MV William Carson

Built by Canadian Vickers Ltd. in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, William Carson measured 351 feet (107 m) in length and displaced 8,300 tons.

[1] Designed for service between Port aux Basques and North Sydney, Nova Scotia by Canadian National Railways, she was commissioned in 1955.

[1] William Carson was reassigned to the seasonal Labrador coastal service in 1976, operating between Lewisporte and Happy Valley-Goose Bay.

[3] The evacuation was carried out efficiently and passengers and crew waited in lifeboats in the icefield while watching their ship sink.

However, the military was criticized in the Canadian House of Commons for taking three hours to send helicopters to rescue the survivors.