Loss of the Snorre, The

DESCRIPTION: September 18 a storm in Bonavista Bay wrecks Harold F, Olive Branch, Planet, and Reliance. The Norwegian sloop Snorre bursts her chains and is swept away with two boys on board. Four men from Bonavista are named as saving four of the crew.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1976 (Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou)
KEYWORDS: death sea ship storm wreck
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Sep 1907 - more than 58 ships are lost including Olive Branch, Planet, and Snorre (Northern Shipwrecks Database)
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou 98, "The Loss of the Snorre" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4407
NOTES [655 words]: Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou: "Two young Norwegian boys were drowned, and the four others on board were rescued through the bravery of J Louis Little, Robert Brown, James C Little, William Ford and Eli Paul, all men of Bonavista; they afterwards received recognition from the Carnegie Hero Commission." - BS
Galgay/McCarthy, pp. 129-136, has an account of this incident; it appears the song is mostly right.
The Snorre was a brand new wooden Norwegian barque of 800 tons; she was on her first voyage to Newfoundland (Galgay/McCarthy, p. 130). On this voyage, her crew consisted of Captain Alse, his mate, three sailors, and a cook (pp. 130-131). She was carrying a cargo of flour, which she expected to exchange for a cargo of fish. By the time she arrived at Bonavista Bay, the storm was already blowing hard, so she had to anchor in the harbor, not go to the wharf. Storms in Bonavista Harbour had a tendency to be especially bad because it is open to the sea on the north and northwest, meaning that the prevailing storms blew *into* the harbour (p. 130).
At 3:00 a.m., the Snorre dragged her anchors and was driven onto a ledge at a part of the harbour known as Canaille (pp. 130-131). Four other ships in the harbour, the Evelyn, the Olive Branch, the Jubilee, and the Harold F., also broke loose and were destroyed (p. 131). But all of them had been in the harbour when the storm blew up, and the crews were ashore, so no lives were lost. Only the Snorre that still had her crew aboard and in danger.
Fortunately, the Snorre had grounded in such a way that she survived the night, and she was able to set off distress signals. The signals were seen by brothers Lewis and Stuart Little. Their neighbours Robert Brown, James Little, William Ford, James Ford, and Eli Paul joined them in attempting a rescue in very dangerous conditions (pp. 131-133). They made several tries to get a rope to the Snorre, with little luck, and several of the rescuers were nearly swept away themselves (p. 133). Finally, at great personal risk, Lewis Little got a rope aboard (p. 134), and the rescue began. There was little time to waste; the Snorre was going to pieces. (There was little left of her after the storm; those who surveyed the area of the Snorre's wreck found nothing but broken wood and debris; pp. 134-135).
Even with a rope to shore, it wasn't easy to get the Snorre's crew ashore in the extreme weather. Four men made it, but cook Peter Sivertzen and 13-year-old seaman Anders Monson were swept away to their deaths (p. 134); their bodies were found after the storm (p. 135).
There seems to be a disagreement about the date of this event. Ben Schwartz reports that the Northern Shipwrecks Database dated in September 8-9, 1907, but Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou says September 18-19, and Galgay/McCarthy, p. 130, affirms this. September 18, 1907 saw a "great gale" hit Newfoundland; it was bad enough, for instance, that 26 of 28 schooners in Twillingate Harbour were wrecked (Clarke, p. 72). Thus the September 18 date seems much more likely than September 8.
The song states, correctly, that the Snorre was chartered by J. Ryan -- properly James Ryan, Ltd. (p. 130). It appears to be wrong in stating that "Ford" was the first to go down to try to get a rope to the Snorre; p. 133 says that Robert Brown was the first to try, then Lewis Little. The song does seem to say that "Littles" was the one that finally got a rope aboard. It is also correct in saying that one of the dead was thirteen years old. It mentions the brothers Ford, the Littles and (Eli) Paul as rescuers, omitting Robert Brown.
Other than the Snorre, the ships named in Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou's text are the Harold F. (called the Harold T. by Galgay/McCarthy, p. 131), the Olive Branch (correctly named), the Planet, and the Reliance; it seems the latter two were actually the Evelyn and Jubilee. - RBW
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File: LeBe098

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