Miserable. Gloomy. Freezing cold. In Canada, winter can be all these things. But in 1816, that’s how the summer unfolded — and it would take nearly seventy years before we would understand why.
What’s now known as the 1914 Sealing Disaster refers to two separate, simultaneous tragedies on the sea that spring. A raging blizzard was the catalyst that led the SS Southern Cross and SS Newfoundland to suffer a combined loss of 251 men.
For centuries they descended on the prairies like a Biblical plague, then suddenly they disappeared in a cloud of mystery. Will the dreaded creatures return?
