Wreck of the Jane Hunter

DESCRIPTION: The Jane Hunter is driven against the rocks by a gale. The captain "was not well, for the deck was not inclined." The mate has a boat launched but only one man survives. The "government [is] to blame"; "a lighthouse... would prevent the same"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (MUNFLA-Leach)
KEYWORDS: death drowning sea ship storm wreck sailor
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Oct 30, 1883 - Schooner Jane Hunter bound to St John's from Brazil stranded at Sheep's Cove in a gale with 6 dead (per Northern Shipwrecks Database)
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
Roud #30132
RECORDINGS:
Mr. Fitzgerald, "Wreck of the Jane Hunter" (on MUNFLA-Leach)
Bert Fitzgerald, "Jane Hunter" (on MUNFLA-Leach)
NOTES [366 words]: The two MUNFLA-Leach recordings are by two different singers, last name notwithstanding.
One version has the departure for Newfoundland as from "Corner Brook," which is like saying she sailed for Florida from Miami. "Sheeps Cove", the site of the stranding, may be Ship Cove in Placentia Bay. - BS
Newfoundland, which throughout its history has had a lot of storms, a lot of shoals, and not a lot of money, so there were never enough lighthouses in the nineteenth century. (Indeed, the problem continued well into the twentieth century; the 1918 Florizel wreck, for which see "The Wreck of the Steamship Florizel," was largely due to lack of lighthouses.)
The Jane Hunter was real, but it appears this song distorts some of the details. According to Robert C. Parsons, Cape Race: Stories from the Coast that Sank the Titanic, Flanker Press, 2011, p. 72, the Jane Hunter was owned by Walter Grieve and Company of St. John's, and on her final voyage had carried a load of fish to Pernambuco, Brazil. Her crew consisted of Captain Henry Bowden, an experienced skipper; mate Moses Roberts; William Seymour; Angus McDonald; Angus Wallace; William Tobin; David Taylor; Angus Rowe; and Alexander Downey.
It is believed that the ship was headed for Trepassy, near Cape Race, a good harbour to shelter from the storm. But the weather had been so bad that, for six days, the ship had not been able to take a sighting of either sun or stars. Captain Bowden thought they were twenty or more miles east of Cape Race -- i.e. safely out to sea. When the crew saw the lighthouse at Cape Pine (which was not especially bright), they didn't recognize it, and assumed it was a steamer's light. They kept sailing at a speed of seven knots or so -- and ran hard aground a few dozen yards from shore near Cape Race. Downey, who was in the bow, jumped into the sea, but it took him an estimated quarter of an hour to cross those few dozen yards (Parsons, p. 73). Angus Rowe was also washed ashore. They eventually found shelter at Trepassy/Sheep's Cove (Parsons, p. 74). The other seven men did not survive; apparently only five bodies were ever found. Only in 1902 did the Trepassy area get its own light. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.4
File: FM3WotJH

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