Captain Kennedy, the crew and officers, including the chief steward’s wife, of the SS Delta had two groups of people to thank when their ordeal was over. The Delta left Sydney, Nova Scotia, on Monday, September 11, 1899, with a full cargo of coal slated to be discharged at Peter Rogerson and Son in St. John’s.
Owned by George Edward Francklyn, Halifax, the steamer Delta was relatively large for a local coastal steamer, at 873 gross tonnage with three masts and three decks. It was 212 feet long and had been built in Glasgow, Scotland, in 1854.
The coal never reached Rogerson’s and the good people of St. John’s. Instead she was deposited on the bottom at Marine Head on Newfoundland’s southeast coast. The Delta’s crew ended up at Peter’s River. Whether Captain Kennedy was fully aware of the powerful inset of tides in that area is not known, but he did say after:
From start to finish the voyage was a dreary one. Dense fog prevailed all the time and nothing was seen till the ship struck the rocks at Marine Head.
It was eight minutes to three o’clock on Wednesday afternoon [September 13]. A big sea was running at the time.
Before Kennedy and crew knew exactly where they were, a tremendous crash filled their ears, and in a minute or two the steamer began to settle down. Instinct and a thorough but hasty observation told him the Delta would never steam again.
Not knowing at what moment the vessel would roll over or break apart, Kennedy and crew realized they were in a dangerous situation. As he said after:
A cliff of about two hundred feet high towered above the mast and nothing could heard except the roars of the surging waves. They broke over the stranded vessel.
Other ships lost at or near Peter’s River (PR). Their crews walked to or were sheltered by local residents:
Sch Electric February 1861
2 crew rowed to Holyrood Beach
SS Roland 1876
Crew rowed to Middle Gut, PR
SS Langshaw June 1883
At Broad Cove, PR
SS Canima September 1883
At Gull Island Point, near PR
SS Prodano October 1889
At Wild Cove, PR
SS Montrose January 1910
At Middle Gut, PR
SS O. K. Knudson June 1923
Gull Island Point, Crew rowed to PR
SS Banba July 1923
Crew rowed to PR
Kennedy ordered the boats lowered and all boarded safely, including the sole woman aboard. After about an hour, the shipwrecked crew saw and rowed into a beach. No sign of life could be seen, neither to the east nor westward.
Realizing it was late in the day and not knowing if any other beach or community was nearby, they rested until the next day. Although the wind slackened, the rain came down in torrents, but they had no shelter of any kind.
Some of the crew had saved very little, as they had to man the lifeboats without securing their everyday coats and footwear.
At daylight, September 14, they climbed the cliff and slope to higher land and level ground. They could see a fisherman’s hut about three miles away. As they tramped to it, they could see there was a settlement not far away.
It was Peter’s River. Located in Holyrood Bay at the eastern entrance to St. Mary’s Bay, in the 1880s the population of Peter’s River stood at no more than a half-dozen homes with about twenty or thirty people. Today the fishing community is incorporated with St. Vincent’s and St. Stephen’s.
Over the years, as shown by the chart on the previous page, many vessels had come to an end in that vicinity. Salvaging shipwrecked goods and succouring shipwrecked sailors was nothing new for the families of Gibbons, Halleran, Henning, Landrigan (Lundrigan), Mandeville, Martin, St. Croix, and the Stamps of St. Vincent’s–St. Stephen’s–Peter’s River. For many years the Stamps were the local merchants, sending their vessels to the fishing grounds and to St. John’s for supplies.
Captain Kennedy said:
The residents treated [us] very kindly and my crew will never forget the many favours given us by the fishermen of that place. [We] remained at the River for a while and then left for St. Mary’s.
The coastal steamer stopped at St. Mary’s, one of the larger towns and service centres in the area. On the morning of September 17, they took passage on the SS Grand Lake.
Again, hospitality was the order of the day. “The genial officers of Grand Lake acted most kindly toward us shipwrecked mariners.” Especially noted was the steamer’s chief officer, who went out of his way to find sleeping accommodations and extra clothes for them.
Within a day or so, observers at the wreck site reported the SS Delta a total wreck with nothing but the masts visible above water. However, the crew was all well and thanked divine providence for deliverance from the seas.
Four years previously, there had been another shipwreck at Holyrood, near St. Mary’s Bay. On Monday, May 27, 1895, the forty-nine-ton Eugene McMillan was lost there. Captain Stephen Morris sent a letter to the local paper thanking “the good men of Holyrood for saving their lives.” Specifically, Morris wished to thank Mr. Stephen Gibbons, his wife, and family, as well as Miss Minnie Walsh of St. Mary’s “for their very great kindness in time of need.” Those signing the letter were Captain Morris, George Morris, Ambrose Clarke, and John Dewling, all names connected with Trinity and area.