The first was the 1914 Newfoundland Sealing Disaster, when 132 sealers were stranded on an ice floe, resulting in 78 deaths.
[4] In 1893 John H Anderson of Musquodoboit bought Newfoundland and re-registered her in Windsor, Nova Scotia.
The next morning, Wes Kean sent his crew in that direction across the ice to begin killing seals, commanded by his first officer, expecting that if the weather worsened they would stay overnight aboard Stephano.
As a storm began that afternoon, the captains of both Newfoundland and the nearby Stephano each thought the men were safely aboard the other man's vessel.
Newfoundland's owners had removed the ship's wireless telegraph equipment because it was an expense that did not contribute to profits.
The dead and survivors alike were rescued about 54 hours later by another ship in the fleet, Bellaventure, under Captain Isaac Randell.
In 1916 Samuel Blandford left New York with a cargo of coal bound for St John's.