Cape Race

by Robert C. Parsons

  Sometimes the canisters drifted away or could not be located. If a local fisherman found and presented a canister to the postmaster, he was rewarded with five pounds sterling.

  The July 19, 1859, edition of the Public Ledger, a St. John’s paper that also used the Associated Press wire service and which, like others, paid for the service, has an example of what type of news was considered important and what ship brought that week’s canisters:

  . . . We give extracts from later dates in Europe than had been received in America, having been obtained through our Telegraph Agency from news brought by the Canada, intercepted off Cape Race by the Life Boat of the New York Associated Press . . .

  The SS Canada, en route from England to North America, dropped off canisters at Cape Race, which were brought to shore by lifeboat men. Inside the cans, and later published by the Public Ledger, was “intelligence of the Seat of War in Europe.” Items included the progress of the war between France and Austria, the Battle of Solferino in Austria, movements of troops, French and Austrian soldier losses, and the reassembly of England’s Parliament.

  But news canisters were not the only items the press boats tried to intercept, as evidenced by the abandonment of the barque Pioneer in May 1862.

  Pioneer sailed from Hull, England, under the command of William Chapman, with a cargo of coal, lime, spring steel, and iron for Quebec. On May 7, it struck an iceberg near Cape Pine (approximately 22 miles west of Cape Race), which carried away the bowsprit and foremast and stove in the bow of the barque. Weather at the time was described as “thick.” Pioneer sailed at a rapid rate in a fair wind, plowing head on into the berg.

  Only by constant pumping for six days was the vessel kept afloat, until finally the crew had to abandon ship. A schooner had come by to assist the sinking Pioneer. The unidentified schooner landed the master, crew, and passengers at St. John’s on May 15.

  In the meantime, the news of the sinking Pioneer had been picked up at Cape Race and forwarded on to St. John’s. The St. John’s harbour tug Blue Jacket left for the seas off Cape Race and Cape Pine in an attempt to find Pioneer and perhaps tow it to port.

  It fell in with the drifting barque, still well afloat and relatively free of water, at Cape Ballard, north of Cape Race. On Tuesday, May 13, three of Blue Jacket’s crew boarded the derelict Pioneer and attached towing lines. Just as Blue Jacket and Pioneer got under way, the latter rapidly began to fill with water and wallowed awash in seas up to its decks. The three sailors from the tug had to jump overboard to escape what they thought would be a certain sinking and perhaps death.

  Fortunately, those on the tug saw this and launched the jolly boat to pick up their crewmates. Blue Jacket released its tow lines, abandoning Pioneer.

  Blue Jacket was not yet finished with Cape Race. In late June that same summer, it was called back there to bring the captain and crew of the brig Ann Davis to St. John’s. Ann Davis, en route from Aberystwyth, Wales, to Burin and laden with salt, went ashore near Cape Race and was totally wrecked. It was the last mercy mission for the old passenger steamer Blue Jacket. Three months later, on September 17, 1862, the Blue Jacket itself caught fire, burned, and sank off Kelly’s Island, Conception Bay.

  But the escapades with Pioneer were not yet over. The crew of the New York Associated Press boat also knew of the abandoned hulk. By then, May 16, Pioneer was located seven miles southwest of Cape Race. They put out their great press boat with four men to row and one to steer, just as if they were rowing out to retrieve a news canister from a passing liner. Perhaps they were interested in a bit of salvage money or in retrieving some valuables from Pioneer.

  Upon reaching the waterlogged barque, they found the foremast was gone, the bows stove in, and the vessel entirely abandoned. There was four feet of water in the hold. The newsmen reported Pioneer had recently been boarded by another ship and all sails and rigging had been carried off.

  The crew of the press boat, seeing they could salvage nothing, nor could they do anything with the derelict, left it and returned to the cable station at Cape Race. As for the Pioneer, it sank not long after off Cape Race.

  The final piece of news from the Cape Race press boats for that week was published in the Public Ledger of Saturday, May 17, 1862, and appeared thus:

  Latest by Telegraph

  LATEST NEWS FROM EUROPE!

  Special to the Day-Book

  St. John’s May 13

  The steamship North America was off Cape Race today, all well. The North America, when off Cape Ray, had picked up a boat containing four hands, belonging to the French fishing vessel Charl, of St. Malo.

  They had got adrift from their ship on the banks and were picked up on the 8th by the British ship Lama, Capt. Isbister, who left them at St. Paul’s on the morning of the 12th. They were landed this morning at St. Pierre (by North America).

  The North America had seen no field ice, but numerous icebergs from St. Pierre to Cape Race.

  7

  The Greatest Loss of Life

  at the Cape

  April 1863

  On April 16, 1863, the passenger liner Anglo Saxon, under the command of Captain Burgess, left Liverpool, England. It was a popular ship, and speedy, having made several record passages of the Atlantic. Thus nearly every berth was filled with passengers; on this, its last and fateful voyage, Anglo Saxon carried 445 men, women, and children, and crew.

  At 11: 00 a.m. on April 27, the steamer was in dense fog close – too close – to Cape Race. It was on reduced speed with lookouts posted. Suddenly there came a cry from one of the lookouts. “Breakers ahead!”

  Almost immediately, the Anglo Saxon struck on a rugged shore. Burgess ordered the engine to be put full astern, but he was unable to back off. The steamer was wedged securely by the bow, but the stern was afloat. It was clear to all Anglo Saxon was fatally damaged and would never free itself from the viselike grip of a rocky shore.

  Visibility was reduced to a few feet. White breakers pounding a cliff, and rocks under and around the bow were all that could be seen. A swell rolled in relentlessly.

  Captain Burgess had to act quickly and surely. Within a few moments he had a man ashore, who strung a heavy hawser to a rock on the shoreline. On that the crew rigged a crude “breeches buoy, ” or a movable block with a basket attached.

  Passengers would be transferred first, two or three in the basket at a time, beginning with the children and women. As the first few were transported, the captain had time to size up the desperate situation. He knew the ship had to be evacuated fast, but would he get the more than 400 people off in time?

  It seemed as if the impaled vessel would hold up for only an hour or so. It was pounding and grinding against the rocks. Water was steadily rising in the after part of Anglo Saxon, and it would only be a matter of time before that part would be nearly underwater.

  Burgess ordered out the lifeboats; more women and children left the ship. The boats were to stand off in the great combers, as it was too dangerous to attempt to beach them in the breakers.

  Without warning, Anglo Saxon slipped off the rocks with a stagger to the port. Spars, topmasts, yards, blocks, and rigging crashed down among the panic-stricken people standing on the deck. Amidship, the cold sea water sloshed among the wreckage and around the feet of passengers and crew.

  Many, including the chief officer, freed themselves from the disorder and debris and jumped overboard. Lifeboats picked up survivors as best they could. Soon the lifeboats were full or had drifted away. Any who still lived had to fend for themselves. Lifeboats were eventually found by local residents 15 miles up the coast.

  Many perished on Anglo Saxon in those hours; approximately 237 died. When news of the disaster reached Montreal, shipping authorities sent a rescue ship to give shelter to survivors. Anglo Saxon lies approximately four miles to the north of Cape Race in a small inlet called Clam Cove.

  It is possible that the haste to reach Cape Race and to steam near it to drop off the all-important AP new
s canister caused some groundings at the cape. It may be true for Anglo Saxon, although it was not made clear in the subsequent marine inquiry into the steamer’s loss. According to Arthur Johnson’s comprehensive and valuable book, The Tr agic Wreck of the Anglo Saxon, “There can be little doubt that Captain Burgess’ overriding motive was to make the Cape early to deliver the news canister.”

  When the first transatlantic cable was landed in Heart’s Content in 1866 by the ship Great Eastern, news by wire could be transmitted across Newfoundland, across the Gulf, and on down to the United States. Only then did the drop-off of the news canisters become outdated technology and the practice ceased.

  In a subsequent inquiry, it was recorded that the fog was so thick that Anglo Saxon’s lookout did not see the light at Cape Race, which by then had been in place for ten years. One recommendation was to install a steam whistle at the cape; this was done in 1872. As well, the light was converted from fixed to revolving three years after the Anglo Saxon tragedy.

  8

  A Week’s Worth of Disasters

  August 1869

  In the first week of August 1869, Newfoundland shipping authorities were inundated with a number of shipping accidents that occurred around Newfoundland’s shores, including two on the southern Avalon Peninsula. The first news to reach St. John’s was the report of the loss of a timber vessel bound from Quebec for Liverpool. It went aground at Peter’s River.

  Then an American vessel, the bark Odd Fellow out of New London, Connecticut, laden with a cargo of provisions for vessels engaged in the Greenland whale fishery, had gone ashore in Little Placentia (today’s Argentia). This vessel, quickly abandoned by its crew, was plundered by wreckers and later refloated by landsmen and salvors in Placentia Bay.

  On Saturday, August 7, the SS Germania, bound from New York to Breman with 260 passengers aboard, ran ashore at Seal Cove, Trepassey Bay. The captain attributed the accident to the dense fog that often enshrouds the Cape Race area in August.

  Germania’s passengers were mainly labourers who had been engaged on the Pacific Railway. They and the 120 officers and crew left the wreck without incident. Most were brought to St. John’s by a French gunboat and by the Newfoundland tug Diamond.

  However, what was in the holds was another matter, for the Hamburg-America Packet Company steamer was carrying 1,700 ton of cargo, many bars of silver and some gold bullion.

  By the next Saturday, the 2,718-ton Germania had settled in nine fathoms of water, never to surface again. Larder Brothers of Halifax were awarded the salvage contract, and up to August 17, 28 bars of silver had been removed. Much cargo coming up from below deck, consisting of sewing machines, clocks, tobacco, and cigars, had been rendered worthless after more than a week’s immersion in water. Some goods eventually reached St. John’s.

  On Saturday, news of the loss of Germania was still a topic of conversation, when the next morning, Sunday, details emerged of the wreck of the SS Cleopatra, a steamer bound from Quebec for London. It struck in shoal water at Freshwater Point, Cape Race, about four miles away from the hulk of Germania.

  Cleopatra, a 982-ton iron steamer owned by Temperly and Company of London, was commanded by Captain W. Donald. It carried very little cargo, and the crew and eight passengers left the ship without incident. Although the loss of property was extensive for both wrecks, luckily there was no loss of life.

  The paper media of the day analyzed the causes of both accidents, saying:

  Fogs have been lately unusually prevalent on the southern part of the coast and to this cause, of course, these casualties must be partially ascribed.

  But it also seems probable that, as on former like occasions, there has not been sufficient allowance made for the set of the currents in that quarter. This appears to be the most reasonable explanation of the fact of so many vessels being at the same time so far out of their course. (Newfoundlander, August 13, 1869)

  9

  Double Tragedy at

  Cape Race – Cape St. Mary’s

  January 1877

  The double loss of two sister steamers of the Cromwell Line, sailing nearly an identical route from port to port and within a fortnight of each other, is one of the strangest occurrences in the annals of the sea. And both vessels – George Washington and George Cromwell – were lost in nearly the same location on Newfoundland’s southeastern tip; and both ships had no survivors.

  The SS George Cromwell, from New York to Halifax and St. John’s, left New York on December 21, 1876. It reached Halifax and left there for St. John’s on January 3, 1877. After Halifax, nothing was heard of Cromwell until several weeks later, when a telegram from St. John’s relayed the news that a lifebuoy marked “George Cromwell” had been picked up in Placentia Bay. Not long after, another telegram arrived at New York’s Clark and Seaman, agents for the Cromwell Line, in New York.

  This telegram and others said quantities of wreckage began to come ashore about January 11, seven miles south of Placentia. Among the debris were tubs of butter, a cabin door, another lifebuoy, and a case of geese.

  Only then did the managing owners of Clark and Seaman send out a general alarm and serious inquiries as to the steamer’s whereabouts. They knew George Cromwell had met with heavy weather and thought the delay had been caused by an engine failure or that the steamer had blown off course.

  George Cromwell, built in 1862 at New York, was a wooden screw-propelled steamer of 972 tons and measured 181 feet in length. Like its sister ship George Washington, it carried a full cargo as well as mail from Canada and the United States. Its crew, except one – William Cavanagh, a boy from Newfoundland who worked in the galley – hailed mostly from New York State.

  As well, Cromwell had several passengers: Two were positively identified as from Newfoundland. Francis Aspell, age 24, was a machinist in Brooklyn, New York. He had been away for 12 years and was returning to visit his father, Peter Aspell of St. John’s. William Henry Roper was one of three brothers born in Bonavista. Joseph Roper owned a successful watch and chronometer repair business in St. John’s. John Roper was a magistrate in Bonavista.

  One source of local information came from Joseph McGrath, the postmaster at Cuslet, a small town near Cape St. Mary’s. He kept a diary of local events for 40 years and wrote that in February 1877, a box containing dressed geese (prepared for cooking) was found on the strand a few miles northeast of Cuslet. This, wrote McGrath, was wreckage supposedly from George Cromwell.

  In February, after weeks of speculation, the newspaper Morning Chronicle declared the SS George Cromwell “Lost with Crew, ” speculating the ship had met its end on Cape St. Mary’s Keys or the Main Keys, treacherous landmarks about 25 miles east of Cape Race. Newfoundland mariners, considering the wreckage, its drift, weather conditions, and the time the steamer left Halifax, figured the SS George Cromwell struck Cape St. Mary’s on January 5. Thirty-one crew and passengers perished.

  Mistaken Point and the Sister Ship, George Washington

  On January 18, about two weeks after George Cromwell left Halifax, the SS George Washington steamed for St. John’s. Both these vessels were in good condition; both were insured, but not to their full value. George Washington, only three years old, was commanded by Captain James Whitehead, from Brooklyn. Most of its crew were also from the state of New York.

  George Washington carried a cargo of 3,500 barrels of flour, about 2,000 barrels of pork, and other merchandise. The two passengers – W. Archibald and James Power – were in steerage, but it’s not clear if they were from Newfoundland.

  The managers, Clark and Seaman, asked Captain Whitehead to keep a good lookout for the missing George Cromwell. But George Washington didn’t arrive in St. John’s either.

  According to the location of debris and bodies found at Mistaken Point, specifically Bristow Cove (with its various spellings Brista, Briska, Bresta), it was highly speculated among mariners of the day that the steamer was lost with all hands in the night of January 20-21, 1877.

 
; The distance between Cape Race and Bristow Cove–Portugal Cove South is between 14 to 20 miles, and the shoreline was once a bed of ships’ skeletons. In 1877, the road along the shore at places was (and still is) well in from the sea; yet in other places it skirts the shoreline. One of the headlands along this stretch is Mistaken Point. It takes its name from the deadly results of mistaking the land for Cape Race, in the area’s typically foggy weather. Sailors who made this error would turn north, thinking they had reached Cape Race, and immediately run into treacherous rocks.

  Not much would have ever been known of George Washington, except some traveller of one of the small communities happened to discover signs of wreckage. Once discovered, though, men of Trepassey Bay were soon to the rescue, but too late to save human life. Sea and storm had done their deadly work, as mangled bodies littered a crevice in a cliff.

  Among the leaders of the rescue party were Patrick Coombs and John Myrick of the Cape Race Lighthouse (and later to replace his father, Patrick, as keeper); others were William Kennedy, John Neal, and Thomas and Edward Malloy of places like The Drook, Long Beach, Portugal Cove South, and Trepassey. They knew the scene was one of death, but were impelled by humane motives to retrieve bodies.