Ninety-nine years ago, a terrible tragedy befell families in Newfoundland. The spring sealing season was always a very important source of income for the island, but it was also known to be extremely dangerous. To catch the seals, the ships had to sail into the frozen ice floes where winds could shift the massive ice and crush them. Five ships were lost between 1906 and 1914.
However, on March 30, 1914, while sealers were still out on the ice in the Atlantic, a major blizzard swept across the region.
In two separate tragedies in that storm, some 252 men and boys were lost.
The SS Southern Cross, returning from the St Lawrence simply disappeared with all 174 people on board. Meanwhile some 132 sealers from the ship SS Newfoundland were still far out on the floes when the blizzard struck. Far from their ship and blinded by the blizzard they spent over two days on the ice in subzero temperatures. Over two thirds died, and many survivors lost limbs to frostbite.
At a ceremony on Easter Monday, a model statue has been unveiled to mark the tragedy.
The emotionally evocative model and eventual lifesize bronze statue depicts Albert and Reuben Crewe, a father and son aboard the SS Newfoundland, who were later found frozen to death, holding onto each other.
It will be erected in Elliston, at Bonavista Bay, home to many of the sealers who perished. The Sealers’ Memorial there will also feature an interpretation centre, converted from a former schoolhouse, which will tell stories of the lives of early sealers and of the economic and cultural history of sealing in Newfoundland and Labrador.
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