In late May 1895, a mass of wreckage drifted into Channel, strongly indicating some vessel had been lost, perhaps close by. On May 28, word came to St. John’s that the debris came from a sad and significant marine disaster. A few meagre facts relayed eastward indicated a brig from the Jersey Islands had gone down the night before with a loss of some members of the crew.
Only four of the ship’s company escaped death, and these reached the shore in a state of complete nudity. Whether they were in bed at the time of the disaster or if they discarded their clothes in the struggle to preserve life was not clear.
News from the next day said it was the brigantine Reaper which had left Jersey on May 2, bound for the Bay of Chaleur. It carried a cargo of salt and general goods.
Its port of call was not Channel or Port aux Basques on the island’s southwest corner, thus it should have kept well a-sea to avoid landfall there. However, in the dense fog of Monday, May 27, it struck Southwest Point near Channel.
The vessel immediately went to pieces: Captain Gibb, two seamen, Mourin and Peppin, and a passenger named Rasin drowned. The Reaper’s mate and three sailors survived.
By June 13, a full account of the tragedy was sent to Newfoundland’s colonial secretary, the Honourable Robert Bond (later Sir Robert who became the colony’s prime minister 1900–1909).
Robert T. Squarey, the stipendiary magistrate in the Channel and Port aux Basques area, wrote the details on June 8, 1895.
The Reaper, he said, “went ashore at the exact spot where the ill-fated SS John Knox came to grief in the same month eight years previously.”
It was a reminder of the tragic loss of the SS John Knox, which with a crew of twenty-eight men and a stowaway had sailed from Glasgow, Scotland, in April 1887, bound for Montreal. A steamer of 2,069 tons, built in Newcastle in 1883, the John Knox struck the point on Southwest Island on May 1. A high wind, dense fog, and heavy seas caused Captain Brolley to go off course. Although it was only 400 yards from the shore, high seas prevented the locals from helping. All aboard perished.
Evening Telegram, May 28, 1895, headlines say: “Reaper” Lost. . . . They Reach Shore in a State of Nudity.
The Reaper’s wreckage, said Squarey, now mingles with the iron which formed part of the cargo of the John Knox.
According to the three survivors, the Reaper first made landfall at Ferryland Head on Newfoundland’s east coast on May 21. It sailed along the south coast in dense fog from that date until it ground ashore near Channel.
At the time of hitting the rocks, by the captain’s reckoning, the vessel was supposed to be about thirty-two miles south southeast from Cape North in Cape Breton. The Reaper struck at ten thirty on the night of May 27.
Captain Gibb and the passenger took refuge in the fore rigging, but not long after, they were washed away and were not seen alive again. The mate and five seamen clung to the port quarter and held on until the wreck began to break up.
When the Reaper fell to pieces, they jumped into the surf and, with the exception of two, who were drowned, were washed ashore by the breakers. The people of Channel and Port aux Basques took them in, providing clothes for the survivors.
The body of Seaman Peppin was later retrieved from the sea and interred at Channel. The body of Mourin was seen under a portion of the wreck but, due to high seas, could not be recovered. Squarey reported that another attempt would be made when seas abated.
A day after the wreck, the body of the master of the ship, Gibb, was seen floating in the breakers about one mile west of Southwest Island. It still had a lifebelt attached. Owing to high seas, it could not be secured; nor was the body of the passenger found.
Squarey concluded his report, saying:
A portion of Reaper’s cargo has been cast ashore by the sea and taken possession of by Mr. Philip Clement and Company of Channel, agents for the owners of the ship. The survivors of the crew are proceeding to St. John’s this evening [June 7, 1895] by the SS Grand Lake. They are en route to Jersey.
(signed) R. T. Squarey
Stipendiary Magistrate
Robert T. Squarey
In his early years, R. T. Squarey was a mariner and then took various jobs on land, including an editor. Still while a young man, he was appointed stipendiary magistrate in Channel and Port aux Basques region—stipendiary meaning one who was paid a fee, or stipend, for services. In this capacity he was also wreck commissioner and Justice of the Peace.
Squarey, OBE, served in Channel for fifty years and died there in 1933 at age eighty-seven. His two sons lived and worked in the town: Arthur became a blacksmith; Frederick, a well-known mariner. The latter and other sons moved away.