SS Novadoc Sinking Memorial in Digby, Nova Scotia

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24 Memorials
8% photographed
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Monday, 3 March 1947: The SS 'NOVADOC', of the Paterson Steamship Lines (of Montreal, Quebec) fleet of freighter ships, was lost with all hands (24 sailors [22 men and 2 women]) off Cape Elizabeth, about 22 miles east of Portland, Maine, USA. The ship was en route from Nova Scotia to Staten Island, New York City with a cargo of gypsum; it had been chartered by the Canadian Gypsum Company.

On Saturday, 1 March, in the late afternoon, the 2,300-ton ship had departed from the gypsum company's storage plant at Deep Brook, Nova Scotia, on the shores of the Annapolis Basin; it carried a cargo of 4,000 tons of gypsum in its hold. But as it sailed through the Digby Gap and into the Bay of Fundy, it headed directly into the path of a violent and deadly developing hurricane. Near Cape Hatteras, the ship was damaged, foundering in the heavy winds and high waves. It went down with all hands.

This ship had previously sailed as SS 'NORTHTON' for the Mathews and Misener fleets (1924-1946); it had been built in 1924 at Newcastle-on-Tyne, in England. Purchased in 1946 by Paterson N. M. & Sons of Canada, she was a Great Lakes freighter before being transferred to Nova Scotia. The ship's name 'Novadoc' came from the combining of the name 'Nova' Scotia with the name Dominion (d) of (o) Canada (c).

Nova Scotian songwriter Blain Henshaw has composed, performed and recorded a song, "All Hands Lost", which is dedicated to the memory of the 24 lives lost in this maritime tragedy.