A Memorial to the,

Crew of the ill-fated "S.S.Newfoundland" on that disasterous voyage in 1914.

Abbott, Arthur, Boniv.Bay	Abbott, David, Doting Cove	Abbott, Phillip, Doting Cove	Andrews, Standley
Antle, John	Barbour, Capt. George	Barkley, Patrick	Barrett, James
Bastow, Raymond	Best, Abram	Bradbury, James	Brazil, John
Brown, Robert	Bungay, Jacob	Butler, John	Butler, Valentine
Carpenter, George	Carroll, Fred	Chalk, Benjamin	Chard, Thomas
Chaulk, Theophiles	Coaker, William	Cole, Charles	Collins, Fred
Collins, Jesse	Collins, Wesley	Constantine, Henry	Conway, Ambrose
Conway, Jerry	Conway, John	Conway, William	Cooper, John
Cooper, Richard	Cooper, Tobias, Boniv.Bay	Corbett, Pat	Crewe, Albert John (16)
Crewe, Reuben (49)	Critch, Roland, Hants Hbr	Cuff, David, Doting Cove	Cuff, Simon
Cuff, William, Doting Cove	Dalton, Jacob	Davis,Charles	Dawson, Thomas, Carbonear
Donovan, James	Donovan, Stephen	Dooley, John	Dove, David
Dowden, Alfred	Dowden, Henry	Downey, Mike	Doyle, Thomas
Easton, Job	Evans, Charles, Hants Hbr.	Evans, James	Fisher, John
Flemming, William	Foley, Charles	Foley, Dan	Francis, Joseph, Hants Hbr
Goodland, Alex	Gosse, Patrick	Goulton, Garland	Greeley, Noah
Green, Ariel	Green, Capt. Charles	Groves, Thomas, Bonivesta	Handcock, Levi
Harris, John Alpheus (52) Trinity	Hatcher, Fred	Hayward, Alfred	Hayward, John
Hearn, Patrick	Hickey, William	Hicks, Robert	Hicks, Thomas
Hiscock, John, Carbonear	Hiscock, Joseph	Holloway, Joshua	Holloway, Phillip
Horwood, Samuel, Carbonear	Howell, Aldophus	Howell, Edgar	Howell, James
Howell, Mark	Howlett, John	Hunt, Fred	Jones, Sidney
Jordan, Bernard	Jordan, Henry	Jordan, Stephen	Jordan, Thomas
Joy, Micheal	Kean Capt. Joseph	Kean, Capt. Abram	Kean, Capt. Westbury
Kean, Eli	Kean, Nathan	Kean, Percy	Keels, John
Kelloway, Albert	Kelloway, H.C.	Kelloway, John	Lamb, Peter
Lawlor, William	Leary, Benjamin	Leewhiting, George	Lenthorn, George
Locke, David	Lundrigan, William	Maidment, Alfred (51) Boniv.Bay	Maidment, Robert (31), Boniv.Bay
March, Benjamin	Marsh, Fred	Martin, Capt. William	Martin, Charles
Martin, Eric	Martin, Samuel	Matthews, Robert	McCarty, Richard
Melendy, "Uncle Ezra" Cat Hbr.	Mercer, John	Mills, Azariah	Moore, Terrence
Moores, Hubert	Morey, Nick, St. Johns	Morgan, James	Mouland, Art, Doting Cove
Mouland, Arthur, New Perlican	Mouland, Cecil, Doting Cove	Mouland, Elias	Mouland, Hugh
Mouland, John	Mouland, Ralph, Doting Cove	Mouland, Samuel	Mouland, Thomas
Mullowney,Ambrose	Murray,Micheal	Murray,Micheal	Noseworthy, Bob, Pouch Cove
Oldford, William	Olsen, Charles	Parsons, Abram	Payne, Hedley
Pear, William J.	Pearcey, Fred	Peddle, Ed	Pickett, Jonas
Piercey, Benjamin, New Perlican	Pitts, George	Pitts, William	Porter, James
Porter, William	Randell Capt. Robert	Randell, Joseph	Reader, John
Ring, Thomas	Roberts, John	Rogers, Joseph	Russell, Samuel
Ryan, Frank	Ryan, James	Ryan, John A	Ryan, Thomas
Samson, Stan	Schecklin, George	Seward, Frank	Seward, Hez
Seward, Peter	Sheehan, Mike	Sheppard, Mark, St. Johns	Short, Edmund, Hants Hbr.
Smith, Dr.Harold	Squires, Lemuel	Stagg, George	Street, Samuel
Taylor, John	Templeman, Phillip	Templeman, Thomas	Tiller, Cecil
Tippett, Abel	Tippett, Edward	Tippett, Norman	Tippett, William
Tizzard, John	Tobin, Mike	Trask, Simon	Tremblett, George
Tucker, Noah	Tuff, George (32)	Wallace, Dr.	Warren, Alan, New Perlican
White, William J.	Williams, Joseph	Winter, Robert	Woodfine, William
Yetman, Frederick	Yetman, George

The S.S. Newfoundland, [1872 - 1916]

A wooden ship built in 1872 in Quebec, the S.S. Newfoundland was purchased by Captain J. Farquhar in 1893 and, registered in Windsor, Nova Scotia, was used in the seal hunt throughout the 1890s. In 1898, because of Farquhar's involvement in the Spanish-American War, the ship was caught and held for six months in Charleston, North Carolina. In 1904 the vessel was in the registry of the Newfoundland Sealing Company Limited, and, based in St. John's, participated annually in the seal hunt off the northeast coast.

In 1914 the Newfoundland was under the command of Captain Westbury Kean. Hampered by severe ice conditions, the ship became jammed in the floe several miles from the other vessels. On March 30, Kean's father, Captain Abram Kean , signalled from the Stephano that he had located seals. Frustrated by his inability to move, Wes Kean decided to have his crew walk the seven miles to the Stephano. After the seals were taken, Kean believed, his father would take them on the Stephano for the night, as the Newfoundland could probably not be reached before dark. At 7:00 AM the following morning the sealers from the Newfoundland, led by George Tuff, Kean's second hand, left to walk to the Stephano. But 34 of the crew, observing no seals and with the weather worsening, turned back. Abram Kean picked up the others at 11:30 AM and took them to a patch of seals, giving Tuff orders to return to the Newfoundland when they were finished hunting. Despite their distance from the Newfoundland and the fact that the weather was deteriorating, Tuff did not ask Abram Kean for permission to return to the Stephano for the night. As they attempted to reach the Newfoundland they were blinded by a blizzard, and with one man, William Pear, already injured, had no choice but to stop and erect shelters against the storm. They spent 53 hours trapped in the blizzard. Without wireless telegraphy both Wes Kean and his father assumed that the men were safe on the other's ship, and no search was undertaken. A small group of survivors got back to the Newfoundland, but 78 men died of exposure or drowning. Eight bodies were never recovered. Of the survivors, 11 men were permanently disabled.

A magisterial enquiry was held into the disaster. Sealers blamed both captains and, to a lesser extent, George Tuff for not arranging for the Stephano to pick them up. The enquiry assessed no criminal blame, but felt that Abram Kean, George Tuff and Westbury Kean were all guilty of errors in judgement, the latter for failing to order that his ship's whistle be sounded continuously. Three thousand people signed a petition calling for Abram Kean's arrest on charges of criminal negligence, and many sealers refused to work for him again, but the following year he was again at the seal hunt, as captain of the Florizel.

A commission of enquiry was held in 1915 to examine the causes of the Newfoundland disaster and the sealing industry in general. Two of the commissioners found Abram Kean responsible, concluding that he misjudged where he dropped off the Newfoundland's men and their distance from their own ship, and that in any case he was wrong to have put them on the ice at the beginning of a blizzard. George Tuff was also judged to be in error for not arranging shelter for the men in his command. The third commissioner, however, concluded that the disaster was an act of God and assessed no blame. The commission recommended safety legislation and that ship owners be held responsible for injury or death to their crew. It was also recommended that every ship carry telegraphs, barometers and thermometers; that there be more thorough inspections of ships and lifeboats; and that there be access to accurate weather forecasting. The enquiries and the public outcry over the Newfoundland disaster, together with the loss of the Southern Cross , which disappeared in the Gulf of St. Lawrence during the same blizzard, resulted in changes in the sealing industry. A permanent marine disaster fund was established almost immediately to compensate victims, their widows and children, and the Sealing Law was amended later that year to make telegraph equipment mandatory on all sealing vessels.

In 1915 the Newfoundland was sold to Job Brothers and Company Limited, and the next year its name was changed to the S.S. Samuel Blandford. In August 1916 it was lost in St. Mary's Bay.

Anyone having any information on the crew of the S.S. Newfoundland please e-mail me [email protected] and I'll add the info to this page.

© Bill Crant 1998