Bell Island Wrecks: Tragedy on the Homefront
In late summer and early fall of 1942, as World War II raged in Europe and the Pacific, the men and women of Bell Island, Newfoundland seemed far from the front lines. The Bell Island iron mines, which opened in the early 1900s, continued to support the war effort by producing high quality iron ore for Allied troops and the home front.
Over the course of seven decades from the early 1900s until 1966, nearly 80 million tons of high quality iron ore were shipped to the United States, Canada, and pre-war Germany. During the summer of 1942, in recognition of a possible German attack, the Canadian Army installed a coastal artillery battery above the mine’s pier and searchlights to monitor entrances to the bay. However, after months without any activity, the garrison stationed on Bell Island believed that Germany had forgotten about the mines that had previously supplied them so much iron ore. Perhaps, the garrison commanders believed, the German commanders had overlooked the strategic importance and relative vulnerability of the Island anchorages. Or, it wasn’t important enough to risk a U-Boat and crew in the shallow waters of the bay. Whatever the reasons, islanders, miners, gunners, and sailors alike were happy to be spared from the U-boat menace and continued to mine and fish much as they had before the war. Unfortunately, that was all about to change.
On the evening of September 4, 1942, the , a type IXC U-boat commanded by Rolf Ruggerberg, slipped around the northern tip of Bell Island and entered Conception Bay in the wake of the 3000-ton collier That night, Ruggerberg and his crew lay on the sea floor in 80 feet of water waiting for an opportunity to strike. On the morning, the , and the S.S. (400’) loaded with 8000 tons of iron ore and resting at anchor while they waited to join an allied convoy bound for Sydney, New Brunswick, Canada. In addition to the loaded ore carriers at anchor, the S.S. and the were loading ore at the Scotia and Dominion Piers. The last vessel in the anchorage was the collier which Captain Ruggerberg had followed in the previous evening.
