From The Evening Telegram, 24 March 1951, page 3.
SEALING SHIP LOST
Lady MacDonald’s Crew Due Home After Ship is Crushed
Merciless Arctic icefloes rang the death knell for the 194-ton sealing vessel M.V. Lady Macdonald in the Straits of Belle Isle Thursday night.
Two hours after she became wedged between two huge icefields at 7 p.m., the vessel slipped beneath the Strait’s frozen surface, her hull gaping with a 12-foot hole on the port side.
Coming Home shortly afterwards the 30 man crew, including Captain Peter Troke, were safe aboard the M.V. Linda May. They were transferred last night to the M.S. Arctic Sealer, which is enroute to St. John’s with a near bumper load and expects to round out her cargo on the voyage down the Northern Front.
First indication of the sealer’s plight was an SOS flashed by Captain Troke at 7 p.m. Thursday stating that the Lady Macdonald was caught and being crushed between two pans five miles NE of Cape Norman.
The ship’s stern was then awash, the skipper said.
Side Smashed
Another message received yesterday by Graham Hiscock of Brigus, official of the Conception Bay Sealing Company, to whom the vessel was chartered, stated:
“Got unto rafter, 12 feet port side stove in. Sank in two hours. Now onboard Linda May. Notify owner.”
Mr. Hiscock said the Lady Macdonald was moving towards a “flag” when the two icepans caught her in a pincher movement.
Pressure on the hull was so great that a supporting beam in the hold was thrust through the vessel’s side.
7,500 on Board
In a message to Mr. Hiscock on Wednesday, relayed to Brigus through the Linda May’s radio telephone set, Captain Troke had advised that the sealer had 6,700 on board and 800 on the ice.
It is believed that the ship had picked up these pans and thus had at least 7,500 on board when tragedy struck.
Mr. Hiscock is of the belief that the Lady Macdonald was too heavily loaded to be lifted by the rafting ice, that the sides were crushed as the pans jammed together.
He advised that all of the ill-fated sealers were well on board the Linda May which had plenty of provisions for the two crews.
Captain Les Winsor of the Linda May and Captain Sid Hill of the Arctic Sealer which was barging through the ice to take off the Lady Macdonald’s crew were doing all they could, he said.
Captain Chesley Stone, the owner of the Lady Macdonald, advised that the ship was insured, while Mr. Hiscock said that insurance was also carried on the catch.
Another Loss
Loss of the Lady Macdonald paralleled that of the M.V. Wimoda which was crushed by heavy ice and sank off Lark Island on the Western Side of Bell Isle on April 26, 1949.
Her crew was rescued by Captain John H. Blackmore in his then new vessel the M.V. Newfoundlander, which made a dramatic dash through the ice around the northern end of Belle Isle to snatch the castaway crew from the floes.
It was in the previous year that Captain Blackmore was himself the victim of a similar tragedy, when the pride of his life, the M.V. J.H. Blackmore, was lost under similar circumstances in Bonavista Bay.
