Grounding of the Cabot Strait, The

DESCRIPTION: Cabot Strait leaves Sydney for Port aux Basques and runs aground off Cape Ray. Local people "row out in their dories through the bitter wind and snow" and rescue the passengers and crew. The Cabot Strait is "out" and awaiting repairs.
AUTHOR: Martha Osmond (source: Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports and Osmond recording)
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports)
KEYWORDS: rescue sea ship shore storm wreck
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Jan 17, 1957 - The ferry Cabot Strait ran aground during a blinding snowstorm at Grand Bay near Port Aux Basques, Newfoundland (per Guigné, UP dispatch "52 [12 passengers and 39 crew [??]] Taken Safely Off Grounded Ferry" in The Niagara Falls Gazette (Niagara Falls, Jan 18, 1957), p. 11).
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports, pp. 156-157, "The Grounding of the Cabot Strait" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #25335
RECORDINGS:
Martha Osmond, "The Grounding of the Cabot" (on NFAGuigné01)
NOTES [264 words]: According to Clayton E. Cook, Tales of the Rails: The Newfoundland Railway, Creative Publishers, 1991, p. 27, "Around 7:45 A.M. on January 17th, 1957, in a 100 mile per hour south-east gale wind while proceeding at half speed on a southeasterly heading bound from North Sydney, Nova Scotia, to Port aux Basques, Newfoundland, the vessel S. S. Cabot Strait grounded near Cap Ray, Newfoundland. She carried 12 passengers, 164 tons of general cargo, 120 tones of fuel and 289 tons of water."
Captain O'Keefe of the Cabot Strait sent out a distress call which was heard by the S. S. Baccalieu. The water where the ship was grounded was too shallow to lower lifeboats, plus the swell would capsize them as they came to shore, so he asked for dories to come out to rescue those ashore. The train was ashore near the course of the Newfoundland Railroad, which owned the ship, so a rescue train was outfitted to go to the ship. This seems to have worked well; the first passengers were taken off as 12:20 p.m., and all were off by about 4:30 p.m.
The S. S. Curb was ordered to salvage the ship; it arrived on the afternoon of January 20 and managed to get the Cabot Strait off on February 5; once free, she was able to go to Port aux Basques under her own power. She was then returned to service, being reitred in 1973. (Cook, p. 28).
Cook, p. 28, says the Cabot Strait was built in 1947. She was 2045 gross tons and 272 feet long. Cook has three photos of her, one while in service and two while aground, one of them showing her being lightened to get her off the rocks. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: Guig156

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