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 173 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. In this photograph, the sealing vessel is jammed in the ice in St. John's harbour and its crew is trying to pull it free.
Photographer unknown. Reproduced by permission of Archives and Special Collections (Coll. 115 16.04.003), Queen Elizabeth II Library, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John's, NL.
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.
my great grandfather George Clarke was the captain of this ship