SS Southern Cross (1886)

Southern Cross in the Derwent River, Tasmania, 1898

The SS Southern Cross was a steam-powered sealing vessel that operated primarily in Norway and Newfoundland and Labrador.

She was lost at sea returning from the seal hunt on March 31, 1914, killing all 174 men aboard in the same storm that killed 78 crewmen from the SS Newfoundland, a collective tragedy that became known as the "1914 Newfoundland Sealing Disaster".^[1]From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Background

The vessel was commissioned as the whaler Pollux at Arendal, Norway in 1886. Under the explorer Carstens Borchgrevink on December 19, 1898 Pollux made its first Antarctic expedition where it made marine history by breaking through the Great Ice barrier to the unexplored Ross Sea.

Pollux was sold to Baine Johnston and renamed SS Southern Cross^{[citation needed]} upon transferring to Newfoundland and Labrador in 1901. Southern Cross participated in every seal hunt from 1901-1914.

1914 Newfoundland Sealing Disaster

The 1914 sealing fleet included both the SS Southern Cross and the SS Newfoundland (under Captain Westbury Kean). In addition to minor crew changes from 1913, the fateful decision to remove the wireless set and operator from the SS Newfoundland in order to cut costs.

The fleet left St. John's on March 13, 1914. SS Newfoundland lost 78 sealers from her crew when they were stranded on the ice for two nights. Just as the terrible news of the SS Newfoundland tragedy was reaching St. John's, the SS Southern Cross fell out of normal communication. The people of Newfoundland remained hopeful that tragedy would not strike twice, as evidenced by the April 3 newspaper article below:

The Evening Telegram April 3, 1914 Nothing has been heard of the Southern Cross since she was reported off Cape Pine on Tuesday last, and the general opinion is that she was driven far off to sea. Various reports were afloat in the city last night, one in particular that she had passed Cape Race yesterday afternoon, but upon making enquiries this and the other reports were unfortunately found to be untrue. At 5:30 yesterday the Anglo [Anglo-American Telegraph Co.] got in touch with Cape Race and learned that she had not passed the Cape neither was she at Trepassey. A message from Captain Connors of the Portia said she was not St. Mary’s Bay. A wireless message was sent by the government to the U.S. Patrol steamer Senaca, which is in the vicinity of Cape Race, asking her to search for the Cross. The S.S. Kyle will also leave tonight to make a diligent search for her and it is hoped that something will soon be heard from the overdue ship, as anxiety for her safety is increasing hourly. If she had been driven off to sea, which is the general opinion expressed by experienced seamen, it would take her some days to make land again. The ship is heavily laden and cannot steam at great speed.

Unlike the tragedy of the Newfoundland's crew, the disappearance of the Southern Cross remained largely unexplained as no crewmen or record of the voyage survived. While a marine court of enquiry determined that the ship sank in a blizzard on March 31, little evidence exists to verify this. Oral tradition suggests that rotten boards gave out in the heavy sea and allowed the cargo to shift and capsize the steamer. Though the wreck of the SS Southern Cross accounted for the greater human loss of the two shipwrecks, some historians argue that the emotional impact of the SS Newfoundland disaster was more intensely felt because of the horrific stories survivors were able to recount.

These two disasters together constitute what is referred to as the 1914 Newfoundland Sealing Disaster. A total loss of 251 lives from a province with a population of approximately 250,000 devastated families and communities. In his autobiographical book, Rockwell Kent describes the impact of the loss on Brigus, where many of the sealers from the Southern Cross had lived. “It will pretty well clear out this place,” said one resident of the ship’s loss. According to Kent “The dread of the loss of this steamer had passed almost to certainty and the mention of the house, the wife, the children, the hopes and ambitions of any of those on her became a tragedy.”

Legislative Response

In 1914-15, the government held a commission of enquiry to examine the SS Newfoundland and SS Southern Cross sealing disasters. The commission’s findings made it clear that sealers faced extraordinarily dangerous working conditions on the ice.

While legislation concerning the sealing industry had existed as early as 1873, most regulations concerned maintaining seal stock. In 1898 legislation put a limit on the number of men on each steamer, and one year later in 1899, some wage protection was instated for sealers. Arguably as a result of the 1914 Sealing Disaster and subsequent inquiries, further legislation was put in place in 1916, aimed directly at improving the safety standards and well-being of sealers. The new measures prohibited men from working in the dark; prohibited captains from ordering their crewmen to travel so far as to not be able to return to the ship within the day, and provided for rocket signals, search parties, masters’ and mates’ certificates, medical officers, thermometers, barometers, and better food and compensation.

In response to speculation that the SS Southern Cross sank because of overloading, the government prohibited any ship from returning from a hunt with more that 35,000 pelts, and the Minister of Fisheries began to mark "load lines" on sealing vessels. Any ship that returned to port with its "load line" below the water would be heavily fined.

Public Response

Public sympathy was very evident after the 1914 Newfoundland Sealing Disaster. By April 27, 1914, a disaster fund set up to aid survivors and their families amounted to $88,550. It’s notable that this was not limited to the sealing disasters; it was common practice in society at the time to respond to industrial accidents in this way.

SS Southern Cross in Popular Culture

The vessel was the subject of the book Death on the Ice by Cassie Brown, and a 1991 National Film Board of Canada documentary I Just Didn't Want to Die: The 1914 Newfoundland Sealing Disaster.

The loss of so many lives on the Southern Cross has caused the incident to be written in a song entitled Southern Cross.

SS Southern Cross officers and crew

Master George Clarke, Brigus - 2nd Hand, James Kelly, Brigus - Chief Engineer, David Parsons, St. John's - 2nd Engineer, Thomas Connell, St. John's - 3rd Engineer, W. Hammond, St. John's - Fireman, W. Walsh, St. John's - Fireman, M. Scammell, St. John's - Fireman, P. Stapleton, St. John's - Fireman, Gregory Bremnan, St. John's - Fireman, John Whelan, St. John's - James Batton, Foxtrap - Ed. Barrett, Tilton - Thomas Barrett, Spaniard's Bay - Thomas Bartlett, Turk's Gut - Arthur Benson, Harbour Grace - John Bishop, Kelligrews - James Blundon, Low Point, Conception Bay - John Boland, St. John's - John Bradbury, Harbour Grace - James Bray, Harbour Grace - Herbert Bray, Harbour Grace - Thomas Bright, Queen's Cove - Pat Burke, Colliers - James Bussey, Kelligrews - Jos. Bussey, Kelligrews - Noah Bussey, Foxtrap - Alfred Bussey, Foxtrap - Thomas Bussey, Foxtrap - Gordon Bussey, Foxtrap - Henry Butler, Foxtrap - Herb Butler, Foxtrap - Sam Butler, Kelligrews - W. C. Butler, Foxtrap - Uriah Button, Kelligrews - John Callahan, Harbour Grace - Walter Carrol, Outer Cove - J. Chafe, Petty Harbour - George Chapman, Spaniard's Bay - Nathan Chetman, Spaniard's Bay - Albert Clarke, Paradise - Art Clark, Spaniard's Bay - Hy. Clark, Carbonear - John Clarke, Brigus - John W. Clarke, Paradise - Walter Clarke, St. John's - Robert Clarke, Spaniard's Bay - William Clarke, Spaniard's Bay - Ed Cole, Colliers - John Cole, Colliers - John Conway, Colliers - John Comber, Island Cove - William Coombs, Harbour Grace - Jos. Corbett, Clarke's Beach - John Costello, Conception Harbour - Thomas Costello, Conception Harbour - Ed Crane, Spaniard's Bay - James Dunphy, Tor's Cove - Pat Dyer, Logy Bay - John Ebbs, St. John's - John Ellis, St. John's - John Evans, Torbay - Alex Field, Torbay - John Field, St. John's - Fred Follett, Broad Cove - James Foley, Grey's Islands - Oscar Forward, Carbonear - George French, Harbour Grace - Ed. Gibbons, St. Vincents - Sebastian Gibbons, St. Vincents - Thomas Gibbons, St. Vincents - Robert Gillett, Carbonear - Robert Gosse, Spaniard's Bay - William Gosse, Spaniard's Bay - William Gosse, Little Bay - John Griffin, Harbour Grace - George Hall, Colliers - John Hannon, Bay de Verde - Abner Harris, Adeytown - Pat Hearn, Goulds - Thomas Hickey, Holyrood - George Hiscock, Topsail - John P. Hiscock, Carbonear - James Hollett, Arnold's Cove - William J. Howe, Carbonear - Elias James, Harbour Grace - Isaac James, Harbour Grace - Thomas James, Harbour Grace - William James, Harbour Grace - W. C. James, Harbour Grace - William Kearney, Seal Cove - Samuel Kennedy, Seal Cove - Ed Kenney, Fermeuse - Ronald Knight, Harbour Grace - John Landry, New Chelsea, T. B. - Henry Leary, Kelligrews - Allan Lindsay, St. John's - Walter Maley, Kelligrews - Thomas Manning, Torbay - John Mansfield, Conception Harbour - John Mansfield, St. John's - Arthur Martin, Harbour Grace - James Martin, St. John's - Elias Mason, Catalina - Ambrose Matthews, New Chelsea, T. B. - John Mercer, Island Cove - Eleazer Morris, Clarke's Beach - M. Morrissey, Harbour Grace - Alec Morgan, Seal Cove - Joseph Morgan, Seal Cove - George Murray, Carbonear - James Neal, Island Cove - Fred Newel, Upper Island Cove - Josiah Newel, Carbonear - Martine Newell, Upper Island Cove - Charles Norman, Catalina - Noel Norman, Harbour Grace - William Norman, Cupids - Ernest Noseworthy, Harbour Grace - James Noseworthy, Harbour Grace - Walter O'Rourke, Outer Cove - James Patrick, Carbonear - George Patten, Foxtrap - Amos Penny, Carbonear - Norman Penney, Carbonear - Robert Penney, Carbonear - Walter Pierce, Catalina - Alfred Pike, Carbonear - James Porter, Long Pond, Manuels - Herb Pynn, Harbour Grace - Charles Quetel, St. John's - James Quilty, Horse Cove - Samuel Rideout, Kelligrews - Ben Robbins, Lower Island Cove - John Robbins, Island Cove - James Robertson, St. John's - Jacob Rowe, Chance Cove, T. Bay - Noah Rowe, Chance Cove - Ambrose Sharp, Paradise - William Sharp, Paradise - Leonard Skiffington, Newman's Cove, B. B. - George Smith, Spaniard's Bay - Henry Smith, Manuels - Alex Squires, Topsail - Ed Squires, Topsail - Fred Squires, St. John's - John Stanley, Long Pond, Manuels - William Stanley, Long Ponds, Manuels - Noah Sparkes, Brigus - Thomas Sparkes, Brigus - Ambrose Taylor, Foxtrap - Kenneth Taylor, Cupids - Kenneth Vokey, Cupids - George Vokey, Spaniard's Bay - William Vokey, Spaniard's Bay - James Walsh, Conception Harbour - James Walsh, St. Vincents - John Walsh, Colliers - William Walsh, Northern Bay - B. Watts, Brigus - William Webber, Harbour Grace - William White, St. Mary's - Angus Winsor, Brigus - Lawrence Yeo, St. John's - Jos. Yetman, Spaniard's Bay - Mark Yetman, Harbour Grace - James Youden, Brigus -

The 1914 Sealing Disaster

Although potentially lucrative, the Newfoundland and Labrador spring sealing industry was also more hazardous than any other local fishery at the turn of the 20th century. To find their catch, sealing ships had to steam each year into the dangerous ice floes off Newfoundland’s north coast, where large frozen masses of floating seawater and sudden blizzards could jam ships in the ice and crush their hulls. Five steamers were lost between 1906 and 1914, reducing the country’s sealing fleet to 20 vessels. In no other fishery did ships enter the floes.

The sealing vessel SS Newfoundland, n.d.

The SS Newfoundland, n.d.
The wooden sealing vessel SS Newfoundland left St. John’s for the North Atlantic ice floes in March 1914.
Photographer unknown. Reproduced by permission of the Archives and Manuscripts Division (Coll. 115 16.04.099), QE II Library, Memorial University, St. John’s, NL.

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Once on the ice, the men faced additional dangers. Carrying little food, no shelter, and dressed in clothing ill-suited for sudden squalls, the sealers might spend up to 12 consecutive hours on the ice. Because their ships could only maneuver a limited distance into the ice fields, the men often had to walk for miles before reaching any seals. If the unpredictable North Atlantic weather worsened, the men would have to turn back and fight their way through blinding snow and fierce winds, guided to safety by the sound of their ship’s whistle.

Although quick to help, captains of other vessels often did not know when crews other than their own were in trouble because of the great distances separating ships. While the sealing fleet had encompassed upwards of 400 sailing ships in the early 1800s, the introduction of giant steamers with their large crews in the late 19th century had thinned the fleet considerably and forced vessels to be more widely spaced throughout the ice floes. Some ships carried wireless apparatus to aid in communication, but the costly equipment was not mandatory and often considered unnecessary by ship-owners.

Inevitably, the dangers inherent to the Newfoundland and Labrador seal fishery – augmented by human error or negligence – resulted in numerous deaths and accidents. The most horrific of these occurred in 1914, when 252 of the country’s sealers died in two separate but simultaneous disasters involving the SS Newfoundland and SS Southern Cross. These tragedies were immediately seared into the public consciousness and ultimately prompted government officials to change the way they regulated the seal fishery.

SS Newfoundland

Although the Newfoundland disaster resulted in fewer deaths than that of the Southern Cross, its shocking details sparked a more intense and emotional response from the public. For two days, 132 sealers were stranded on the ice in blizzard conditions and without adequate shelter. More than two-thirds of the men died and many of the survivors lost one or more limbs to frostbite.

Newfoundland survivor, 4 April 1914.
Thomas Dawson of the SS Newfoundland arrives at the port of St. John’s after being stranded on the North Atlantic ice floes.
Photographer unknown. Reproduced by permission of the Archives and Manuscripts Division (Coll. 115 16.04.048), Queen Elizabeth II Library, Memorial University, St. John’s, NL.

However, when the SS Newfoundland left St. John’s for the North Atlantic ice fields in March 1914, no one anticipated the hardships that lay ahead. Its captain, Westbury Kean, was accompanied on the hunt that year by his father Abram Kean, veteran sealer and captain of the SS Stephano. Although the two ships worked for competing firms, each captain had agreed to alert the other of any seals they spotted by raising their after derrick – a type of wooden crane found on marine vessels.

On March 30, the powerful steel steamer Stephano had navigated its way deep into the ice fields where it found a herd of seals. Abram Kean ordered his derrick raised, but the Newfoundland – a weaker and less maneuverable wooden steamer – was jammed in the ice between five and seven miles to the south and could not proceed. Frustrated by his inability to move and anxious to catch a share of the seal herd, Westbury Kean ordered his men off the ship the following morning. 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. Although the sky was cloudy, Kean did not anticipate bad weather as the morning was mild and the ship’s barometer gave no indication of a brewing storm. The Newfoundland, however, was not carrying a thermometer and Kean could not tell if the temperature was falling or rising.

Nonetheless, 166 men jumped onto the ice and headed for the distant Stephano at 7 a.m. As the morning progressed, many of the sealers recognized signs of an approaching storm and talked uneasily about the weather. At about 10 o’clock, 34 men decided to turn back; the remaining 132 reached the Stephano by 11:30. Abram Kean invited the men on board and offered them a lunch of tea and hard bread. He mistakenly believed that the group had left the Newfoundland at 9 a.m. and had only been walking for two hours. While the men ate, Kean navigated the Stephano towards a group of seals two miles to the south. Although it was snowing quite hard, Kean ordered the men off his ship at 11:50, with instructions to kill 1,500 seals before returning to the Newfoundland. He did not invite them onto the Stephano for the night.

George Tuff, second hand of the SS Newfoundland, n.d.
Second hand of the SS Newfoundland, George Tuff was also the officer in charge of the 132 sealers stranded on the ice between March 31 and April 2, 1914.
Photographer unknown. Reproduced by permission of the Archives and Manuscripts Division (Coll. 115 16.04.032), Queen Elizabeth II Library, Memorial University, St. John’s, NL.

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Tired from the morning’s four-hour trek, unable to see the Newfoundland, and in a thickening storm, the 132 men were once again on the ice. The group’s leader, George Tuff, did not object to Kean’s orders and the Stephano steamed away to pick up its own crewmembers hunting in the north. By 12:45 the blowing snow forced the sealers to stop hunting and head for their own ship. Walking through knee-deep snowdrifts and across wheeling ice pans, the men continued until dark, when Tuff ordered them to build shelters from loose chunks of ice. This, however, proved ineffectual against the night’s shifting winds, sudden ice storms, and plummeting temperatures. Many men died before morning; others could barely walk, their limbs frozen and numb.

The group spent the next day and night trying to reach the Newfoundland, but without luck. Some men, delirious, walked into the frigid waters and drowned; others were pulled back onto the ice by their companions, but often died within minutes. Westbury and Abram Kean, meanwhile, each believed the sealers were safely aboard the other man’s ship. Communication between the two vessels was impossible because the Newfoundland was not carrying wireless equipment. The steamer’s owner, A.J. Harvey and Company, had removed the ship’s wireless because it had failed to result in larger catches during previous seasons. 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.

Rescuers with dead and injured sealers, 2 April 1914.
Rescuers from the SS Bellaventure carry dead and injured sealers from the SS Newfoundland on stretchers.
Photographer unknown. Reproduced by permission of the Archives and Manuscripts Division (Coll. 115 16.04.038), Queen Elizabeth II Library, Memorial University, St. John’s, NL.

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Rescuers with dead and injured sealers, 2 April 1914.

It was not until the morning of April 2 that Westbury Kean, surveying the floes through his binoculars, spotted his men crawling and staggering across the ice. Desperate to help, but lacking any flares, Kean improvised a distress signal to alert other vessels within the fleet. Soon, crewmen from the SS Bellaventure were on the ice with blankets, food, and drink. The Stephano and SS Florizel also helped in the search. Of the 77 men who died on the ice, rescuers found only 69 bodies; the remaining eight had likely fallen into the water. The survivors were brought to St. John’s for medical care, where another man, John Keels, also died from his ordeal on the ice.

SS Southern Cross

While the 132 men of the Newfoundland were stranded on the ice in the North Atlantic, a second sealing tragedy was unfolding to the south. In late March or early April 1914, the SS Southern Cross sank while returning to Newfoundland from the Gulf of St. Lawrence, taking with it 174 men.

SS Southern Cross, n.d.
In late March or early April 1914, the SS Southern Cross sank while returning to Newfoundland from the Gulf of St. Lawrence.
Photographer unknown. Reproduced by permission of the Archives and Manuscripts Division (Coll. 115 16.04.003), Queen Elizabeth II Library, Memorial University, St. John’s, NL.

with more information (51 kb)

On March 31, the coastal steamer SS Portia passed 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.

However, popular consensus at the time suggested that the ship’s heavy cargo may have shifted suddenly in the stormy waves and capsized the steamer. In his book The Ice Hunters, Shannon Ryan also suggests that the ship’s captain, George Clarke, may have 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. Whatever the cause, the sinking of the Southern Cross resulted in more deaths than any other single disaster in Newfoundland and Labrador sealing history.

Reactions

In 1915, the government held a commission of enquiry to examine the Newfoundland and Southern Cross sealing disasters. Although it laid no criminal charges, the enquiry found Abram Kean, Westbury Kean, and George Tuff all guilty of errors in judgment. In Tuff’s case, the enquiry felt he should have refused the orders of Abram Kean, one of the most powerful men in the seal hunt, to return with his watch to the Newfoundland. More importantly, the commission recommended that all sealing vessels carry wireless sets, barometers, and thermometers, and that ship owners be held accountable for any injuries or deaths sustained by their crews. In 1916, the government passed legislation prohibiting sealers from being on the ice after dark and requiring all sealing ships to carry wireless equipment and flares. In response to theories that the Southern Cross sank because of overloading, the government also made it illegal for any ship to return from the hunt with more that 35,000 pelts.