Wow, how wonderful to wake up to a beautiful sunny day.
We headed for the little town of St. Lawrence to meet with a friend who offered to take us out to Chamber Cove, which is where the USS Truxton and the USS Pollock went aground Feb. 18, 1942. We took just a little drive first through town and down to the harbour.
Connie's (our new friend) dad worked at the mine but he was unfortunately one of the hundreds that got cancer from all the dust and fumes and died at 68. The mine was for Fluorspar which was used for jewellery, apochromatic lenses, nuclear industry etc.. It was a very colorful stone which made lovely jewellery but for such a small town it was devastating as so many men died.
The mine closed in the early 80's and has now had interest in opening but I am sure the working situation will be much different. The museum was very informative and well displayed.
From the museum we walked to Chamber Cove and it was so beautiful, hard to believe that in 1942 such disaster could hit the area. Three US war ships were sailing by, it was a terrible evening, so much fog and strong winds, they say the waves were 35 feet high. The USS Truxton was in lead and was blown into the cove, thinking they had hit an iceberg, the captain ordered the ship into reverse, however it only damaged things worse as they were lodged between two sets of rocks. One young sailor made it to shore and managed to get to St. Lawrence where he got help, however only 183 survived and 203 died. It was such a hard task to get the sailors off the sinking ship which was now covering with water and up the steep cliffs.
Two hours later the USS Pollock ran aground about 15 miles further on in the small village of Lawn, so many people were scrambling to help, but again here many men lost their lives. And once again the same evening the third ship the USS Wilkes ran ashore just beyond but it was freed without to much damage.
A few men had scrambled up the rocks and were found in this fishermens shack, the door is missing as it was used as a stretcher during the rescue.
Looks to beautiful for such a horrific accident.
Up above the cliffs is a plaque and cross dedicated to those that lost their lives. The americans thanked the Newfoundlanders for their help by building the first hospital in St. Lawrence.
As it was so foggy yesterday we went back to Allen's Island and it was brilliant today, but still the French Islands were a blur in the horizon.
Came back to Fred and Theresa's and they had a big Jiggs Dinner ready for us, it was so very good, we cannot thank them enough for their hospitality the last few days.
No comments:
Post a Comment