Transport Archives | 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 […]

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 […]

Multibeam sonar image of P.L.M. 27 shipwreck

High-resolution multibeam sonar image of P.L.M. 27 shipwreck. Shallower features shown in yellow, deeper objects in blue and purple. The bow of the ship is on the left, […]

Multibeam sonar image of Saganaga shipwreck

High-resolution multibeam sonar image of the Saganaga shipwreck. Shallower features shown in red and orange, deeper objects in blue and purple. The bow of the ship is on […]

Steamship Evelyn B near Bell Island on September 5, 1942

Photo taken by Royal Canadian Air Force aircraft patrolling Conception Bay on September 5, 1942 just after the attack of U-513. The crew of SS Evelyn B responded […]

SS Rose Castle loading iron ore at Scotia pier

SS Rose Castle loading iron ore from the Bell Island iron mines at the Scotia pier in 1942. Ore was carried in ore cars on rails from the […]

SS P.L.M. 27 before World War II

P.L.M. 27 was owned by a French railway company before World War II. The ship carried coal to feed the railway’s locomotives. This photo shows the ship loading […]

SS Rose Castle in 1942

A Royal Canadian Air Force plane took this photo of Rose Castle as she left Sydney, Nova Scotia in the first convoy (BW 1) to Bell Island, Newfoundland […]

SS Lord Strathcona

The steamship Lord Strathcona was owned by the Dominion Shipping Company, a subsidiary of the Dominion Steel & Coal Corporation, which owned the Bell Island iron mines. The […]

SS Saganaga before World War II

SS Saganaga was a British steamship owned by the South Georgia Company Ltd. (Christian Salvesen & Company) of Leith, Scotland. All but one of the crew were from […]

Nameplate from SS Lord Strathcona

This wooden nameplate from SS Lord Strathcona washed up onshore on Bell Island after the sinking. The nameplate was attached to the exterior of the ship’s bridge. It […]