While under charter to the Newfoundland Railway, the SS Beothic was distributing 2500 tons of coal from Sydney to various railway ports. About 2/3 of which was delivered during the last entry at Lewisporte. This was the second sealing ship lost by Bowring Brothers Ltd. in 1940. The SS Imogene, built in 1928, ran aground on September 21 off Boom Rock, Canso while on a voyage from Turks & Caicos to the UK with a cargo of salt.
Built in 1918 as SS Lake Como by the American Shipbuilding Company, the ship was renamed Beothic in 1926 when purchased by Ungava Steamships Ltd. as a sealing vessel which the company executed until 1933 when chartered by James Baird Ltd. for the same purpose. In 1934, the Beothic was purchased by Bowring Bros. Ltd. for the seal fishery. That spring, Under Captain A. Kean, the Beothic brought 48,701 seal pelts to port. This was the largest catch for any one vessel at that time.
