The S.S. Caribou Our Titanic Shania Williams Miss Denty Heritage Fair Aprill5, 2014
Williams 2 Table of Contents Introduction... page 3 Research Essay............................. page 4-9 Conclusion...........page 10 Works Cited.....................page 11
Williams 3 Introduction World War II had a major impact on Newfoundland and Labrador and many Newfoundland and Labradorians enlisted in the Royal Navy. Other Newfoundland and Labradorians contributed to the war effort in non-combat ways. In 1942 German U-boats created dangerous waters in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. The S.S. Caribou was one ofthe Newfoundland Railway Company's ferries that brought people to Newfoundland from Canada. On the night of October 13 1 h the Caribou left North Sydney at 8:00 p.m. and early in the morning it was hit with a torpedo.the Caribou was carrying crew, armed forces personnel and civilian passengers. Many of them lost their lives that night. The sinking of the S.S. Caribou was a tragedy. The survivors of that night had to fight icy water and in some cases watch their family members die. The story of the S.S. Caribou is part of our heritage and it will always be remembered.
Williams 4 Did you know that Newfoundland and Labrador had their own Titanic? It was early in the morning when a German U-boat had its eye on the S.S. Caribou. After 7 hours of sailing a horrible tragedy happened that took many lives.in 1942 World War II had been going on for three years. The Gulf of St. Lawrence was a very dangerous place to be for any ship including the S.S. Caribou. The people who survived shared their stories of a night they will never forget. On September 3, 1939 Britain declared war on Germany. The Newfoundland Regiment no longer existed and the government encouraged Newfoundland and Labrador to join British Canadian and other Allied Forces. During the war around 22 000 Newfoundlanders and Labradorians served over seas.newfoundland and Labrador only had a population of about 300 000 people at the time. 10 000 more people helped in other ways. For example, in the Merchant Marine vessels carried food and equipment across the North Atlantic to Britain. This was dangerous, German U-boats sank around 33 Allied vessels each week. (Barlett) The Gulf of St. Lawrence was a place where many U-boats sank a lot of vessels. The U-boats attacked seven convoys, 20 merchantmen, a loaded troop ship and 2 Royal Canadian Navy warships. The most tragic sinking was the S.S. Caribou by U-69 on the night of October 13, the loss of 136 people including 10 children. (Sinking of the Caribou)
Williams 5 The S.S. Caribou was an 84-meter long steel ship that could carry 284 people or 1,100 tons of cargo. It was built at A. Goodwin Hamilton Adamson shipyard at Rotterdam, Netherlands at a cost of half a million dollars. The ship launched on June 9, 1942 and arrived in St. John's on October 22, where it made 3, 600 crossing between North Sydney, N.S. and Port aux Basque, N.L. for the Newfoundland Railway. (CBC) On the night of October 14, 1942 at about 3:30am the S.S. Caribou was 65 kilometers from Port aux Basque when it got hit by a German U-boat. It sank in less than 5 minutes. The S.S. Caribou was carrying 237 people -46 crew members, 73 civilians (11 children) and 118 Canadian, British and American military personnel. In total 137 people were killed. (CBC) The German torpedo struck the S.S. Caribou midship, portside.the escort ship, the Grandmere, wired Sydney, "3:25 Caribou torpedoed." Escorting the S.S. Caribou on this trip was RNC minesweeper, HMCS Grandmere. According to her log, the night was very dark with no moon. Grandmere's skipper, Lt. James Cuthbert, was unhappy about the amount of smoke the S.S.Caribou was making. (Sinking Of The Caribou) The U-boat was actually looking for a convoy heading for Montreal when at 3:21 am it spotted the Caribou "bleaching heavy smoke." According to the U-boats log, one torpedo hit the Caribou on the starboard side. Passengers were thrown out of their beds and rushed to
Williams 6 the life boats. Some families were put in different cabins and they had to find each other. In addition, several lifeboats were either destroyed or could not be launched. (Sinking Of The Caribou) Percy Moores, a sailor with the British navy is a survivor of the sinking. He said, "The torpedo hit us pretty well midship and I was in a bunk at the time, the top bunk, and it knocked me clear out of the bunk on to the floor. So I scrambled up the stairwell there, but there was only a few minutes from the time the torpedo hit to when the ship was gone."he also said, "I headed for the bridge and almost drowned myself because the suction of the ship took me under for a while. When I came to the surface, I heard people singing and crying and whatever have you. I swam for the raft and got on a raft." He was on an inflatable liferaft that was crowded with people. He was there for four hours before he was rescued by the Caribou's escort ship that was ordered to catch the German Submarine, but it eventually returned to pick up survivors from the Caribou. Moores also said, "It was so full, so crowded, that it rolled a couple times and lost some people, but I stayed until we were picked up." (Survivor of 1942 SS Caribou Sinking Recalls Ordeal) Jennifer Morgan author of, Almost Home The Sinking Of The S.S. Caribou told the students of Northern Lights Academy how the life boats were launched without their plugs and how they filled up with water and capsized. Lifeboat number four capsized four times.
Williams 7 Each time the survivors managed to right it, it filled with water again. Each time it surfaced there were fewer people clinging to the boat. She also told the story of how a baby was swept away from her mother's arms by a wave. Luckily the baby's diaper acted as a flotation device and the baby was the only child survivor. The students were told that back in St. John's the captain's granddaughter woke everyone up by screaming and said, "There was a man sitting in my chair, looking at me, and he had a salt and pepper hat and a gold watch just like grandpa's." Captain Morgan didn't survive.he was last seen hanging onto a boat but pretty well exhausted. (Morgan) When Jennifer Morgan was asked why the sinking of the S.S. Caribou was important to Newfoundland and Labrador's heritage she said, I think that for Newfoundlanders and Labradorians, the sinking of the Caribou brought the Second World War home. I can't say for certain, but I'm pretty sure that it was the largest loss of civilian life in WWII in North American waters. And for a country this small, it was a significant loss of lives. Many families were impacted--and if you hadn't lost a loved one, you had family or friends who had crossed on the ferry just a week or two before or after. Many of us have crossed on the ferry from Port aux Basques to North Sydney, so we can identify with the shock of a ferry that we all rely on sinking. (Morgan) The shock of the sinking came with personal loss for Mr. William Strickland. He lost his wife and two children, Hobby and Nora, who drowned on the S.S. Caribou. They sailed from North Sydney at around 9:00p.m. They were in room number 23 and it wasn't long before the family was sleeping. Early in the morning William woke up and got out of his
Williams 8 bunk to put on his shoes because they were close to Port aux Basque. Then he felt an explosion. He said to his wife, Gertie, "My God, we are torpedoed!" Then he told her to pick up the baby while he picked up Hobby, their oldest child. They made their way starboard and on arriving they found a boat with men on it. Taking the child Hobby, William tossed her down aboard the boat to his wife and baby. As he started to get down himself, he heard his wife cry out that Hobby was gone. William said, "By that time, water was pouring over the deck of the ship and it was sinking fast. He had asked someone to take his baby, Nora, while he tried to climb in himself. His wife managed to reach the top deck. There was nothing they could see to get into. He said, "All I could hear was the cries for help as the passengers seemed to be at a terrible state of mind." His wife screamed for the baby, then grasped his hand and said, "Bill, we will go together." By that time, the water was up to our knees and was still rising. Suddenly we went under and we were separated from each other. {It Happened in October) William's personal tragedy is one of many sad stories, 58% ofthe people the Caribou was carrying died that night. World War II saw the loss of many lives. Some lives taken by German U-boats. The S.S. Caribou was sunk by the German submarine U-69 on October, 14 1942.This tragedy took the lives of many people and forever changed the lives of the
Williams 9 survivors. The S.S. Caribou is a part of our heritage and it is a tragedy that will always be remembered.
Williams 10 Conclusion The Sinking of the S.S. Caribou is a tragic part of our heritage. Many lives were ended in the early morning of October 14th. The S.S. Caribou was just one of the many ships that went down that yeart but it resulted it the greatest number of civilian deaths. It took only five minutes after the torpedo hit for the Caribou to be lost but the survivors had to spend four hours waiting to be rescued. Many of them were tossed into the icy waters over and over as the lifeboats capsized. Their stories will be remembered.
Williams 11 Works Cited Bartlett, Barbara, Heidi Coombs-Throne, and R. James Crewe, et.al. Newfoundland and Labrador Studies Selected Topics. Government of Newfoundland and Labrador Department of Education, 2010. Print. "It Happened in October." Memorial University of Newfoundland. Web. 31 Mar. 2015. <www.heritage.nf.ca/law/caribou sinking strickland.html>. Morgan, Jennifer.Almost Home The Sinking Of The S.S. Caribou. Breakwater, 2012. Print. Morgan, Jennifer. "S.S. Caribou." E-mail interview. 31 Mar. 2015. "Sinking of the Caribou." Memorial University of Newfoundland. Web. 14 Jan. 2015. <http://www.heritage.nf.ca/law/caribou sinking.html>. "Survivor of 1942 SS Caribou Sinking Recalls Ordeal." Newfoundland and Labrador CBC News. CBC News, 14 Oct. 2012. Web. 14 Jan.2015. <http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundland-labrador/survi vor-of-1942-ss-caribousinking-recalls-ordeal>.