The Florizel Tragedy

            On Sunday, February 24^th, Newfoundland was shocked as it has rarely been, despite disaster on land and sea of recent years, by the knowledge that another terrible marine tragedy had been enacted on its coast, and that the splendid liner Florizel, the finest ship in the local trade, had gone to her doom on the rocks at Cappahayden – fifteen miles north of Cape Race – within a few hours after leaving St. John’s, and under circumstances making the affair a mystery, the solution of which will be awaited with the keenest interest by everybody.

            The Florizel, Captain William Martin, with a crew of sixty all told and seventy-six passengers, as well as about 12,000 barrels of cargo, chiefly fishery products, and valued at about $250,000, had left St. John’s at eight o’clock the previous night.  The weather was fine at the time but a storm was brewing and before midnight a furious blizzard was raging, described by other mariners in the vicinity at the time as among the worst ever experienced by them.  Shortly before dawn on Sunday morning the Florizel, going at a good speed, piled herself up on the shore of a section of coast where she was the prey of the furious waves to such an extent that within a brief period a large number of those on board had met a watery grave.

            The details of the tragic event cannot be told here.  Let it suffice to say that when the ship struck, her after part settled in the water and the sea swept her from the funnel aft, huge combers breaking over the bridge deck and saloon section, which were amidships, and demolishing the fabric as well as carrying off passengers every few minutes.

            After daybreak when the people from the nearest hamlet, that Cappahayden, proceeded to the scene, drawn there by the shrieks of her siren, they could see nobody alive on her deck and reached the reluctant but seemingly inevitable conclusion that all had perished, a deduction fortified by the fact that the bodies of some of the passengers were even then washing ashore.  Not until evening was it seen that there was any life on board, and then a few forms were described about the forecastle, where it was later learned that some of the crew had found shelter.  Later two or three humans were seen.

            Steamers had been dispatched from St. John’s at noon, and also a relief train, but the latter could do nothing as the waves were beating on the shore too furiously for boats to put off.  Similarly, when the steamers arrived at sundown, the darkness forbade activity and the sea was too high for much to be done.  At daybreak, however, rescue operations were immediately begun, and the welcome news spread rapidly that there were forty survivors safely bestowed in the Marconi house, in the “fiddley” or upper portion of the engine room, and in the forecastle; and boats from the Prospero, Terra Nova, Home, Hawk and Gordon C. speedily had these removed and in safety on other ships which brought them to St. John’s on Monday afternoon where they were very cordially welcomed.

            Few had escaped without more or less serious injuries. Some had their extremities frozen as a result of their long immersion in the water and all were grievously shaken up by the elemental experience they had under gone.  They told the most harrowing tales of the disaster, of the circumstances under which two-thirds of those on board had perished, and of the sufferings of those who survived, and the whole record of the tragedy goes to mark it as one of the most harrowing in the annals of the Island.  Nearly all the bodies were recovered and identified.

            Regrettable as the tragedy is in itself, it was rendered doubly so by the fact that the passengers included many of our leading citizens who were departing by her for business visits to the neighbouring continent, and whose loss will mean a serious blow to many an important commercial concerned in St. John’s, whilst the outports were also represented in the death-list.

            The ship herself was the principle link connecting the Colony with the Western world and forming an agency for the transport inward and outward of the commodities on which our economic existence turn, and how she is to be replaced is not easy to discern.  The war has meant many serious blows to Newfoundland, but it is doubtful if war-time has meant man worse misfortunes to our Colony than is represented by the loss of the Florizel.

Source: The Caribou Disaster and Other Short Stories by Cassie Brown, 1996.

           
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