 Photograph ofNewfoundland with inset portrait of Captain W Kean | |
| History | |
|---|---|
| Name |
|
| Namesake | 1872:Newfoundland |
| Owner |
|
| Operator | 1907: AJ Harvey & Co |
| Port of registry |
|
| Builder | P Baldwin,Quebec |
| Completed | 1872 |
| Identification |
|
| Fate | Wrecked 1916 |
| General characteristics | |
| Type | cargo ship,sealing ship |
| Tonnage | 919 GRT, 568 NRT |
| Length | 212.5 ft (64.8 m) |
| Beam | 29.5 ft (9.0 m) |
| Depth | 23.3 ft (7.1 m) |
| Decks | 2 |
| Installed power |
|
| Propulsion | |
| Sail plan | brigantine |
SSNewfoundland was a wooden-hulledbrigantine andsteamship that was built in 1872 and wrecked in 1916. She was acargo ship, and for part of her career she was asealing ship. In 1916 she was renamedSamuel Blandford.
Newfoundland was involved in two disasters. The first was the 1914 Newfoundland Sealing Disaster, when 132 sealers were stranded on anice floe, resulting in 78 deaths. The second was in 1916, shortly after she had been renamed, when she struck rocks and was wrecked.
Peter Baldwin builtNewfoundland inQuebec, completing her in 1872. Her registered length was 212.5 ft (64.8 m), herbeam was 29.5 ft (9.0 m), her depth was 23.3 ft (7.1 m) and hertonnages were 919 GRT and 568 NRT. She had two masts and wasrigged as a brigantine.[1]
Newfoundland had a two-cylindercompound steam engine, built by the Ouseburn Engine Works ofNewcastle upon Tyne, England, which powered her singlescrew. It was originally rated at "130 HP",[1] but by 1903 it was rated at 162NHP.[2]
James and Alexander Allan wereNewfoundland's first owners. Theyregistered her inGlasgow, Scotland. Her UKofficial number was 66054 and hercode letters were MCPB.[3][1]
In 1890 Allan Line re-registeredNewfoundland inMontreal.[4] In 1893 John H Anderson ofMusquodoboit boughtNewfoundland and re-registered her inWindsor, Nova Scotia.[5] In 1900 JA Farquhar became her owner.[6] In 1904 John Harvey bought her and re-registered her inSt John's, Newfoundland.[2] From 1907 her owner was the Steamship "Newfoundland" Sealing Co, Ltd, and AJ Harvey was hermanager.[7]
By 1913Newfoundland was equipped forwireless telegraphy.[8] Hercall sign was VOW.[9]
In 1916 William Davis of St John's, Newfoundland acquiredNewfoundland,[10] and she was renamedSamuel Blandford.[11]
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On March 30, 1914,Newfoundland was trapped in ice off the northern coast ofNewfoundland. Her captain, Wes Kean, could see signals fromStephano, commanded by his fatherAbram Kean, indicating that there were seals several miles away. The next morning, Wes Kean sent his crew in that direction across the ice to begin killing seals, commanded by hisfirst officer, expecting that if the weather worsened they would stay overnight aboardStephano. When the men reachedStephano, Abram Kean gave the men lunch and then ordered them back onto the ice to kill seals and findNewfoundland, despite signs of worsening weather.
As a storm began that afternoon, the captains of bothNewfoundland and the nearbyStephano each thought the men were safely aboard the other man's vessel.Newfoundland's owners had removed the ship's wireless telegraph equipment because it was an expense that did not contribute to profits.Newfoundland's captain, believing the men were aboardStephano, did not blow the ship's whistle to signal his location, which would have allowed his men to find the ship in the darkness and rain. The sealers endured two nights without shelter, in first afreezing rain storm and then asnowstorm.
The dead and survivors alike were rescued about 54 hours later by another ship in the fleet,Bellaventure, under CaptainIsaac Randell. Of the 132 men aboardNewfoundland, 78 died, and many more were seriously injured.[12] This disaster occurred in the same storm in whichSouthern Cross sank with all hands. The total loss from all three sealing ships totaled more than 250 lives, and the combined tragedy became known as the 1914 Newfoundland Sealing Disaster.
In 1916Samuel Blandford left New York with a cargo of coal bound for St John's. On August 3 she struck the Keys, nearSt. Mary's Bay, Newfoundland and Labrador and was wrecked.[11]
Cassie Brown andHarold Horwood wrote their 1972 bookDeath on the Ice about the 1914 disaster.[13] TheNational Film Board of Canada has made three documentaries about the disaster:The Icehunters in 1976,"I Just Didn't Want to Die": The 1914 Newfoundland Sealing Disaster in 1991, and the multimedia short54 Hours in 2014.[14][15][16]
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Media related toNewfoundland (ship, 1872) at Wikimedia Commons