By the summer of 1919, the two-masted schooner Hawker had been transferred to the Roberts Shipping Company Limited, who had commissioned this vessel built in Shelburne, Nova Scotia. The Hawker was a relatively large schooner in its day, netting twenty-nine tons. It was 103 feet long, twenty-five feet wide, and named in honour of a renowned British war hero.
A few months later the schooner was purchased by the Roberts Shipping Company of St. John’s under the managing director, Edward Roberts. In its life at the St. John’s finger wharves, the schooner took on the role of a workhorse, hauling cargo of any material as long as it was a profitable voyage for the owner.
The sampling of the shipping news of that time frame showed a busy schedule and a varied cargo: Early September 1919, the Hawker carried herring from Goodridge’s premises to Barbados. It is also known that Captain E. Roberts took the schooner from St. John’s to Marystown and Epworth laden with a full load of gasoline and kerosene from the Imperial Oil Company. It is not clear from the records if “Captain E. Roberts” was the owner, Edward, or a relative on that April 1920 voyage.
In August 1920, the Hawker arrived in Carbonear with a cargo of lumber from Halifax. A week later, August 16, it sailed in ballast for Sydney to load coal.
Reports on its final voyage are more disconcerting. It had sailed for Europe in late December 1920 with a load of fish and now under the command of a Captain Parsons. The Hawker discharged its cargo at Patras, Greece, and left for Trapani on February 13, 1921. Gibraltar records show that at Trapani, Sicily, it would load salt from the renowned Sicilian salt pans—salt to cure Newfoundland codfish.
However, from that point on nothing else was heard from the Hawker. It is not known whether it disappeared in the Mediterranean or cleared from there to begin its westward journey across the Atlantic.
Westward voyages of ninety to one hundred days were not unheard of in the days of sail—crews had often fought Atlantic winter storms from Europe all the way across to the coast of Newfoundland, only to be driven back across the ocean in a series of renewed and relentless gales. Somehow, though, there was an ominous silence concerning the whereabouts of the Hawker, for no other vessels or crews had seen or spoken to her.
Named for a British War Hero
Considered a famous British war hero, Lanoe Hawker was the first British flying ace and the third pilot to receive the Victoria Cross, the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry. He was killed in 1916 in a dogfight with the celebrated German flying ace Manfred von Richthofen, the Red Baron.
Like the schooner Hawker and its crew, flier Lanoe Hawker’s final resting place is listed as “Lost With No Known Grave.”
By April-May, concerned relatives who still believed in the adage “there is no hope from the grave, but there is hope from the sea” continued to scan the horizon from promontories and capes near St. John’s, expecting to catch sight of the Hawker’s sails. Anxiously they awaited news from other ships that might have “spoken to” the missing schooner.
Sadly, however, on July 29, newspapers had declared her lost with all her crew. A final report, “POSTED AS MISSING,” appeared in a St. John’s paper, concluding, “Hawker is now posted as overdue and all hope for the safety of the vessel has been abandoned.” It carried a crew of six (names not given), including Captain Parsons.
For those left waiting, they could only speculate on the fate of the missing schooner. Did the Hawker capsize suddenly, without warning, bringing a quick death for all six men? Did they, knowing their ship was leaking and sinking beneath them, await anxiously for a rescue ship which never came to take them off? Did the seamen, suffering untold torture, with their vessel’s sails blown away, rudder gone, dismasted, lifeboats washed overboard, man the pumps continuously for days in a futile effort to keep the Hawker afloat? Or did they spend several days adrift in an open lifeboat without sufficient food or water? These were the speculations and imaginings of those left behind.
The year 1921 became one of the most disastrous in terms of Newfoundland-owned shipping. Ninety-three vessels were lost: one four-masted vessel, the Huntley; twenty-three tern schooners; sixteen foreign-going two-masted schooners; fifty two-masted coasting or fishing schooners; and three steam-driven ships. Eight of those, including the Hawker, were lost with entire crews (and in some cases passengers).