Wreck of the Maggie, The

DESCRIPTION: Maggie leaves Brooklyn in Bonavista Bay and arrives in St John's harbour "when Captain Blunden cried, 'My boys, there's a steamer bearing down.'" Maggie and the steamer Tiber crash. Many from the Maggie are drowned
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1902 (Murphy, Songs and Ballads of Newfoundland, Ancient and Modern)
KEYWORDS: death ship crash wreck
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Nov 7, 1896 - The Maggie sinks after collision with the Tiber in St John's Harbour (source: Northern Shipwrecks DataBase)
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast 80, "The Wreck of the Maggie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou 70, "The Maggie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ryan/Small-HaulinRopeAndGaff, p. 41, "The Loss of the Maggie" (1 text); pp. 42-43, "The Wreck of the Maggie" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL : Rosalind Power, _A Narrow Passage: Shipwrecks and Tragedies in the St. John's Narrows_, Jeff Blackwood & Associates, 2000, p. 100, "The Loss of the Maggie" (1 text)
ST LLab080 (Partial)
Roud #4413
NOTES [565 words]: The St. John's Narrows were just that: Narrow, and with a sharp turn at the end. And the Narrows were the only way to enter the busiest harbor in Newfoundland. So there were a lot of ships, not much room, and not much visibility. The Narrows are only about 400 feet wide at their narrowest, and there are a lot of rocks and shallows in the passage (Power, pp. 2-3). Collisions such as this were regrettably common -- although this one took place outside the Narrows themselves.
According to Galgay/McCarthyShipwrecks, p. 86, the Maggie was a schooner which "sank after a collision with the steamer Tiber off the Narrows 7 Nov. 1896. Drowned were thirteen crewmen," loosely confirming the data in Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou and the Northern Shipwrecks Database.
A more detailed account is in Power, pp. 96-102. The Maggie, under Captain William Blundon, was a schooner bound from Bonavista Bay to St. John's with a thousand quintals of fish and fourteen passengers as well as a crew of thirteen (Power, pp. 96-97; Galgay/McCarthyOlde, p. 92, says she had also been to Goose Bay). The Tiber, under Captain J. Delisle, was bound from St. John's to Montreal; she was leaving the harbor, and had dropped off the pilot (Power, p. 96).
If Power's reconstruction is accurate, the Maggie had her lights on (confirmed by Galgay/McCarthyOlde, p. 92), but her crew expected the Tiber to head out toward the Atlantic. Instead, the Tiber stayed to the south of the Narrows, heading south toward Cape Spear, since she was headed for Canada. The steamer sliced right through the starboard side of the Maggie, cutting the schooner in half and causing her to sink in moments (Power, p. 97). Several passengers, including most of the women, were probably trapped inside the wreck; Galgay/McCarthyOlde, pp. 94-95, believe some others made it into the water but were killed by debris as the ship fell apart.
Power, p. 99, has a photo of nine of the ten survivors of the Maggie and a list of all ten (nine men, one woman); so also Galgay/McCarthyOlde, p. 94. Power p. 98, and Galgay/McCarthyOlde, pp. 94-195, list the thirteen dead; they ranged in age from 18 to 73, and included the wife of Captain Blundon and apparently one of his sons, although the Captain himself and three other sons survived. Nine of the dead were men, four were women; two of them were husband and wife James and Rhoda Power. None of their bodies were ever recovered. Several of the survivors were taken aboard by the Tiber; others by a schooner from Brigus (Power, p. 98).
To add insult to injury, some locals managed to collect to boxes from the wreck -- and robbed them. They were eventually caught and forced to return what they had taken (Galgay/McCarthyOlde, p. 95).
The Tiber was allowed to continue on her way after the collision, and supposedly almost collided with another ship soon after (Power, p. 99). Warrants were eventually put out for Captain Delisle plus his mate and the lookout (Power, p. 98). Delisle and Co. were arrested when they arrived in North Sydney, and gave their own, very different, account of the tragedy (Power, p. 101). In the end, no one was held formally responsible. It seems clear that Power, at least, thinks the Tiber was at fault, but she doesn't offer much real evidence.
It's not obvious why Ryan/Small-HaulinRopeAndGaff included this among their sealing songs. - RBW
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File: LLab080

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