Chapter V: Isle of Iron, Men of Steel  (continued)

The first attack came on 5 September 1942. That morning, the S.S. Saganaga and the S.S. Lord Strathcona were waiting off the west end of Bell Island to join a convoy before proceeding overseas. Suddenly an explosion rocked the air, quickly followed by another as two torpedoes struck the Saganaga. She went down with 10,000 tons of ore and most of her crew before help could arrive. Minutes later the Lord Strathcona, by now deserted by her alarmed crew, was also hit and sunk almost immediately. Men on a nearby coal boat sprung into action, shooting their guns by the bay. Members of the Newfoundland Militia ran to a battery overlooking the Bell Island ferry landing and fired frantically in all directions. They managed to kill a cow in St. Phillips, but never saw, let alone hit, the submarine. The noisy barrage, however, frightened the attackers, and they slipped away.

A second raid off Bell Island in November 1942 destroyed a third ore ship, an English vessel and 40 more men. One torpedo struck the pier and shattered into fragments which were later retrieved by Bell Islanders and fashioned into souvenir rings.

Contrary to many people's fears, the years following the end of the war in 1945 were not ones of recession, but of prosperity. The late 1940s saw a monumental increase in the iron market as war-torn Europe sought to restore its buildings, industries and armaments. Wabana's iron production soared,⁽²⁴⁾ and by 1950 the mines supported 95 per cent of the island's population.

It is tragic that the same surge in the iron market that rejuvenated the Wabana mines ultimately turned against them and condemned them to oblivion. The surge stimulated extensive mineral exploration, which in turn revealed large new iron deposits, the development of which flooded the iron market with large volumes of high-quality, cheap ore. Had Wabana been competing strictly on the basis of ore quantity it might have survived; however, it simultaneously fell victim to a radical change in steel technology that rendered the ore's quality unpopular.

The Wabana ore, which possesses 0.8 per cent phosphorous,⁽²⁵⁾ had for decades suited the Thomas steelmaking process wherein heat released by oxidation of phosphorous helps to keep the bath liquid. In 1952 the first Linz-Donawitz basic-oxygen converters (LDBO) hit the market. They produced a stronger steel more cheaply than did the Thomas method, but were designed for ore averaging only 0.3 per cent phosphorous. Many of the newer iron ore deposits such as those in Labrador were low-phosphorous ore that suited the LDBO perfectly. The Wabana ore, on the other hand, contained not only higher quantities of phosphorous, but also higher quantities of silica, an unwanted impurity. Because the new ores could be 'upgraded' more easily than could Wabana ore and were mined from open-pit rather than from submarine operations, they could be sold at extremely competitive prices.

DOSCO spent $20 million in the 1950s in a last attempt to match modern steel industry specifications. Still the new ores continued to maintain their competitive margins. Bell Island iron markets dwindled throughout the decades as one steel mill after another adopted the LDBO method. At last the Sydney smelters yielded to the demand for better steel and in 1958 began to mix large amounts of non-Wabana ores with Wabana material.⁽²⁶⁾

Timing of the decision to mix Wabana ore coincided with a change in the mines' ownership: in the fall of 1957 A.V. Roe (Canada) Limited acquired the majority of DOSCO's shares. The change spelled the end of the Wabana mines. The company announced in 1958 that the reduced market for Wabana ore meant a reduced need for mines. Some miners accepted pay cuts to keep their fellow workers employed, but found themselves and their companions jobless a few months later. From 1957 to 1966 layoff followed layoff until the number of miners, originally 2000, was 730 men.

The direction of these moves seems obvious in retrospect. Yet when DOSCO proclaimed on 19 April 1966 that on June 30 the Wabana mines would close down, the whole of Newfoundland expressed shock. Until the eve of the announcement federal and provincial governments had been negotiating with the company to upgrade Wabana mine facilities. The head of the miners union remarked that at first the men walked about like doubting Thomases, unable to believe their ears. On June 30, DOSCO sold the mine claims and surface facilities back to the government: $1 for the land and $100,000 for the assets. Only then did the truth sink in.

Scores of miners and their families moved to the Labrador iron mines, to Ontario and elsewhere after 1966. Some remained away; others have since returned home to take what jobs exist on the island and in St. John's.

What will become of the mines themselves? No one knows. In the early 1970s, attempts were made to cultivate mushrooms in the mine's dark and damp recesses; for a time, mushrooms grown beneath Conception Bay appeared on the shelves of St. John's supermarkets. In 1975, the American government invited proposals for underground oil storage locations. The Wabanex Energy Corporation Limited was formed to investigate the Wabana mine tunnels as a possible storage site. Later changes in American energy policy caused the government to revoke the invitation, so ending another hope for the Bell Island economy.

Mushroom farms and underground oil storage seem far removed from the old days of pickaxes and seal oil lamps. One can only hope that the mines, in some capacity at least, will have a future.

Workington Mine

Successful mines, like successful people, tend to evoke a host of would-be imitations. Just as the Tilt Cove mine generated the Betts Cove, Little Bay and other mines, so did Wabana generate the Workington or Lower Island Cove mine.

Discovery of the Bell Island iron deposits sent prospectors scurrying around the shores of Conception Bay looking for the continuation of the iron-rich beds. Their task was impossible: the rock strata, bearing Wabana-type ore, are unique to Bell Island and occur nowhere else on land in Conception Bay or indeed on the Avalon Peninsula. It was only coincidental that Andrew Colford of Redlands discovered iron ore at Lower Island Cove on the north side of Conception Bay in 1895,⁽²⁷⁾ for the Wabana and Lower Island Cove iron deposits differ vastly in size, quality and type.

Andrew Colford, as with the Butlers before him, was obliged through lack of money to submit his discovery and dreams of fortune to the formidable mercies of a St. John's businessman. Colford's 'patron' was a jeweller, Robert Sleater. Upon hearing of Colford's find, Sleater summoned five friends who within a year staked 14 adjoining claims in the area. They gave Colford a one-eighteenth share of the property and then contrived, vulture-like, to wrest it from him.

On 4 September 1896, Colford forefeited half his shares for $100 to a merchant named Charles Tessier instead of paying a store bill. On 11 October one of the claim holders, Donald Morison, forced Colford to mortgage the rest of the share for an outstanding debt of $30. Colford repaid the $30, but later sold the entire share to Tessier for $500 in lieu of paying another grocery bill. Thus did Andrew Colford relinquish all claim to the Workington iron mine. He continued prospecting in the area, however, and raised three prospector sons, one of whom-Daniel-came to play an important role in the beginnings of the St. Lawrence fluorspar mines.

Donald Morison, being a lawyer and ostensibly the most credible of the claim holders, became the promoter of the Lower Island Cove claims. In February he sent ore samples to England where they attracted the attention of a Workington steel company, H. Spencer and Company. Company directors dispatched an engineer to inspect the property. He presented them with a favourable report, and in June 1898 the company leased the 14 claims.