Scaterie Wreck- In the era of the Nova Scotian coal trade, the people of Main-a-Dieu "Hand of God" were accustomed to the sight of Dominion Coal Company colliers passing by their shore. Most ships passed through Main-a-Dieu Passage without incident, but occasionally strandings and wrecks were the order of the day. On March 8 of 1920 observers from Long Point, near Main-a-Dieu, were trying to determine which steamer had run aground at Red Rocks on the southeast point of Scaterie Island.
Fears surfaced that it might be Dominion Coal Company's S.S. Cape Breton, a eleven hundred ton collier. In company with Nevada, she left Halifax for Louisbourg a day or so before, but Cape Breton had not yet arrived at her intended destination. If Cape Breton had wrecked on Scaterie, people knew the vessel couldn't send a distress call as she carried no wireless.
To increase public concern that Cape Breton had been lost was the fact that watchers from Long Point at the Main-a-Dieu shoreline could distinguish identifying marks: she resembled the carrier's size and shape plus it had the company symbol, a black diamond crest, on her funnel.
The ship was first observed by fishermen of Long Shore. They saw her drift toward Scaterie in an unmanageable condition, erratic in her course and seemingly a plaything tossed by gale force winds. When she grounded, heavy seas and ice floes crashed against her and those who watched from the mainland knew she could not withstand the terrible pounding for any length of time. By dark her funnel and spars were still standing.
Apparently the ship went ashore at ten am on March 7 at an isolated and exposed position on Scaterie, out of sight of the island's West Point light. The Scaterie lifesaving station was situated on the far side of the island; thus attendants there were not aware of the ship's predicament.
Drift ice in the passage had broken the submarine cable between Scaterie and the Cape Breton mainland. Heavy ice floes also prevented boats from crossing the strait and authorities were delayed in determining the exact identity or the condition of the stranded ship. No one from Main-a-Dieu or Long Shore could get to the site. Fears of loss of life pervaded for there had been no movement of small boats or lifeboats nearby which would indicate survivors.
Meanwhile all day of March 8, heavy seas pounded against the wreck. Newfoundland steamer Kyle left North Sydney to give assistance that evening and reached a point near the wreck at ten o'clock. Due to ice, darkness, wind and rough weather, Kyle returned, unable to help. Meanwhile conditions on March 9 were no better at the wreck site: wind which had abated during the night freshened by daylight, waves pounded over the ice-encrusted derelict, and it had slipped lower in the water. Her distance off shore was judged to be one hundred yards. Kyle returned to the area and stood by at the edge of the half-mile ice field that surrounded the wreck and Scaterie Island.
That day it was confirmed the stranded vessel was S.S. Cape Breton, now coated with ice and lying broadside, barely visible, on the rocks off Scaterie. There was no sign of her crew, believed to be about thirty, and all were assumed lost. Her captain: John Willett of Sydney resided at Dominion Street, Whitney Pier. Because several men had signed on at Louisbourg a day or so before her departure, an accurate crew list was not available, but some of those believed to be on Cape Breton were: John Gillard, age 21, of Harbour Grace, Newfoundland; Ernest Boudrot, 22, Poulamond; George Willett, Louisbourg; engineer John Sommers, Halifax and mate Plynn.
The gale at Scaterie and vicinity also lashed other Nova Scotia areas: a fifty-five mile an hour wind had been reported at Halifax but no damage to property was reported. The Norwegian steamer Henrik Lund dragged anchors and went aground on the Woodside shore, Dartmouth. Winds reached seventy at Liverpool and the chimney of Trinity Church had fallen through the roof; lobster fishermen at Yarmouth reported damage to gear. Steamer Northland with many passengers and a full cargo of freight sheltered at Yarmouth.
American steamer Ellithrop, reported drifting helpless in the gale near Sable Island, barely cleared the western bar. U.S. carrier Wisconsin, disabled off Cape Race, was taken in tow by another American ship. American steamer Guilford, bound from Norfolk to Boston, had to be abandoned at sea. Her captain and crew survived. A devastating weekend on the Atlantic seaboard culminating in the loss of the Nova Scotian coal carrier Cape Breton and her crew.
Below is the TABLE OF CONTENTS for "The Edge of Yesterday", my most recent Nova Scotian book.
The Edge of Yesterday: Sea Disasters of Nova Scotia
Introduction and Acknowledgments
Contents_________________________________________Place
1. Disaster at Nauset Beach............... Parrsboro and Gabarus
2. Tragedy at Tiverton........................ Tiverton and Plympton and Margaretville
3. One Survivor to Tell the Tale....................Digby and Lake Midway and Yarmouth
4. Salvage from CP liner Corinthian......................Westport and Freeport and Digby Neck
5. The Loss of Royal Mail Packet Cobequid.....................Brier Island and Westport and Sandford
6. Thirty-Eight Hours Astride the Keel.....................Yarmouth and New Brunswick
7. A Premonition of Danger...................................... Yarmouth and Lockeport and Barrington
8. The Actual Story May Never Be Known...................Yarmouth and LaHave and Selma
9. A Jinxed Ship?...............................Yarmouth and Canso and Lunenburg
10. The Orinoco Disaster.......................Mulgrave and Eel Brook and Tusket and Argyle
11. Chances of Escape: ‘Extremely Doubtful’.......... Port Clyde
12. A Wreck off McNutts Island.......................Shelburne and Sandy Point and Dayspring
13. Ten Were Taken; Ten Survived.......................Jordan Bay and Shelburne and Charlesville
14. Debris on Neil’s Ledges............................... Liverpool and Brooklyn
15. Strange Meeting on the High Seas......................Liverpool
16. Trouble on Rum Row..........................Dayspring and LaHave and Annapolis
17. They Tore Up Their Shirts.......................LaHave and Ingramport
18. Christmas, at Sea................................Lunenburg
19. “It Sank in Two Minutes”.................................Lunenburg
20. A World War One Experience..........................Lunenburg
21. The Loss of Mary O’Hara ......................Lower Pubnico and Shelburne and Lunenburg
22. Keno: Posted Missing.................................Lunenburg and Louisbourg
23. A Tale of Endurance and Survival..........................Mahone Bay and Chester
24. “The Sight of the Awful Destruction”............................Little Dover and Yarmouth County
25. Marooned on a Reef......................................Little Dover and White Point
26. A Letter from Bras d’Or Lake..........................Bras d’Or Lake
27. Disaster off Port Bickerton.....................................Port Bickerton and Cherry Hill
28. Nothing Short of Miraculous.................................Marie Joseph and Liscomb and Halifax
29. The Mysterious SOS.............................................Liverpool and Lunenburg and Arichat
30. The Sable Island Sea Wraith...................................Sable Island and Halifax
31. The Price of the Lowly Lobster................................Halifax and Dartmouth
32. Trials on the Ocean: Loss of Utility.........................Halifax and Eastern Shore
33. What Happened to Acadien......................................Halifax and Louisbourg
34. Fires Takes Three..........................................Halifax and North Sydney and Lunenburg
35. Lady Survivor of the Wreck of S.S. Bruce........................Louisbourg and Baleine
36. Brother Rescues Brother......................................Louisbourg
37. The Missing Motor Launch...................................Glace Bay
38. S.S. Sharon: A War Victim?....................................Sydney and North Sydney
39. Hi-jacking and Murder at Sea......................................Cheticamp and Sydney and Halifax
40. The Rescue from Maggie H......................................Port Hood and Port Hastings and Margaree
41. Melmerby Beach: Melmerby Wreck...........................New Glasgow/Little Harbour
Index of Ships and Towns
Index of People and Businesses
Sources