SS Caribou was a Newfoundland Railway passenger ferry that ran between Port aux Basques, in the Dominion of Newfoundland, and North Sydney, Nova Scotia between 1928 and 1942. During the Battle of the St. Lawrence the ferry participated in thrice-weekly convoys between Nova Scotia and Newfoundland. A German submarine attacked the convoy on 14 October 1942 and Caribou was sunk. She had women and children on board, and many of them were among the 137 who died. Her sinking, and large death toll, made it clear that the war had really arrived on Canada's and Newfoundland's home front. Her sinking is cited by many historians as the most significant sinking in Canadian-controlled waters during the Second World War.

Caribou was built in 1925 at Rotterdam, the Netherlands, for the Newfoundland Railway. Launched in 1925, she produced 3,000 horsepower (2,200 kW) and was able to reach a speed of 14.5 knots (26.9 km/h; 16.7 mph) when fully loaded. She also had steam-heat and electric lights in all of her cabins, which were a luxury at the time. Also, due to her ice-breaking design, Caribou also assisted during the seal hunt along the Newfoundland coast each spring.

On 13 October 1942, Caribou was part of the Sydney-Port aux Basques (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. HMCS Grandmère, a Bangor-class minesweeper was the naval escort vessel on this ill-fated voyage.

The German submarine U-69 was also patrolling the Gulf of St. Lawrence. It was a dark evening, and the heavy smoke from Caribou's coal-fired steam boilers silhouetted her against the nighttime horizon. At 3:51 a.m. Newfoundland Summer Time, on 14 October 1942, she was torpedoed approximately 20 nautical miles (37 km; 23 mi) southwest of Port aux Basques and sank five minutes later. Grandmère spotted the submarine and tried to ram her, 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 Sydney Post-Record and The Globe and Mail – as well as other media outlets – for not immediately stopping and helping save survivors; but that was against operating procedures, and would have placed the minesweeper in immediate danger of being sunk as well. After picking up survivors, 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 Tavernor, was commanding the ship as she was struck, and perished along with his sons Stanley and Harold, who served as first and third officers respectively. 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 personnel, 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 Royal 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 Toronto Daily Star and The Globe and Mail newspapers later that week.

In 1986, the CN Marine/Marine Atlantic ferry MV Caribou was named after SS Caribou. She plied the same route as the original ferry, travelling between North Sydney and Port aux Basques. On her maiden voyage, 12 May 1986, the ship stopped at the location where its predecessor sank. At approximately 5:30 a.m., survivor Mack Piercey, one of 13 survivors on board for the occasion, tossed a poppy-laden memorial wreath into the ocean and then the ship continued on to Port aux Basques to complete the voyage.

In 2014, as part of a special dedication service in the town of Port Hawkesbury's Veterans Memorial Park, SS Caribou's passengers and crew were honoured. Part of the dedication service included the unveiling of the anchor from the decommissioned MV Caribou as a new feature for the memorial.

Part of a series on the
Military history of Nova Scotia
Citadel Hill in Halifax
Notable events Battle of Port Royal 1690 Siege of Port Royal 1710 Battle of Winnepang 1722 Northeast Coast Campaign 1745 Battle of Grand Pré 1747 Dartmouth Massacre 1751 Bay of Fundy Campaign 1755 Siege of Louisbourg 1758 Royal Naval Dockyard, Halifax 1758 Halifax Treaties 1760–1761 Battle of Fort Cumberland 1776 Raid on Lunenburg 1782 Establishment of New Ireland 1812 Capture of USS Chesapeake 1813 ‪Battle of the Great Redan 1855 ‪Siege of Lucknow 1857 CSS Tallahassee escape 1861 ‪Halifax Provisional Battalion 1885 ‪Battle of Witpoort 1899 ‪Battle of Paardeberg 1899 Imprisonment of Leon Trotsky 1917 Jewish Legion formed 1917 Sinking of Llandovery Castle 1918 Battle of the St. Lawrence 1942–1944 Sinking of Point Pleasant Park 1945 Halifax VE-Day riot 1945
Notable regiments Mi'kmaq militias 1677–1779 Acadian militias 1689–1761 40th Regiment of Foot 1717–1757 Louisbourg Garrison 1717–1758 Gorham's Rangers 1744–1762 Danks' Rangers 1756–1762 84th Regiment of Foot 1775–1784 Royal Fencible American 1775–1783 Royal Nova Scotia Volunteers 1775–1783 King's Orange Rangers 1776–1783 1st Field Artillery from 1791 Royal Nova Scotia 1793–1802 Nova Scotia Fencibles 1803–1816 Halifax Rifles from 1860 Princess Louise Fusiliers from 1867 78th Highland 1869–1871 Cape Breton Highlanders from 1871 Nova Scotia Rifles 1914–1919 No. 2 Construction Battalion 1916–1919 West Nova Scotia from 1916 Nova Scotia Highlanders from 1954
Related topics Captivity narratives Impressment
Category Commons Canada portal
v t e

The Canadian Government announced that their new Arctic/Offshore Patrol Ship (AOPS) HMCS Margaret Brooke was being named for a Royal Canadian Navy Nursing Sister who was decorated for her bravery during the sinking of Caribou.

• Caribou was featured on a 2¢ Newfoundland postage stamp in 1926.
• In the Canadian series Bomb Girls, Caribou is mentioned to have sunk the previous day which gave the people of the home front a shock.

• Caplan, Ronald (31 March 1975). "The Sinking of the 'Caribou' Ferry". Cape Breton's Magazine (10). Wreck Cove, Cape Breton, Nova Scotia: Breton Books: 23–29. ISSN 0319-4639. Archived from the original on 17 October 2012. Retrieved 6 January 2013.
• Caplan, Ronald (1 June 1976). "Sydney Harbour in World War 2". Cape Breton's Magazine (13). Wreck Cove, Cape Breton, Nova Scotia: Breton Books: 27–40. ISSN 0319-4639. Archived from the original on 22 September 2014. Retrieved 6 January 2013.
• Caplan, Ronald (1 August 1987). "Procedure Report of Bodies Brought to Port-aux-Basques from the Ill-Fated Vessel S.S. Caribou". Cape Breton's Magazine (46). Wreck Cove, Cape Breton, Nova Scotia: Breton Books: 46–49. ISSN 0319-4639. Archived from the original on 22 September 2014. Retrieved 6 January 2013.
• Gibbons, Henry K. (2006). "The Last Voyage of the S.S. Caribou (October 13/14, 1942)". St. John's, Newfoundland: Government of Newfoundland and Labrador. Archived from the original on 3 January 2013. Retrieved 12 January 2013.
• Hague, Arnold (2000). The Allied Convoy System 1939–1945. St Catharines, Ontario: Vanwell Publishing Ltd. ISBN 978-1-861-76147-7.
• Helgason, Gudmundur (2012). "Caribou: British Steam Merchant". Uboat.net. Reykjavik, Iceland. Archived from the original on 20 July 2008. Retrieved 13 January 2013.
• How, Douglas (1988). Night of the Caribou. Hantsport, Nova Scotia: Lancelot Press. ISBN 978-0-88999-410-2.
• Lamb, James B. (1987). On the triangle run. Toronto: Totem Books. ISBN 978-0-00-217909-6.

• Milner, Marc (2010). Canada's Navy: the first century (2nd ed.). Toronto: University of Toronto. ISBN 978-0-8020-9604-3.
• Morgan, Robert J. (2009). Ronald Caplan (ed.). Rise Again!: the Story of Cape Breton Island - Book Two. Wreck Cove, Nova Scotia: Breton Books. ISBN 978-1-895415-85-8.
• Post Staff (11 July 2014). "Special service to honour people who died aboard SS Caribou". Cape Breton Post. Sydney, Nova Scotia. p. A3. Archived from the original on 14 July 2014. Retrieved 11 July 2014.
• Rohwer, Jürgen; Hümmelchen, Gerhard (1992). Chronology of the War at Sea 1939–1945. Derek Masters (trans.) (2nd revised, expanded ed.). Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 978-1-55750-105-9.
• Sarty, Roger F. (2012). War in the St. Lawrence: The Forgotten U-boat Battles on Canada's Shores. Toronto: Allen Lane. ISBN 978-0-670-06787-9.
• Tennyson, Brian Douglas; Sarty, Roger F. (2000). Guardian of the Gulf: Sydney, Cape Breton, and the Atlantic wars. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. ISBN 978-0-8020-4492-1.
• "Only Child Survivor". The Globe and Mail. Toronto. 19 October 1942. p. 1.
• "16 Women, 14 Children Among 137 Lost on Torpedoed Ferry". The Toronto Daily Star. Toronto. 17 October 1942. p. 1.
• van der Vat, Dan (1988). The Atlantic campaign: the great struggle at sea, 1939–1945. London: Hodder & Stoughton. ISBN 978-0-340-37751-2.

• Canadian Military Heritage Archived 11 March 2007 at the Wayback Machine
• Paper on topic Archived 22 December 1999 at the Wayback Machine
• The History of the Nursing Sisters of Canada

47°19′N 59°29′W / 47.317°N 59.483°W / 47.317; -59.483