SS Caribou - Sinking

Sinking

Site where the SS Caribou in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, 14 October 1942.

On 13 October 1942, Caribou was part of the Sydney-Port aux Basque (SPAB) convoy, organized by the Royal Canadian Navy base HMCS Protector. The SPAB series of convoys usually occurred three-times a week, and was carried out in darkness. On this trip, the HMCS Grandmère, a Bangor class minesweeper was the naval escort vessel on this ill-fated voyage.

Unfortunately for the convoy, Nazi German submarine U-69 was patrolling the Gulf of St. Lawrence. It was a dark evening, and the heavy smoke from the Caribou's coal-fired steam boilers silhouetted it against the nighttime horizon. At 3:51 a.m. Newfoundland Summer Time, on 14 October 1942, she was torpedoed approximately 37 km (20 nmi) southwest of Port aux Basques and sunk five minutes later. The Grandmère spotted the submarine and tried to ram it, but, U-69 quickly submerged. Over the next two-hours, the minesweeper launched six depth charges, but did not damage the submarine, and U-69 crept away into the Atlantic undetected. Following procedure, Grandmère then went back for survivors. In the days after the sinking, the Canadian naval vessel was criticized in the media for not immediately stopping and helping save survivors, but that was against operating procedures, and would have placed it in immediate danger of being sunk as well. After picking up survivors, the Grandmère sailed for Sydney because it had better hospital facilities than Port aux Basques.

Caribou was carrying 46 crew members and 191 civilian and military passengers. The ship's longtime Captain, Benjamin Taverner, was commanding the boat as it was struck, and perished along with his sons who served as crew members. Of the deceased, two were rescued at first, but they later died from exposure to the cold water. 137 people died that morning, and the passenger and crew totals were broken down as follows: of 118 military personal, 57 died; of 73 civilians, 49 died; of the 46 crew members, 31 died. 34 bodies were found and brought to Port aux Basques by fishing schooners chartered by the Newfoundland Railway Company. To prevent rumours, the Canadian Navy allowed the Sydney Post-Record and other media outlets to report the sinking, almost as soon as it happened, one of the few times that war censorship was temporarily lifted in this period. The sinking made front page news in both the The Toronto Daily Star and The Globe and Mail newspapers later that week.