In 1916, as a costly war raged in Europe, the Newfoundland Government sought to curb spending on social support programs in order to finance the war effort. This decision led to deadly consequences for a group of people in Fortune Bay. A lightkeeper on St. Jacques Island, after witnessing the capsizing of a motorized yacht during a July storm, led a heroic effort to rescue the local welfare officer and the owner of the vessel. At the same time, a small schooner used as a floating medical clinic approached the stricken vessel to aid its passengers, when catastrophe struck—she was rammed and sunk by a former whaling ship plying the waters nearby.
Outcomes from that historic night rippled through the lives of St. Jacques residents for generations. Recalled by John Guille Millais, a British naturalist and explorer who had lived among these people, we get to meet each of them in the lives they lived.
