The Trinity Bay Disaster

Come all ye fine youngsters and listen to me,
I'll tell of a disaster that happened at sea;
That happened off shore in the year '92,
Just what indeed happened I'll now tell to you.

Now Trinity Bight on the north of the Bay,
Was swarming with swiles on that Saturday;
On Saturday morning (no school, you see),
So boys joined their masters and fathers with glee.

February Twenty-seventh - the morning broke clear,
The sun shining brightly, no stir in the air;
The air was so calm and so calm was the sea,
That it beckoned to them like I'd beckon to ye.

Two hundred fifteen of both men and both boys,
Took to their punts with shouts and with cries;
Cries of delight for the first seal hunts,
They took off from shore in some fifty odd punts.

The bullies were manned by a crew about four,
To take the hunters out around five miles from shore;
The shore far behind and the ice out ahead,
Scarce was the man who now felt any dread.

With all the hard pulling they reached the flow soon,
All things were so tranquil right up until noon;
At noon the wind from the northwest did blow,
At hurricane force and then freezing snow.

With the ice heaving madly, the wind blowing wild,
Fear was entertained for each man and each child;
With wind blowing off shore and temperatures dipped low,
'Twas no home or haven out there in the flow.

By nightfall that day the toll was complete,
Twenty-five persons their maker did meet;
Some on the ice and some more on the shore,
Seventeen hunters were seen nevermore.

Small English Harbour took the worst blow,
Forty-nine men in fourteen boats did go;
Thirty-two returned to their families so dear,
While seventeen perished in the bay way out there.

Twenty-eight men made it to the Horse Chops,
Their six boats just made it through ice laden lops;
The lops were so big that half frozen and weak,
The men found in Hay Cove just what they did seek.

They hid in the forest and chewed on some wood,
While two trekked homeward to do what they could;
They could and they did, on them so much relied,
Before rescuers came six more men had died.

While out in the bay with the coming of night,
Boats were pulled on the ice for protection so slight;
Not slight was the wind for the coming of day,
Two had reached Heart's Delight on the South of the Bay.

Captain Dick Fowlow from Trinity East,
Sometime next day before the searched ceased;
Found two frozen bodies adrift in a boat,
From Green Bay again they never would float.

The S.S. Labrador under Captain George Hann,
Brought a hospital patient at Trinity to land;
Gave him over to sealers out there in the Bay,
They have never been heard of right up to this day.

Now, thank you for listening to my story so dear,
Of one terrible happening of that terrible year;
Many are the stories with our history are laced,
Of the dangers so often that our fishermen faced.

Clarence Dewling, performed publicly for the first time July 1, 1999, at the opening of the Trinity Pageant, a play depicting the history of the Trinity, NL area.