Michael Crummey: Newfoundland Sealing Disaster

On the centennial of one of the darkest moments in Newfoundland's history, see St. John's writer Michael Crummey read his poem on the 1914 disaster that claimed dozens of lives. 

Some 78 sealers attached to the SS Newfoundland died when they were caught in a storm on the ice and could not return to safety. The captains of two ships each assumed the sealers were safe on the other. 

In the same storm, the SS Southern Cross sank, claiming the lives of 176. 

Michael Crummey, one of Newfoundland and Labrador's most acclaimed authors, published his poem Newfoundland Sealing Disaster in his 1998 collection Hard Light. He read it for the CBC's Reg Sherren, whose feature report on the disaster will be broadcast on Monday night's edition of The National. 

You can read the text of the poem here.