (NEW PUBLICATION)

“He would have to take command of the Bellaventure”

Archival Moment

March 9, 1914

The St. John’s daily newspaper the Evening Telegram in March month ran a column during the sealing season under the banner “Sealing Notes.” The column was eagerly read by the hundreds of men who were arriving in St. John’s looking for berths on the sealing vessels that were tied up in St. John’s harbour. These men were reading the newspaper column looking to see when and where they had to go to get their ‘ticket’ or ‘sign the articles’ to go to the ice.

On March 9, 1914, the Evening Telegram reported:

“The S.S. Newfoundland sailed last midnight (March 8) for Wesleyville. Captain Wes Kean went in charge, though it was expected he would have to take command of the Bellaventure owing to the illness of Captain Robert Randell, but the latter is now sufficiently recovered to go to the icefields.”

The next day the S.S. Newfoundland pushed through the loose ice towards Wesleyville where the young Captain picked up the remainder of his crew. On March 12th, the S.S. Newfoundland left for the ice-field.

Wes Kean was headed to the ice fields where he was keeping a look out for the S.S. Stephano under his father, Captain Abram Kean, a veteran sealer. Although the two ships worked for competing firms, the father and son had agreed to alert the other of any seals they spotted by a prearranged signal.

On March 30 the S.S. Newfoundland found that it was jammed in the ice and could not proceed. Wes Kean ordered his men off the ship the following morning (March 31) He instructed them to walk to the Stephano, believing the sealers would spend the night onboard his father’s steamer after a day of hunting.

The men did not stay on the Stephano, they were ordered to get back on the ice to start scullin. What resulted was that for two days, 132 sealers were stranded on the ice in blizzard conditions and without adequate shelter. 77 men died on the ice, rescuers found only 69 bodies; the remaining eight had fallen into the water. Most of the survivors lost one or more limbs to frostbite.

Wes Kean went to his bunk thinking that his men were on the Stephano, his father made the assumption that the men had returned to the S.S. Newfoundland. The two men could not communicate with each other the owner of the S.S. Newfoundland, A.J. Harvey and Company, had removed the ship’s wireless, the firm was interested in the radio only as a means of improving the hunt’s profitability and did not view it as a safety device.

If Captain Robert Randell had remained ill, Wes Kean would not have been on the S.S. Newfoundland, he would have been on the sealing vessel the Bellaventure that was equipped with a Marconi wireless operated by George Serrick of Bay Roberts.

On April 4, hundreds of anxious spectators lined the St. John’s waterfront as the Bellaventure steamed through the Narrows carrying the 69 corpses stacked on its deck. The Evening Telegram reported:

“The vision sent a shudder through the crowd, the bodies had been laid there just as they were brought in from the ice, many of them with limbs contracted and drawn up in postures wh

Recommended Archival Collection: At the Rooms Provincial Archives see GN 121 this collection consists of the evidence taken before the Commission of Enquiry regarding the S.S. Newfoundland. The collection includes the Sealers Crew Agreement and the evidence given by the surviving members of the crew. Evidence entered concerning the loss of the SS Southern Cross is also included on this collection.

Recommended Exhibit: Death on the Front: The Sealing Disaster 1914. March 26 – November 16 – Level 3 Museum Alcove. This small display features artifacts from the Rooms Provincial Museum and archival imagery from The Rooms Provincial Archives connected to these tragedies. One of the artifacts featured is a flag that was once flown on the Southern Cross. The National Film Board’s documentary 54 Hours written by Michael Crummey, using animation, survivor testimony and archival footage will be running as part of the Death at the Front exhibition. You can also view the short film from your own home at https://www.nfb.ca/film/54_hours

Crew List: In the days and months following the loss of the S.S. Southern Cross and the tragedy of the loss of the men of the S.S. Newfoundland there was much confusion about the names and the number of men that did die. You will find the definitive list of all those that did die as well as the survivors at http://www.homefromthesea.ca/

Recommended Reading: PERISHED by Jenny Higgins (2014) offers unique, illustrative look at the 1914 sealing disaster through pull-out facsimile archival documents. A first for the Newfoundland and Labrador publishing industry, as readers turn the pages of Perished they’ll find maps, log book entries, telegrams, a sealer’s ticket for the SS Newfoundland, and more that can be pulled out and examined. These are the primary source materials that ignite the imagination of history buffs and students alike and are among more than 200 rarely seen archival photos and documents that illustrate this amazing book. (NEW PUBLICATION)

ich the cold had brought about.”