These four stories of ships from around our coast are of losses where someone survived to tell the tale. The range, good reader, will take you from the loss of one life on a shipwreck to a greater calamity in which many, many seamen were lost.
Quite often in books of mine, including this one, several stories centre around the south coast of Newfoundland—but with good reason.
Southern waters were routes, corridors, and shipping lanes between Europe and North America. Most vessels, from sailing ships to great steamers, passed just south of Cape Race. The international seaport of Saint Pierre was a mere eight or nine miles from the south coast. As well, several south coast towns were leading fishing ports in the days of sail: Grand Bank, Fortune, Burin, Marystown, Belleoram, Harbour Breton, and Burgeo. Grand Bank, at one time, had one of the largest banking schooner fleets on the eastern seaboard, surpassed only by Gloucester and Lunenburg.
So many of our hardy pioneers had a near-death experience on the treacherous oceans and shipping lanes that lap our doorstep. When it was over and they once again set foot on terra firma, they thanked divine providence for delivery. But the sea beckoned, and they had no choice but to return to it to put bread on the table.