Newfoundland’s Iceberg Alley made the news in the recent DIVER magazine feature called EAU Canada. The magazine features a unique Canadian dive site each issue. In this installment, Jill Heinerth shares a remarkable opportunity to dive alongside an iceberg that had drifted south from he Arctic ice pack.
Rick Stanley and Steve Lewis were inducted as Fellows at the Annual College of Fellows Dinner for the Royal Canadian Geographical Society in Ottawa on November 18, 2105. Stanley and Lewis and RCGS Medalist Jill Heinerth are applying to carry the flag of the society for upcoming exploration and documentation work of the Bell Island Mines and shipwrecks.
On July 7, 2015 Jill Heinerth had the opportunity to assist in the documentation of the recovery and delivery to provincial conservators of the sextant from the WWII shipwreck SS Rose Castle. The Rose Castle was sunk on November 2nd, 1942 by a German U-Boat that was attempting to disrupt the supply of high grade iron ore coming from Bell Island, Newfoundland, Canada. The event also marks the only time a torpedo struck land in what is now Canadian soil. 28 crew were lost, but many were saved by citizens of the island. The sextant was discovered by diver Luc Michel…
Few Canadians are aware of the time when WWII came to the shores of Newfoundland. During the Second World War, mines on Bell Island, Newfoundland supplied iron ore to Cape Breton’s steel mills, accounting for one third of Canada’s steel production. Germany knew that if they interrupted this flow of ore, even temporarily, Canada’s war output could be seriously affected. On the night of September 4th, 1942, a German U-Boat followed the ore carrier Evelyn B into its anchorage. The next morning and under the guns of the Bell Island Battery, the U-Boat sank two ships: SS Saganaga and SS…