World War II Archives | Page 2 of 9 | When World War II Came to Bell Island, Newfoundland

Exploring Bell Island Shipwrecks with Jill Heinerth

Jill Heinerth explains her fascination with scuba diving on the Bell Island shipwrecks and in the iron mines. She is a world-famous Canadian underwater explorer and filmmaker, who […]

Diver swims through a torpedo hole in shipwreck

A female scuba diver swims through a torpedo hole in the hull of one of the Bell Island shipwrecks. The thick steel plates of the hull are bent […]

Unexploded shells on a Bell Island shipwreck

Unexploded artillery shells on the stern deck of one of the Bell Island shipwrecks. The shells were collected by clearance divers from the Royal Canadian Navy’s Fleet Diving […]

Video of Canadian Forces divers removing unexploded shells

Video of clearance divers from the Royal Canadian Navy’s Fleet Diving Unit (Atlantic) removing unexploded artillery shells (also called unexploded ordnance or UXO) from two of the Bell […]

SS Lord Strathcona shipyard plans

General arrangement plans of SS Lord Strathcona from the builder: William Doxford & Sons Ltd. in Sunderland, England. Lord Strathcona was built in 1915 and was 138.7 metres […]

Dominion of Newfoundland postage stamp 1941

Twenty-four-cent postage stamp issued by the Dominion of Newfoundland in 1941. The stamp shows a merchant ship loading iron ore at a loading pier on Bell Island. The […]

Diver exploring the Lord Strathcona shipwreck

A rebreather diver swims over the shipwreck of SS Lord Strathcona.

Ghost bow of P.L.M. 27

A diver hovers near the bow of the P.L.M. 27 shipwreck.

Video of German U-boat attacks at Bell Island in 1942

Video shows German newsreel of U-boat crews attacking Allied merchant ships with torpedoes. Transcript of narration: On September 4th 1942, U-513 under the command of captain Rolf Ruggeberg […]

Sextant on the Rose Castle shipwreck

A sextant was a vital navigational instrument used by sailors to determine the latitude of their ship. This sextant was photographed on the Rose Castle shipwreck prior to […]

Diver Luc Michel recovers a sextant from Rose Castle shipwreck

In 2015, scuba diver Luc Michel (on left) recovered a navigational sextant from the Rose Castle shipwreck. On the right in the photo is Rick Stanley of Ocean […]

Sailor’s shoe on P.L.M. 27 shipwreck

A sailor’s shoe sits on the deck of the shipwreck of P.L.M. 27. (Purple slime worms are now growing on the shoe.) Small artifacts such as this shoe […]