Imagine you were standing on a massive sheet
of ice floating in the North Atlantic Ocean, and your ship and only salvation was impossible
to see in the snowstorm that surrounded you. And every minute that went by
was one minute closer to the frozen night, during which some of the men with you
wouldn't wake up in the morning. This is the horrifying story of the 1914 Sealing Disaster. As always, viewer discretion is advised. [intro music] The commercial sealing industry was
a thriving one early in the 20th century for the island of Newfoundland, which is a
little island on the east coast of Canada. In Newfoundland's capital city, St. John's, couldn't have been more perfectly placed
geographically for sealing companies. Exiting the harbor there put ships
right into the North Atlantic Ocean, which was abundant with their catch, which was seals. In recent decades, seal hunting has become
highly controversial, and for a good reason, but more than a hundred years ago, it quite
literally built communities like St. John's. A significant percentage of its population
were either actual seal hunters or worked for a sealing company in some capacity,
so it was hugely relied upon by many. As you might imagine, the work of the average
seal hunter was as grueling as it was gruesome. It was messy, physical work with little
safety regulation, typical of the time period. This often resulted in overworked crews that spent up to 12 hours straight
on sheets of ice, known as ice floes. Because that's where seals spend most of their time, seal hunters would be dropped off on the ice
and then have to walk miles to reach these herds. Then after a successful hunt, they'd have
to walk the same distance back to the ship. This was standard practice because seal herds would get
spooked if a ship just pulled up alongside them. In addition to that, ships could only get as close
as their equipment would allow in the thick ice. And this is all before taking the unpredictable weather
of the North Atlantic into account. Strong storms could hit with little warning,
and this is especially true as seasons transition between fall and winter,
and winter and spring. In April, these ice floes,
which can grow up to 6 miles wide, start to melt and become fragile or break apart entirely. This allows ships to get through the ice
much easier than in the colder months, but that's only if a ship has strong icebreaking capabilities. Icebreaker ships have a specially shaped
and reinforced bow to help break apart and push the ice out of the way. Even with that special hull, ships could still get stuck, but this was especially true for those
with a traditional hull. They could easily get stuck in the ice for days, and that is exactly what happened to the SS Newfoundland
during the last days of March, 1914. Built in 1872, the Newfoundland was a cargo ship
with a pretty average capacity, and at no point did icebreaking come up
in the design plans. This is because there was just no reason to put
an icebreaking hull on a cargo ship, since they can simply move to a more
southern shipping lane in the winter. Sealing ships, on the other hand, had no choice
since ice is where the seals are. After spending the first part of its career
lugging cargo as it was designed, the Newfoundland was bought and
repurposed as a sealing ship. Without an icebreaking hull, though,
it was a sealing ship in name only. In addition to that, among the other ships in the area,
the Newfoundland, was one of the smaller ones, at just 212 feet (64.6 m) long,
with a beam just 29 feet (8.8 m) wide. It also had a two-cylinder compound steam engine
that maxed out at only 130 horsepower. This did next to nothing to assist in
clearing any ice from the ship's path. Basically, compared to a purpose-built sealing ship, the Newfoundland's captain and crew
were at a serious disadvantage. So on March 30th, 1914, the Newfoundland ground
to a halt while trying to work its way through an ice floe. The ship's captain on this run was
Westbury Kean, the 27-year-old son of Abram Kean. In any other world, someone his age
in that position was unheard of, but because of his father, he was pretty much
guaranteed a promising career in sealing. This was because Abram wasn't just a ship captain;
he was sort of a legend in the industry. Later, when he started a family, he had his sons alongside him on the bridge
as soon as they were old enough. It was only a matter of time before
they became captains of their own ships. As Westbury looked out of his binoculars
while his crew struggled in vain to free the ship, he spotted his father's ship,
the SS Stephano, in the distance. Abram and Westbury worked for competing
sealing companies, so despite their relationship, helping one another
was strictly prohibited. But they did it anyway. Knowing they were under the microscope of the entire
Newfoundland sealing industry though, they were discreet in their communication,
so they came up with a signal. If either of them had spotted a seal herd,
that ship would raise its derrick, which is a wooden crane on the deck
used for loading and unloading. If the derrick was raised on one ship,
the other would head in that direction, and since a raised derrick wasn't anything
out of the ordinary for a ship, it was perfectly inconspicuous. As Westbury focused in on the Stephano,
he suddenly wished he and his father had developed a signal for needing help
getting unstuck from the ice. Because while assisting a competitor
and finding seal herds was a no-no, ships could give or receive help
in an emergency from any ship. Unlike the Newfoundland, the Stephano
was a powerful iceberg, which would have been extremely helpful,
especially considering the ship had no radio. In fact, wireless communication was installed
in ships almost by default around this time, but sealing companies didn't invest
in these very expensive systems. The company who owned the ship had one installed to see if it would boost revenue by
helping ships coordinate, but after several months with no change,
they had it removed and then sold. To make the situation even more frustrating, when
Westbury could see the deck of the Stephano clearly, he spotted its derrick in the raised position. This meant that not only were they stuck, but they might miss out on whatever herd
that his father had spotted. This left him with a difficult decision to make. He had to decide if he should try to send
his crew to the Stephano on foot, or just chalk this up as a missed opportunity. If there were only a few miles between the ships,
there'd be nothing to consider, but Westbury estimated the distance to the Stephano
to be between 5 and 7 miles. It wasn't unheard of to send crew that far, but that kind of distance created
a lot of Inefficient work, and that was a lot of time dedicated to a single hunt. In fact, if the signal had come from anyone
but his father, he would've just kept his man aboard, but he knew that his father
knew how to find large seal herds which would make the extra distance worth it. While discussing this with Thomas Dawson,
who was one of his masters of watch, Westbury made his decision and told Thomas that he was gonna send the men to the Stephano
on foot first thing in the morning. Since it would likely be a long day with a lot of work to do, Westbury told Thomas the crew could just
stay the night on the Stephano instead of walking back the same day. Thomas then spread the word among the
other men, and at 7 o'clock the next morning, 166 of the Newfoundland's crew
gathered on the ice around their ship. The last man off was Westbury's
second hand, George Tuff, who had been commanding the crew on the hunt. He was given orders to report to the Stephano
and then get the location of the seal herd, and with that, the men set off across the ice. As Westbury watched the crew leave, he felt even
more confident that this was the right decision. That morning was overcast with very little wind. Visibility was also great and the temperature was mild. Unfortunately, even despite these good conditions, the crew ran into problems almost
immediately after leaving. Because of the warm spring weather, the ice floes
were littered with weak spots. Every step the men took needed to be a cautious one, and the longer this went on, the longer the trek took. And even though they were careful, inevitably,
some of the men crash through the ice into the freezing Atlantic before their crewmates
would rush over to pull them out. When they were pulled back up onto solid ice,
the soaked men had no choice but to continue on with the rest of the crew. To make matters worse, if the Stephano was somewhere
between the 5 to 7 miles like Westbury believed, the walk should have taken around
2 and a half hours to complete. But it wasn't until 10 o'clock, 3 hours after they left,
when they reached just the halfway point. Thankfully, from there on, the ice was smooth and solid, so they could at least pick up the pace,
but getting to that point had been exhausting. Around this time as well, a light snow began to fall,
and while this was far from out of the ordinary, some of the men expressed concerns
that things might get worse when they noticed how much the temperature
had dropped since they left. Then when some of the crewmen
toward the back of the group had killed and collected six stray seals along the walk, they decided to take them back
to the Newfoundland right away rather than drag them the rest of the way to the Stephano. Others within earshot used this as an opportunity
to abandon the mission too. Throughout the walk as well,
the Stephano remained in sight, but as the crew closed in on it, the ship
seemed to just move farther away. This prompted another handful of crewmen
to also use this as justification to head back. Then another group used the increasingly
bad weather as a reason to turn around too, so in total, 34 of the crew had turned back
before ever reaching the Stephano. The rest of the crew continued on,
but because they were so spread-out, many of the men near the front didn't even
know so many had turned back. Either way, thanks to the improved ice conditions
on the second half of the trek and the Stephano eventually seeing them
and closing the distance, the first of the Newfoundland crew
arrived at the ship around 11:30 am, about four and a half hours after they set off. As the crew came on board, Abram
was there to personally welcome them and invite them inside for tea and bread. But because he was distracted, he didn't
realize how exhausted they were. His focus was on his own ship's operations, and his much larger crew was split up
on the ice floes all around the area. So while his demeanor was kind and warm, he couldn't hide how anxious he was
to get back to his own work. Once all 132 remaining crewmen
from Newfoundland were aboard, Abram ordered the ship to the seal herd's
last known location. About 20 minutes later, the Stephano came to a stop,
and then Abram reappeared in front of the crew and ordered them to finish up their food
and then return to the ice for the hunt. Now, here is where the first of a series of mistakes was
made that would have catastrophic consequences. The night before, Abram's first officer
also estimated the distance between the two ships to be between 5 and 7 miles. And he told the captain that the walk
should take the Newfoundland crew no more than two and a half hours to reach them
if Westbury ended up sending them. Unfortunately, no one with the Newfoundland crew told Abram or anyone else what time
they'd actually left that morning. Based on when they got there, it was assumed
that they left around 9 o'clock. Abram had no idea that they actually started
walking 2 hours earlier than them when he ordered them off the ship
after less than a half an hour break. However, the crew didn't argue, nor would they,
considering who the order was coming from, so they finished their tea and started
to filter back outside. When they reached the deck though,
they couldn't believe their eyes. When they boarded, the crew could easily spot
the Newfoundland in the distance. By then, it looked like someone had wrapped
a big white curtain around the entire ship. As this was happening, George met with Abram
on deck to get his orders and also saw how much the storm had progressed. And for a fleeting moment, even wondered
if he should refuse the orders. He then turned to Abram and asked him
what he thought the weather might do. In response, Abram told him that things
would pass and there was nothing to worry about. And because of Abram's reputation and experience,
George immediately trusted what he said to be true. During their discussion as well, Abram told George
which direction to go and told him to collect fifteen hundred
seal pelts before calling it a day. He also told him that the area they'd be going was about two miles closer to the Newfoundland
than where they were. Because of this, he also told George
to just head back to the Newfoundland when their work was done, instead of
staying the night on the Stephano. After their conversation, George left the
Stephano with the others and began to walk in the direction of the herd. After about fifteen minutes of walking, Thomas met up
with George to ask what Abram had told him. And George went on to explain how many pelts they
were supposed to collect and then where to go after. Immediately, Thomas was taken aback by the
instructions to return to the Newfoundland. Westbury had told Thomas the opposite. Unfortunately, before he could argue,
they came upon the seal herd, so the men ended their conversation and got to work. Incredibly, only a few minutes into the job,
conditions had gotten so bad so quickly that George gathered the officers
to discuss what to do. And unanimously, due to the cold
and whiteout conditions, they decided to abandon the mission and return
to the Newfoundland immediately. Even though it was just afternoon, some
of the crewmen were already in bad shape because of how unprepared they were
for the weather they were caught in. Sealing being the physical work it is, seal hunters
were notorious for underdressing and traveling light. With how comfortable morning temperatures had been, many of the men didn't even wear coats or hats, and those who fell through the ice on the walk
to the Stephano were already visibly shivering. This meant that everyone was either exhausted,
cold, soaking wet, or some combination of the three. Seal hunters also rarely brought food with them, so in addition to everything else,
the men were hungry. Unfortunately, there wasn't a whole lot
George could do about it other than try to get them back to the Newfoundland
as quickly as possible. Before they set off, George met with Thomas again and asked him to lead the group
in a southeasterly direction. Visibility was near zero, so rather than
navigate back to the ship by sight, Thomas would have to rely on his compass. Based on where Abram had told him they were, heading southeast would bring them to the path
they took to reach the Stephano that morning. Once they got there, George estimated they'd be about
a mile and a half away from the Newfoundland, and all they'd need to do is follow the path
until they reached it. George then walked to the back of the group
to help anyone who was walking slower and ensured no one was left behind. But what George didn't know was that
they were not where he thought they were. Abram had made a mistake calculating their position. After almost three hours of walking to the southeast, finally, the men got to the trail they were on that morning. They knew that's where they were because
there was a flag belonging to the Stephano that was fixed into the ice to mark several seal pelts. When George got to the intersection though,
something wasn't right to him. He realized the flag they stumbled on was the path, but this was a mile and a half from the Stephano,
not the Newfoundland. That meant they were at least three and a half miles
away from the Newfoundland still. But, although this was frustrating,
they had no other option, so George told Thomas to just keep going. By this point, everyone was beginning
to walk a little slower, but then all of a sudden, they heard the sound
of a blaring ship whistle, which they recognized as the Newfoundland. When the whistle went silent, the men
screamed as loudly as they could, hoping that their ship would hear them
and continue blowing the whistle so they could use the sound to guide them back. This was standard practice in low visibility, but after the whistle blew again five minutes later,
that was the last time they heard it. This is likely because everyone in the Newfoundland
was under the impression that the crew was safe on the Stephano
as they had agreed. In fact, it's unclear why it was even sounded
in the first place. However, at the very least,
hearing it those couple of times confirmed they were heading in the right direction. As if things couldn't get any worse, as the walk continued and the sun was setting, Thomas lost the path. So, completely off course in the dark
with the snow falling heavily, George had to consider whether it was
better to stop for the night or keep going. Horrifyingly, no matter what he decided, men would die. Continuing on meant that they'd have to walk for miles in the dark, on the ice, where men
would fall through into the water. On the other hand,
staying the night on the ice meant that some of the men wouldn't wake up in the morning. This meant he had to decide between
some of his men drowning or some of his men simply
not waking up in the morning. He eventually decided to stop for the night
rather than whisk the ice. The crew were then split into three groups
and made preparations for the night. Shelters were then built from loose pieces of ice,
and fires were lit using ropes and flags. Before long, the ice was quiet,
and the crewmen were fast asleep. A little while later, the winds changed direction
and the snow turned to freezing rain. Since some of the men built up only one side
of their shelter to block the wind and none of them were able to build a roof
with what little they had, the men were pelted with freezing rain afterward. At first light on April 1st, the crewmen who made it
through the night began to wake up. Those who were awake huddled together for warmth while they kept their eyes on the ice shelters
scattered around them. Each time someone got up and joined them,
there was a slight sense of relief, but as the minutes went by, the men stopped waking up. The others went around and checked each of the shelters, but none of the men still inside were just sleeping. George didn't even need a headcount to know
that things were far worse than he imagined. Overnight, almost half the crew had frozen to death. And unfortunately, there was no time to let it sink in. George then had the men gather the bodies
for the Newfoundland to pick up later. When the dead were stacked together, the remaining
crew turned and continued their walk. The freezing rain overnight turned back
into snow in the morning, so George and Thomas had to go right back
to relying on a compass. However, thankfully, for the first time
since they left the ship the previous morning, the crew finally had some good luck. During the early afternoon, the snow slowed
and then stopped altogether. Because of this, George expected to see
the ship when visibility improved, but the only ship any of them could see
was the SS Bellaventure. This was another sealing ship that was back
to work now that the weather cleared. And this ship was about 2 miles to the northwest,
so back in the direction they had just come. George was sure that the Newfoundland
was further to the southeast, but because it was far enough it was out of sight, he had no choice but to try to make it
to the Bellaventure instead. When they were within a mile of this new ship,
excitement began to grow among the crew. The night spent on the ice was sort of
the opposite of restful, and the men didn't have much left physically or mentally. This temporary boost of energy was just enough
to get them the rest of the way to the ship. And then, when the Bellaventure started
steaming toward the crowded men on the ice, the relief was overwhelming.
They were saved. With a quarter mile between the men and the ship, they could see the crew of the Bellaventure
busy at work loading seals onto the deck. Then, a moment later, the ship's crew was back on board, and then, unbelievably, the Bellaventure
began to move away from them. The men waved their hands and shouted to get the attention of the crew
they could clearly see on the deck, but between their focus on their work
and the sound of the ship's engine, the crew on the ship never saw the crew on the ice. Had the Newfoundland crew been spotted, they would have been aboard the Bellaventure
within just 15 minutes. As you might imagine, this was devastating, and it seemed to be the last straw for many
of the crewmen in the worst shape. While they turned back to the southeast,
the delirium of hypothermia became apparent. There is a condition known as paradoxical undressing
that occurs with advanced hypothermia. This is when physiological changes cause the person
to feel extremely hot instead of extremely cold, and causes them to remove their clothing to cool down or if there's a body of water nearby
to jump in it to cool down. So as they continued, every so often,
the men would whip around when they heard the splash of a crewmate
either jumping into the water intentionally or falling through accidentally. When it seemed all hope was lost,
miraculously, another ship came into view, and it was heading directly toward them. As it got closer, they recognized it as the Stephano. Abram or one of his men must have spotted them. After the deflating ship setting a few hours earlier, the crewmen had another surge of energy
seeing the Stephano heading in their direction. This time, they didn't even wait until the ship
was close enough to start waving and screaming. But then, when the ship was less
than a mile away, it turned. The panicked crew tried to wave harder and scream louder, but they realized the Stephano hadn't seen them after all. By then, the sun was setting, and it was becoming clear
they'd have to spend another night on the ice. During which, more of the men would freeze
and wouldn't wake up the following day. Between all the sightings and their worsening condition, the situation was as chaotic as it was hopeless. This was then only compounded by the fact
that moments later, another ship was spotted. And because of everything going on, the men
weren't even sure if they were hallucinating. But, sure enough, the ship really was there,
and this time, it was the Newfoundland. Unfortunately, George estimated that it was
about 4 to 6 miles away. There was just no way the men could walk
that far after all they'd been through, not to mention they'd once again have to cross
a very dangerous stretch of ice. George thought about it and then walked over
to meet with Thomas about what to do next, but it was immediately apparent that
Thomas was in bad shape. During their conversation, he realized that
this might be as far as many of the men could go. Yet at the same time, it was more urgent
than ever that he can get on any ship he could. It was then that he made a decision. Thomas and the men who could go no further
would stay where they were for the night, while he led another group that was more fit to continue on. At most, he figured it would take the smaller group
no more than 4 hours to reach the Newfoundland. And once they got there, they'd immediately return
to rescue the others. George then announced the plan to the remaining men
and asked those who were willing and able to join him. He expected about half of them to stay
and half of them to continue walking, but only nine other men stepped forward.
This was bad. If more than 50 men were in such bad shape
that another night on the ice felt like a better option than being
on the Newfoundland in a few hours, things were worse than he thought. Either way, once the men were ready,
they set off once again across the ice. The first part of the walk
went faster than George expected, but he knew the pace would slow down
once the ice changed again. At the midway point, they took their first steps
onto the more treacherous section of ice. Every so often, George would look up to use
the Newfoundland's position as a visual guide. Then, after a few rounds of this,
George lifted his eyes, and to his horror, the Newfoundland was no longer directly in front of him. Throughout that same afternoon,
Westbury kept watching the bridge and was uncharacteristically anxious
about the status of his crew. The men hadn't returned in the hours
after the storm dissipated, and then when night fell,
his concerns shifted to pure dread. He was completely helpless to do anything about it. His ship was still stuck, and there was
no way of contacting any other ship. As he waited, hoping to see anyone
coming across the ice, the only thing he could do was
constantly push his ship to break free. Him and his crew tried in vain for hours
to get the Newfoundland free until finally, they heard a sharp cracking sound
sometime in the middle of the night. Suddenly, the engine wasn't just spinning in place; the ship was finally moving for the first time in three days. When it was finally out, they steamed off
toward the last known location of the crew. Unfortunately, the small group of men led by George
was just 30 minutes from boarding the ship when they watched it steam away into the distance. Back on the ice with the group waiting, the men didn't even have to wait until morning
to start counting bodies. Before many of them had even laid down
for the night, several more had died. The men who were in better shape
carried the bodies as they found them and stacked them in one spot
like they had done that morning. Horrifyingly, because they were certain
he wouldn't make it through the night, the crew stacked the bodies around Thomas, who was one of the few unconscious men
still alive at the time. Then, as if three devastating moments
believing they were saved wasn't enough, The Bellaventure once again came into view. Regardless, they tried getting the attention
of the ship's crew, either those aboard the ship or the ones waiting
on the ice to be picked up after their hunt. As they screamed, the air around them began to cloud up. The Bellaventure was actually so close
to them that the smoke billowing out of its stacks was being blown by the wind
directly at the Newfoundland crew, and this obscured them from sight. So once again, when the crew were aboard,
the Bellaventure turned and steamed away. At first light the following morning,
with his group of nine, George immediately got up and looked around
for any ship in sight and saw two. One was the Bellaventure which had
only moved to spend the night in a better position for the next day's work. The other was the Newfoundland, which was
again somewhere between four and six miles away. He was also relieved to see that all nine men
with him made it through the night, but by then, seven men didn't feel like
they could go any further. George then noted their location and then set off
with the other two toward the Newfoundland. A little while later, the seven men
who stayed behind noticed that the Bellaventure was much closer
than where it was when they woke up, and it wasn't nearly as far as the Newfoundland. Because of this, two of them felt like
they had just enough energy to reach it, so they headed off in that direction. So as a quick recap, because I know
there are a lot of moving pieces. By this point, there were five groups. The first are the ones that passed away
on the first night that were left on the ice. The second are those that stayed behind
with Thomas after they couldn't go any further. Then there's George's group of nine
which splintered into a further three groups. From these three, the first are once again
the ones that couldn't go any further. Then there's George and two others
heading toward the Newfoundland, and the final group is a group of two heading toward
the Bellaventure because it got closer to them. In any case, later that morning,
Abrams stood on the bridge of a ship, scanning the ice around him for seals
or a group of his meant to pick up. As he was doing this, the door
to the wheelhouse flew open, and the wireless operator rushed in
and handed him a slip of paper. The captain looked down at it and almost immediately
yelled in order to the wheelman to change course. The wheelmen then spun the wheel as far as
it would go and had the engine go full steam ahead. The slip of paper still in Abram's hand
was a message from the Bellaventure, requesting any ships in the area
that could come help assist in the rescue of the stranded members
of the Newfoundland's crew. Those final two men had actually managed
to get to the Bellaventure. At the same time, aboard the Newfoundland,
Westbury was almost a mirror image of his father, standing on the bridge while looking back
and forth across the ice. Then he spotted three black dots in the distance. He raised his binoculars and immediately
recognized George. Unfortunately, he couldn't risk moving toward them
or the ship might get stuck, so he could only pace the deck
as he waited for the three men. When they were finally aboard, George told Westbury
exactly where two groups of men were left alive. There wasn't much the Newfoundland could do
because of its poor ability to navigate the ice, but thankfully, it wouldn't need to. The entire Bellaventure crew was already on the ice,
armed with stretchers, food, and coffee. The Newfoundland crewmen, who could do so,
walked aboard the Bellaventure under their own power, but many of them couldn't move due to
severe frostbite on their legs. Soon after, the Stephano and another sailing ship, the SS Florizel, arrived to help load up
the rest of the survivors. The ordeal was finally over after 54 hours. Then, once everyone alive was on board, the crews got to work loading the ships
with the ones who passed away. Morbidly, because the ships were full, the bodies had to be stacked on the deck like seals
waiting to be stowed in the hull. As this was happening, back in St. John's,
panic had broken out. The Bellaventure sent word of the tragedy
intended for the hospitals so they could prepare, but news leaked and spread throughout the city. On April 3rd, the entire city had to effectively shut down because thousands of people flooded telegraph offices, and crowds blocked the streets,
waiting for any updates from the Bellaventure. The following day, those same thousands
that crowded the streets the day before, were at the harbor, waiting for the
first sight of the ships. When they were close enough,
the entire crowd broke out in hysterics. Still on the bow was a tall and obvious stack of corpses. Tragically, this is how some of the family members of
the deceased men learned the fate of their loved ones. When the ship was docked, it took several hours
for each of the survivors to carefully be taken off the ship
and transported to the hospital. In all, only 55 of the 132 men that made it to the Stephano
on March 31st, lived to make it back, and one of them would pass away in the hospital
days later, putting the death toll at 78. As if by fate, at the exact same time the crew
of the Newfoundland was fighting for their lives, another ship, the SS Southern Cross,
amplified the tragedy. It was loaded with more than 35,000 seal pelts, which is believed to have been more
than it could handle, and it sank, taking all 174 men to the bottom of the ocean. All told, St. John's lost 251 men
in the first days of April 1914. When the rest arrived at the hospital, the battle
for some of them was far from over. Every single one of the 55 men
who returned on the Bellaventure suffered from extensive injuries that were
either life-threatening or life-altering. Nearly all of them needed to have a limb
or appendage amputated due to frostbite, like Thomas who would lose both of his legs. George was one of the very few who came back
in relatively good physical condition, but he had another battle that was just getting started. When the dust settled, Newfoundland formed
a committee to investigate the disaster. Since no one survived on the Southern Cross, many of the details of its sinking
are still a mystery to this day, and it also caused the Newfoundland
to be the sole focus of the inquiry. After several months of interviews,
the commission's report was released, and it was damning for George, Wesbury, and Abram. They did manage to avoid criminal charges because there was no singular cause
named by the report, but there was still a lot of blame to go around. The report went on to detail inconsistencies in each of
their accounts of those four days in the North Atlantic. Westbury claimed he instructed George
to take shelter with the Stephano for the night, but George testified that he didn't recall
being told that. He said his orders were to take the men to the Stephano
and receive orders from Abram. George was also criticized for not refusing Abram's orders
once he saw how bad the weather was, and the commission found him guilty of poor judgment. Westbury was guilty of the same moral charge
but came out of the report a little more favorably. Because he had so little information at his disposal, the report noted the company that owned
the ship set the captain up to fail. This left the brunt of the blame to be placed on Abram. He was found guilty of the same poor judgment, but the evidence to support the commission's decision was much more extensive than it had
against George and Westbury. In the end, the committee faulted Abram for three things. The first was sending the Newfoundland's men back
onto the ice after only 20 minutes of rest. Second was sending them onto the ice at all
given the conditions. And then finally, for giving George the order to return
to the Newfoundland after their work was done. But nothing damaged Abram's reputation more
than his botched calculations for where the Stephano was going to
drop the men off. Any experienced captain should know
how to chart an accurate course, and this error set the disaster in motion since George made all his calculations based off
the incorrect ones he received from Abram. Despite this, Abram would spend
another 20 years in sealing, and he regained much of the respect he lost
as a result of the disaster. He would go on to retire, having captured
more than 1 million seal pellets. In the aftermath, the combined disasters of the
Newfoundland and the Southern Cross, sparks sweeping changes to the sealing industry
and the British colonies, and elsewhere, among many other regulations intended
to improve crew safety. If you made it this far, thank you so much for tuning in. My name is Sean, and welcome to Scary Interesting. If you have a story suggestion, I'd love to hear it, and you can submit it to the
form found in the description, and hopefully, I will see you in the next one.
