During the Battle of the St. Lawrence the ferry participated in thrice-weekly convoys between Nova Scotia and Newfoundland. This battle brought the Second World War, which had felt distant or even remote, to our countrys doorstep. Texas, Georgia, Thank you Patricia! Also, due to her ice-breaking design, Caribou also assisted during the seal hunt along the Newfoundland coast each spring. The night of October 13, 1942 the SS Caribou left Sydney, Nova Scotia bound for Port aux Basque, Newfoundland. Hi Jennifer, my dad was on the Caribou when it went down. The SS Caribou : Convoy Cup Foundation As I recall my uncle told mom the only reason he survived was that he was not asleep in his bunk when the torpedo hit but was on the upper deck playing cards with several other men. He died in 1995, ironically at Sunnybrook. HMCSGrandmre, a Bangor-class minesweeper was the naval escort vessel on this ill-fated voyage. Records. Available now on Amazon.com and Amazon.ca, Step 2: After the torpedoing, the HMCS Grandmere spotted and pursued the submarine. What did he do after surviving the Caribou? [8] 34 bodies were found and brought to Port aux Basques by fishing schooners chartered by the Newfoundland Railway Company. and where he was from and Id love to have a copy of that wedding photo. He spoke very little about the ordeal but my older sister might have information. Sorry for not checking my website earlier. Of the 2,500 vessels sunk during the Battle of the Atlantic, 23 (including three warships) were sunk by half a dozen U-boats in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Hi Gil! Tremendous explosions shook houses and awakened the inhabitants of a small fishing village off the Gasp Peninsula in Qubec over the night of May 11-12, 1942. The SPAB series of convoys usually occurred three times a week, and was carried out in darkness. The SS Caribou was a passenger and train ferry that operated in the Cabot Strait between Port aux Basques , Newfoundland and North Sydney, Nova Scotia . Thanks for contacting me. What a shame to have lost something so valuable in the fire. He is wearing his Navy uniform in the photo. . Both he and his crew knew about the danger of a U-boat attack on the previous trip Caribous escort had attacked a contact, but without success. She was from rural Saskatchewan. There was a man on the raft with a broken back and there were two babies which were passed around. Between 1942 and late 1944, 16 German U-boats fired more than 50 torpedoes, sinking 24 ships, including three Royal Canadian Navy (RCN) warships: His Majestys Canadian Ships (HMCS) Raccoon and Shawinigan, which lost all hands, and HMCS Charlottetown, which lost 10 sailors. Captain Benjamin Taverner of Channel, Nfld., master of the 16-year-old one-time sealing vessel, went down with his ship. border crossing records (Saint Albans Lists). The Passenger Search database allows you to look for family members who arrived at the Port of New York from 1820 to 1957. During the Battle of the St. Lawrence the ferry participated in thrice-weekly convoys between Nova Scotia and Newfoundland. I have very little information on your fatherbut I have some hunches about his survival that Id like to ask you. He was dressed in his dressing gown. It was to be the last voyage the passenger ferry ever made. Sorry for the long delay in replying Aa far as I know my Uncle was born in 1910 in Fall River Ma. [1] She also had steam-heat and electric lights in all of her cabins, which were a luxury at the time. Edgar Tanner McLaughlin was my father do you have any more information on him? (LogOut/ My paternal Grandfather was John Moore, Chief Stewart for the Reid Railroad who had the very sad job of travelling to Port aux Basques to identify the remains of the bodies of the crew who had died. German submarine U-553, lying in ambush in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, had torpedoed two Dutch freighters, Nicoya and Leto. TTY: 202.488.0406. Available on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook . 100 Raoul Wallenberg Place, SW Washington, DC 20024-2126 Main telephone: 202.488.0400 TTY: 202.488.0406 A threat that no-one had dared mention until then had just materialized: German U-boats were in the Gulf of St. Lawrence and Nazi Germany was threatening Canada from within. Mummers? She passed out. He lived in St. Catharines Ontario. His rank was Leading Seaman RCN VR..not sure how he came to be in the Royal Canadian Navy but my grandmother was Canadian. Main telephone: 202.488.0400 I believe he had one son, Gilbert. Island, Hi Jean, do you mean the Caribou? Panicked, passengers ran from their cabins. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); S.S. Caribou: Passengers & Crew14/10/1942, Almost Home: The Sinking of the S.S.Caribou, Etchings: Dear Emmaprints aboutpostcards, http://ngb.chebucto.org/Vstats/death-reg-bk-14-1942-1943-lab.shtml. I have looked at the book the SS Caribou and although there were stories of some of the passengers there was only a small write up about her. Still can't find your immigrant ancestor on an American ships passenger list? Just before departure, Caribou 's master, Captain Benjamin Tavenor, ordered all passengers on deck to familiarize themselves with the lifeboat stations. A roll-on, roll-off design with a bow visor, Caribou had 2 vehicle decks and 5 decks above, the main passenger deck being Deck 5. Of the 237 passengers on board, 137 died, many of them civilian women and children. Her sinking, and large death toll, made it clear that the war had really arrived on Canada's and Newfoundland's home front. On the night of the Caribous last voyage, Brooke was accompanied by her friend, and co-nursing sister, Agnes Wilkie. Hi Walter! He didnt like to talk about his time in the Navy much but he did tell me about that night. I dont need last names to know who Toni-Marie and Eddie are and I can find my way from Happy Adventure to Misery Point in the fog. 115 16.07.002), Queen Elizabeth II Library, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John's, NL. If you believe all 38 citizens died and many bodies were never recovered. At 3:40 a.m., a lone torpedo hit Caribou on its starboard side. Passenger Search | Statue of Liberty & Ellis Island Canadian Port of Arrival and the If you know how you might be relatedand who his parents were, I could possibly find out about him from the Newfoundland Census. They include the names of all passengers: immigrants, returning Canadians, tourists, visitors and immigrants en route to the United States. Search names within this list, 100 Raoul Wallenberg Place, SW Passenger Lists and Border Entries, 1925-1935 - Nominal Indexes We also produce the Heritage Minutes and other programs. [6] In the days after the sinking, the Canadian naval vessel was criticized in the Sydney Post-Record and The Globe and Mail as well as other media outlets for not immediately stopping and helping save survivors; but that was against operating procedures, and would have placed the minesweeper in immediate danger of being sunk as well. At 6:30 a.m., Grandmre gave up the hunt and started to pick up survivors. First page of the list, with passengers 1 through 7, is missing, The Holocaust Survivors and Victims Resource Center, The names in this collection were made searchable through the World Memory Project, Holocaust Survivors and Victims Resource Center. North Carolina, Maine, Rhode I am interested in information about the passengers and the ship the SS Caribou. A short podcast about Newfoundland stories, curiosities and culture. Her correct maiden name was Watkins, not Wilkins. I know this because Auntie Marnie as we called her was my aunt. SS Caribou was a Newfoundland Railway passenger ferry that ran between Port aux Basques, in the Dominion of Newfoundland, and North Sydney, Nova Scotia between 1928 and 1942. [18], .mw-parser-output .geo-default,.mw-parser-output .geo-dms,.mw-parser-output .geo-dec{display:inline}.mw-parser-output .geo-nondefault,.mw-parser-output .geo-multi-punct,.mw-parser-output .geo-inline-hidden{display:none}.mw-parser-output .longitude,.mw-parser-output .latitude{white-space:nowrap}4719N 5929W / 47.317N 59.483W / 47.317; -59.483. on NARA microfilm, J.J. There was an explosion, followed by fire and a series of smaller explosions. And anything you remember from the tapemaybe I can phone you? Search for ships passengers in Ethnic Groups immigrating to America, other miscellaneous Shipwreck hunter dreams of finding passenger ferry torpedoed - SaltWire You did a great job finding these records. [17], The Canadian Government announced that their new Arctic/Offshore Patrol Ship (AOPS) HMCSMargaret Brooke was being named for a Royal Canadian Navy Nursing Sister who was decorated for her bravery during the sinking of Caribou. Step 4: Thanks for this update, S.R. organization devoted to teaching Canadians more about our shared country. We were lucky. ports of arrival, Ships Passenger Lists Headline of The Western Star, October 23, 1942. He had a small military pension for the rest of his life. [15] At approximately 5:30 a.m., survivor Mack Piercey, one of 13 survivors on board for the occasion,[16] tossed a poppy-laden memorial wreath into the ocean and then the ship continued on to Port aux Basques to complete the voyage. Product of Newfoundland , photos licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0, except as noted; Text, all rights reserved, 2023. SS Caribou was a Newfoundland Railway passenger ferry that ran between Port aux Basques, in the Dominion of Newfoundland, and North Sydney, Nova Scotia between 1928 and 1942. Listen to the latest Newfoundland & Labrador Music. Although the St. Lawrence River was never a major target for German strategists, it was the site of continued sporadic U-boat attacks. The North Sydney to Port-aux-Basques passenger ferry SS Caribou was sunk by the German submarine U-69 on 14 October 1942. Hi Scott, sorry for not checking in with you until now. Her sinking is cited by many historians as the most significant sinking in Canadian-controlled waters during the Second World War. A much larger vessel than the SS Caribou, the MV Caribou could carry 1200 passengers and cross the gulf between Newfoundland and Nova Scotia in just about 5 1/2 hours. Johns (C6078) who had joined the staff of Ground Instruction School, after a tour of duty in Newfoundland, dated December 29, 1942. My husbands aunt was one of those who died on board, she was only 24 years old. Carolina, Copyright 1996-presentThese pages may be freely linked to but not duplicated in any fashion without my written consent. Can you give Gil McLaughlin my email address? Appearing in random order above are: Leonard Shiers, the only surviving baby, in the arms of Petty Officer Ralph Rogers RCN; Nursing Sister Agnes Wilkie RCNVR (wearing glasses); Seaman Eli Maxwell Bishop RN (blond); Nursing Sister Margaret Brooke RCN; Able Bodied Seaman Wilfred George Poole RN (arms crossed): Seaman Francis Warren RN (seated) with friend Kenneth Gosse, who was not on board; Captain Ben Taverner aboard the Caribou in 1941; Seaman Percy Moores RN and his brother Milton, who was not on board, in the Army uniform. Curious if youve come across any more information on him? Please contact me, I am Arthur F Barrys granddaughter. Ships Passenger Lists to USA by Year of Arrival, Death Finds a Way: A Janie Riley Mystery by Lorine McGinnis Schulze, Organize Your Genealogy in Evernote in 10 Easy Steps, Immigration (Ships Passenger Lists, Naturalization, etc), SS FRANCESCA FEBRUARY 21 1870 Palermo TO NEW ORLEANS, SS Battista FEBRUARY 18 1870 Palermo TO NEW ORLEANS, ITAL BARK BIAGGIO - FEBRUARY 24 1870 - Palermo TO NEW ORLEANS, ITAL BARK EMMA - APRIL 03 1877 - Palermo TO NEW ORLEANS, ITAL BARK DOMENICO FEBRUARY 25 1877 Palermo TO NEW ORLEANS, SS NUOVORATTLER FEBRUARY 21 1878 Palermo TO NEW ORLEANS, ITAL BARK EMMA APRIL 06 1878 Palermo TO NEW ORLEANS, SS ATLANTICO NOVEMBER 03 1881 LEGHORN(LIVORNO) TO NEW ORLEANS, SS PRINTZ GEORG DECEMBER 09 1883 Palermo TO NEW ORLEANS, SS CARADOC DECEMBER 31 1883 Palermo TO NEW ORLEANS, SS JASON NOVEMBER 17 1884 Palermo TO NEW ORLEANS, SS COLUMBIA MAY 28 1888 Palermo TO NEW ORLEANS, SS SIDONIAN FEBRUARY 09 1888 Palermo TO NEW ORLEANS, SS Letimbro 10-28-1889 New Palermo to Orleans, freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~ruthann, freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~deesegenes, Ships Passenger Lists Pandemonium ensued as passengers, thrown from their bunks by the explosion, rushed topside to the lifeboat stations. This design permits the sister ships to maintain close to regular operating speed. These days he lives in Gander, NL and his happiest adventures are spent with his two Labrador retrievers exploring the island while listening to a soundtrack of local music. The Grandmre returned to the site of the sinking and began picking up survivors. Neither the number of ships sunk nor the closure of the St. Lawrence provided any strategic gain to the Third Reich. To learn more click on my current list at the top of this page. [6], Caribou was carrying 46 crew members and 191 civilian and military passengers. [4] After picking up survivors, Grandmre sailed for Sydney because it had better hospital facilities than Port aux Basques. Bev, sorry for not getting back with you sooner. passenger lists and naturalization records on a pay site. Language links are at the top of the page across from the title. Reproduced by permission of Archives and Special Collections (Coll. U-boat wolf packs ravaged Allied convoys, sinking more vessels than the Allies could build. The greatest loss of life however, occurred on October 14, 1942, when the Newfoundland to Nova Scotia ferry SS Caribou was sunk by U-69, under the command of Kapitn-Leutnant Ulrich Grf. [17] Part of the dedication service included the unveiling of the anchor from the decommissioned MV Caribou as a new feature for the memorial. I believe Jerome Ryan was a relative. He felt he would be better able to detect the sound of a lurking U-boat if he had a clear field in front to probe. Edgar Tanner McLaughlin was my uncle. On its . Grandmres skipper, Lieutenant James Cuthbert, was unhappy about both the amount of smoke Caribou was making and his screening position off Caribous stern, which was in accordance with British naval procedures for a single escort. I recently purchased a poster listing all the deceased crew of the Caribou. 57 military personnel, 49 civilians and 31 crew members died in the attack. Was he hospitalized at Christie Street immediately after surviving the Caribou? Hi Tara! She and her husband head to Salt Lake City Utah to research Janie's elusive 4th great-grandmother. [2] The ship's longtime captain, Benjamin Tavernor, was commanding the ship as she was struck, and perished along with his sons Stanley and Harold, who served as first and third officers respectively. [1] Launched in 1925, she produced 3,000 horsepower (2,200kW) and was able to reach a speed of 14.5 knots (26.9km/h; 16.7mph) when fully loaded. Thanks Joanne, this is just the beginningIve got more information that I havent uploaded yet on my other website (its a work in progress): https://sscariboumanifest.wordpress.com/. Shipwrecks and maritime incidents in October 1942, "New Royal Canadian Navy ship to be named after naval hero of SS Caribou sinking", "Procedure Report of Bodies Brought to Port-aux-Basques from the Ill-Fated Vessel S.S. Caribou", "The Last Voyage of the S.S. Caribou (October 13/14, 1942)", "Special service to honour people who died aboard SS Caribou", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=SS_Caribou&oldid=1149926727, Ships sunk by German submarines in World War II, Shipwrecks of the Newfoundland and Labrador coast, World War II shipwrecks in the Atlantic Ocean, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 4.0, Information about ship specifications from Gibbons (2006), This page was last edited on 15 April 2023, at 09:06. Island New York Ships Passenger Lists 1894-1927 & Naturalization She later was renamed Karibou. Cuthbert believed the best place for Grandmre to be was in front of Caribou, not behind. Im hoping you have more information about the people on board. It will have no effect upon the course of the war except to steel our resolve that the Nazi blot on humanity must be eliminated from our world.. Sorry for not getting back to you sooner Brenda. General Information Immigration records, also known as "passenger arrival records," can provide genealogical information including: a person's nationality, place of birth ship name and date of entry to the United States age, height, eye and hair color profession place of last residence name and address of relatives they are joining in the U.S. He was a survivor of the Caribou. If you don't find your immigrant ancestor in a large port city, try smaller Ancestry.ca Free Trial, Janie Riley is an avid genealogist with a habit of stumbling on to dead bodies. There were 18 casualties and 123 survivors. The Lundrigan Story. The threat from within: SS Caribou sunk during Battle of the St She had women and children on board, and many of them were among the 137 who died. [6] Following procedure, Grandmre then went back for survivors. Thank-you! Signing up enhances your TCE experience with the ability to save items to your personal reading list, and access the interactive map. Of the 237 people aboard Caribou when it left Sydney, 101 were rescued and 136 perished. This is a blog about the stories we come from. I am a relative of Eli and it would be great to get in contact with you. For some reason, several families had been accommodated in separate cabins and now sought each other in the confusion. Passenger Arrival Records | National Archives Nail polish is a little detail, but not an inconsequential one. On January 9, 2016, at 100 years-old Margaret Brooke died. MV Caribou was a Marine Atlantic passenger/vehicle ferry which operated between the islands of Newfoundland and Cape Breton in eastern Canada. In 1986 the SS Caribou was remembered with a new Newfoundland/Canada ferry -- the MV Caribou. USA. Garden New York Ships Passenger Lists 1855-1890, Ellis Your grandfather shared the cabin with John Danson and Adam Sime. However, both the passenger list and the ship itself lacked the glamour of the SS Titanic, and the incident was soon forgotten in a world about to be engulfed in war. She was laid up in Sydney Harbour until August 31, 2011. Find answers to your research questions at, How to File a FOIA Request for Archival Records. [9] To prevent rumours, the Royal Canadian Navy allowed the Sydney Post-Record and other media outlets to report the sinking, almost as soon as it happened, one of the few times that war censorship was temporarily lifted in this period. If you are one of the volunteers who work on this site, thank you, Newfoundland Grand Banks has been invaluable in my research. On a hot summer day in 1892 a horrible fire swept through St. Johns. My father was Alan John White. Click here for my current list of individuals on board the S.S. Caribou Oct. 14, 1942. The "Gulfspan" hull is unique among Canadian icebreakers in that the ship slices through sea ice, rather than using its weight to ride up onto and crush the ice underneath. Unfortunately I never met my uncle but I do have a wedding photograph of him and his wife. On her hundredth birthday she was informed that a Canadian and Arctic Offshore Patrol Ship would be named in her honour. Over the next two hours, the minesweeper launched six depth charges, but did not damage the submarine, and U-69 crept away into the Atlantic undetected. The records are arranged by port or airport of arrival. Her sinking is cited by many historians as the most significant sinking in Canadian-controlled waters during the Second World War.[2]. The Canadian Encyclopedia is a project of Historica Canada, a non-profit, nonpartisan On board were 73 civilians, including 11 children, 118 military personnel and a crew of 46. We apologize for any inconvenience. He was correct, for directly in Caribous path lay U-69. One particularly interesting version can be found here in a brief historical panel comic. Grf fired a decoy and slowly left the area. URL: http://olivetreegenealogy.com/ [12][13], In 1986, the CN Marine/Marine Atlantic ferry MVCaribou was named after SS Caribou. I found an operations record book reference to Flight Officer R.W.C. Search the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum site: View all names in this list South All donations above $3 will receive a tax receipt. At the Ellis Island National Museum of Immigration and on the Foundation's website you can explore your family heritage by searching nearly 65 million passenger records and ship manifests, examining information collected at debarkation points. Submarine U-69 was destroyedeast of Newfoundland on February, 17 1943 by a British destroyer. Do you know why he was coming to Newfoundland, and where he was doing business? Newfoundland Ship Passenger Lists - Chebucto Please post a comment if you have more information, corrections, or better photos. This is a list of some of the people who died aboard the Caribou. Aboard the ferry were 46 crew members and 191 passengers -- a mixture of civilians and military personnel. In the early morning hours of October 14 the vessel -- filled with military personnel, families and children was hit by a torpedo. USS Karibou (SP-200) | Military Wiki | Fandom passenger lists to USA, Immigration The National Archives does not maintain airport arrival/departure records dated 1970 and after.
