Codseeker[a] was a Canadian fishing schooner launched in April 1877 and capsized the following month east of Cape Sable Island, at the southwestern tip of Nova Scotia, resulting in the loss of four lives.
[citation needed] However, the lightness of the vessel, being empty in the hold, caused severe and unnatural rocking and she gradually careened over until Codseeker was flat on the beam ends.
[14] There were a total of 13 men on Codseeker, and after those in the dory reached shore and reported the capsizing, the American schooner Matchless, under the command of Captain Job Crowell, set out on May 10 to search for survivors, sailing through heavy seas.
[17] On May 12, the American schooner Ohio was passing by the wreckage when members of its crew, dispatched to identify the capsized vessel, realized that survivors were still onboard and rescued crewmen James Smith and Samuel Atwood by chopping into the hull with an axe.
Of the four men who did not survive, two died below deck when the ship capsized,[20] and one surnamed Nickerson was washed away and drowned while awaiting rescue by the Matchless.
[22] Names of the crew of the Codseeker were published in the Boston Evening Transcript of 12 May 1877:[24] Brown, Atwood, and James Smith are known to have survived, while Nickerson is known to have perished.
[e] How long the Codseeker remained in service is unclear, as mentions of the ship other than its capsizing,[14] rescuing of trapped crew members,[32] and being towed into port,[22] are absent from contemporary newspaper reports.
[35] Additional detail, especially a first-person account by survivor James Smith, appears to date from the article "The Wreck of the Cod-Seeker", attributed to Colin McKay and published in many American newspapers during 1914.