PHOTO GALLERY
CARELESS
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These photos are from the collection of Dave Careless. Most were taken by his father, Tom Careless, who, besides being the Assistant to the General Manager of Dominion Wabana Ore Limited from 1958-1966, was an amateur photographer. Read Tom Careless' biography on the "People" page in "C" in the dropdown menu.
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Sleet Storm of March 1, 1958
The Bank of Nova Scotia and the Government Building on Bennett Street with ice-laden power lines after the sleet storm of March 1, 1958. Following is the story of the damage done as reported in the Company magazine:
"Heavy Sleet Storm Disrupts Operations"
"The intense sleet storm which hit the Avalon Peninsula on Saturday, March 1st, caused severe damage to electric power supply and telephone lines in the area. Bell Island suffered a complete blackout and a breakdown in telephone communications with the mainland, due to the storm compelling a complete shutdown in mining operations as Wabana and disorganized community services. It may be several weeks before all sections of the community receive normal electrical and telephone facilities. In the meantime, everything possible is being done by those responsible for maintaining public and community services to improve the situation. A 60-thousand watt generator was brought here from St. John's to service Bell Island schools which depend on electric power for heating. Auxiliary power units are also set up and the situation is improving. A number of people here are still using coal ranges and were not inconvenienced in regard to cooking and heating facilities. A sleet storm of about the same intensity was experienced here about sixteen years ago, causing much damage to power and telephone lines." From Submarine Miner, V. 5, No. 1, February 1958
Follow-up article in the March 1958 issue of the Submarine Miner:
"With the month of March entering its second week, the unusually mild weather which prevailed since the beginning of 1958 continues. The present winter has been such a contrast to 12 months ago. The months of January and February were, for the most part, mild throughout, with fog, rain and drizzle, occasional snow flurries and very little frost at any time. Plant life showed signs of bloom around the Avalon Peninsula on many occasions during February. Following the (snow and sleet at the end of February) storms, the weather turned mild again and the sleet, which had in some cases built on the wires to a thickness of 5 inches, soon melted and the telephone and power companies found it possible to work around the clock in making repairs to the damages caused by the storm. Although adverse easterly winds are being experienced, there appears to be no threat from the Arctic ice blockade, which in previous years filled Conception Bay disrupting the ferry service between Bell Island and the mainland. Only 12 months ago, on many occasions, the only means of getting to and from Bell Island was by helicopter and an airways service which was established to transport passengers and necessary supplies."
Follow-up article in the March 1958 issue of the Submarine Miner:
"With the month of March entering its second week, the unusually mild weather which prevailed since the beginning of 1958 continues. The present winter has been such a contrast to 12 months ago. The months of January and February were, for the most part, mild throughout, with fog, rain and drizzle, occasional snow flurries and very little frost at any time. Plant life showed signs of bloom around the Avalon Peninsula on many occasions during February. Following the (snow and sleet at the end of February) storms, the weather turned mild again and the sleet, which had in some cases built on the wires to a thickness of 5 inches, soon melted and the telephone and power companies found it possible to work around the clock in making repairs to the damages caused by the storm. Although adverse easterly winds are being experienced, there appears to be no threat from the Arctic ice blockade, which in previous years filled Conception Bay disrupting the ferry service between Bell Island and the mainland. Only 12 months ago, on many occasions, the only means of getting to and from Bell Island was by helicopter and an airways service which was established to transport passengers and necessary supplies."
Another view of Bennett Street following the sleet storm of March 1, 1958. The maroon-red Company house on the left, the middle one of three Staff family houses on Bennett Street, was occupied at that time by Ron Bartlett, a Project Engineer, and his wife, Helen, from Australia. (See a photo of the back of this house below the next photo.) The occupants of the green house, which was on the corner of Petrie's Hill, was Patrick Murphy, Chief Engineer, and family. (See a west side view of this house below the next photo.)
Looking west from the front of the new Staff House on Bennett Street following the sleet storm of March 1, 1958. The car was owned by Steve Richards, a mining engineer who lived at the Staff House.
The maroon-red Staff family house directly west, on the corner of Bown and Bennett Streets, was occupied by the John B. Gilliatt family for many years. He was the Chief Engineer from 1916 until his retirement in 1952. When the Gilliatts moved back to Nova Scotia, Art Bonnell, the Chief Accountant, and his family lived there until 1957. The house had a basement with a coal-fired furnace. There was a nice conservatory at the front, with a lot of small glass windows. There was a working fireplace in the living room, and a sliding door which recessed into the wall, that could isolate the dining room from the living room. There was one bathroom, upstairs at the back of the house, and four bedrooms. There was an attic, with a stair leading up to it. It had quite a sizable yard. At the time this picture was taken, it was vacant. The Careless family moved into it in the Spring of 1958 and lived there for a year and a half.
The yellow Staff family house on Bennett Street in the far right of the photo was occupied by Tom Kent and family at the time. Mr. Kent was Superintendent of No. 6 and No. 4 Mines. In 2017, the house is operating as a B&B.
The maroon-red Staff family house directly west, on the corner of Bown and Bennett Streets, was occupied by the John B. Gilliatt family for many years. He was the Chief Engineer from 1916 until his retirement in 1952. When the Gilliatts moved back to Nova Scotia, Art Bonnell, the Chief Accountant, and his family lived there until 1957. The house had a basement with a coal-fired furnace. There was a nice conservatory at the front, with a lot of small glass windows. There was a working fireplace in the living room, and a sliding door which recessed into the wall, that could isolate the dining room from the living room. There was one bathroom, upstairs at the back of the house, and four bedrooms. There was an attic, with a stair leading up to it. It had quite a sizable yard. At the time this picture was taken, it was vacant. The Careless family moved into it in the Spring of 1958 and lived there for a year and a half.
The yellow Staff family house on Bennett Street in the far right of the photo was occupied by Tom Kent and family at the time. Mr. Kent was Superintendent of No. 6 and No. 4 Mines. In 2017, the house is operating as a B&B.
One of Dominion Company's 3 large staff family houses that were built on Greenwood Avenue about 1908. It was on the corner of Greenwood and the Dominion East Track, on the south side of Greenwood facing north. It was 2 and 1/2 stories high, had 2 chimneys and a front veranda. This house is no longer standing as it was replaced in the latter part of the 1950s by 2 modern CMHC bungalows. This photo was probably taken following the sleet storm of March 1, 1958.
Newly arrived from England, 10-year-old David Careless and his mother, Jennie, take their first trip on the Elmer Jones on their way to see their new home on Bell Island, Sunday, March 16, 1958. David's father, Tom, had arrived in December 1957 to work in the DOSCO Main Office determining how much iron ore was being produced and how much was required to fill the order books. By January 1958, he was appointed Assistant to the General Manager.
On the Elmer Jones in Portugal Cove, Sunday, March 16, 1958. Having come from the milder climate of South Yorkshire, David was wearing short pants when they arrived in St. John's. They went shopping there and got more suitable cold-weather clothes.
David and his mother, Jennie, discovering some of the beauty spots of Bell Island, March 1958. |
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July 1st Memorial Day c.1958 on Bell Island when we wore little blue artificial Forget-Me-Nots and marched with the CLB & CCC to the Monument to remember the Nfld. boys who died at Beaumont Hamel in 1916.
David and his dog, Patch, Winter 1959, in the backyard of the Company house on the SE corner of Bennett Street and Bown where they lived when they first arrived on Bell Island. And below in the same yard heading somewhere to play hockey with brothers, Bobby and David Walker. Jennie is watching out the window of the back porch.
Children of Main Street-Church Road-Greenwood Avenue area skating on frozen-flooded ground on Greenwood Avenue behind Bennett's service station, c. 1961. Dave Careless is just right of center facing camera.
View from Lance Cove, looking towards St. Philip's, with ore carrier in The Tickle, 1961.
Ore carrier, Mesna, at Scotia Pier, June 25, 1961. On the 26th, Dave Careless and his parents sailed on this vessel, the first available one following school closing, to South Shields in northern England for their summer vacation.
On board Mesna, halfway across the Atlantic, en route to England, late June 1961. Dave and his mother are on the right, on the walkway on top of the hatch covers, while his father took this picture of the ocean washing in over the deck.
Jennie Careless in the main lounge area of the Mesna, June 1961. Looks more like a cruise ship than an ore carrier loaded down with Wabana iron ore!
Jennie and Tom Careless in their cabin on board the ore carrier, Mesna, en route to England in June 1961.
The Bartlett family playing ball in the back yard of their Staff Company House on Bennett Street in July 1961. This was the middle of 3 such houses on the north side of the street between Petrie's Hill and Bown Street. (See a view of the front of this house above in the March 1, 1958 view of Bennett Street following the sleet storm. In that 1958 photo, it is painted maroon. In this one, the clapboard has been replaced by shingles.) Ron Bartlett was Project, Maintenance and Budget Engineer in the early 1960s and oversaw maintenance of the Company houses. Below is another shot taken the same day.
Freshwater at the East End of Bell Island, 1961.
Dr. J.B. and Brenda Wilson and their Envoy Epic at Long Harry, May 1961. Dr. Wilson enjoyed shooting golf balls out over the edge of the cliff into the sea below.
Peter Spencer and Dave Careless at the Scotia Pier near the ore stockpile machinery in 1961.
Doris Bennett (nee Higgins) in the Main Office on Bennett Street, 1961. She started working as a stenographer there at age 16 in 1936, one of only 3 women in the Main Office at that time. In 1954, when Elsie White retired from the position of Secretary to the General Manager, Doris moved into that position. She was doing that work when the mines closed in 1966, then worked with Jim Archibald for 2 years during the salvage operation as Company equipment was sold off.
The Bartlett family, Mark, Ron, Helen and Simon, around the dining room table in their Bennett Street Company house, October 1961.
Specialized equpiment on Greenwood Avenue, Jan. 1962. (Could it be there to install the air raid siren next to St. Boniface High School, which is just to the right out of the picture?) The Wabana Mines Main Office on Bennett Street is on the far left. The roof of the Company manager's house can be seen above the crane in the center. Kitchen's house (a Company house?) is on the right.
Children playing on the snow banks on Greenwood Avenue in front of St. Boniface High School, c.1962.
Jennie Careless with Simon, Mark and Helen Bartlett and Patch, the dog, in the living room of the Careless Company house on the corner of Greenwood Avenue and Church Road, January 1962.
Dave Careless and his dog, Patch, in the living room of their house on Greenwood Avenue, probably on a Saturday night while watching the hockey game in January 1962. All the furnishings came from England with him and his mother when they came to Bell Island in March 1958.
Horse-drawn sleigh, March 1962. John Bennett's shop on the corner of Main Street and East End Road. Marg Bennett ran the shop. She lived in the house immediately north of it. Pat and Eddie Kavanagh delivered groceries for the shop using a horse-drawn sleigh similar to this one. Martin Butler owned the 2-storey house in the center background. Other houses in the area belonged to Heaths, Hookeys, Vokeys and Bennetts.
Jennie Careless and Brenda Wilson on the wharf at The Beach, March 1962.
The Beach, with the ferry John Guy stuck in the ice in the Tickle, being assisted by the Canadian Coast Guard light icebreaker Sir Humphrey Gilbert, March 1962.
The Sir Humphrey Gilbert entered service with the Department of Transport Marine Service in 1959 as a light icebreaker and was transferred to the newly created Canadian Coast Guard in 1962. Active until 1986, it was idle for a number of years before being sold to private interests. It now operates in the Arctic Ocean under the name Polar Prince.
The Sir Humphrey Gilbert entered service with the Department of Transport Marine Service in 1959 as a light icebreaker and was transferred to the newly created Canadian Coast Guard in 1962. Active until 1986, it was idle for a number of years before being sold to private interests. It now operates in the Arctic Ocean under the name Polar Prince.
The ore carrier, Nordland, registered in Stokmarknes, Norway, hemmed in by ice at Scotia Pier, c.March 1962.
The Careless's Ford Zephyr, covered in thick ice, in the driveway of their Company house on Greenwood Avenue, March 1962. Hours later, the poles and wires in the background on Church Road all came down resulting in a loss of power for a week or more.
Sports Day, 1962. Frank(?) Bennett with shot putt. Bown Street behind, with the Union Hall in the right background and the No. 3 Deckhead beyond that.
Jennie Careless sunbathing at the Back of Bell Island, July 1962.
Helen Bartlett on the front lawn of the Careless Company house on Greenwood Avenue, September 1962.
Brenda Wilson, and (perhaps) one of the Kennedy children who lived in the apartment above Dr. Wilson's surgery on Town Square, harvesting mushrooms at The Back of Bell Island, September 1962.
Christmas dinner at the Careless home on Greenwood Avenue c.1962.
Dusk, looking west from Greenwood Avenue to the backs of Company Staff family houses on East Track, 1963.
St. Augustine's Anglican School Fire, December 10, 1963
The photo above of St. Augustine's (previously known as the Church of England Academy) is from The Focus, the yearbook of the Anglican school system on Bell Island, for 1958. I have inserted it here to help visualize the building in relation to the photos below of it burning on the night of Dec. 10, 1963. It faced east and was located on the south end of Grammer Street at its intersection with Fourth Street. (The name is purely coincidental as that street was named for William S. Grammer, the manager of Dominion Company from 1899-1904.) The 3-storey section on the left is the original 10-room structure, built in 1941 to replace the previous Anglican Academy on Bennett Street. (That building then became the Union Hall, the back of which can be seen in the right-hand background of this photo.) The one-storey section of 5 classrooms, washrooms, staff room/office, and music room (the 2 large corner windows on the east end), and the 2-storey auditorium on the east end, were added in 1952.
The photo above is the original 3-storey structure possibly taken from the southeast corner with the front entrance of the school on the right. The dark parts in the foreground are bystanders obstructing the photographer's view. (Slide 4)
The fire broke out at 11:30 p.m. Tuesday, December 10, 1963 and totally destroyed the school. which was valued at about half a million dollars. The original building was just a little over 20 years old, while the addition was only about 10 years old. There were 620 kindergarten to Grade 8 students and 22 teachers who were displaced by the fire, which was deemed to be arson.
The fire broke out at 11:30 p.m. Tuesday, December 10, 1963 and totally destroyed the school. which was valued at about half a million dollars. The original building was just a little over 20 years old, while the addition was only about 10 years old. There were 620 kindergarten to Grade 8 students and 22 teachers who were displaced by the fire, which was deemed to be arson.
The photo above shows the original 3-storey structure fully engulfed in flames. The firetruck is across the foreground and firemen can be seen aiming a hose into the building. (Slide 8)
The photo above is taken from the same position as the one above it and shows the original 3-storey structure collapsing while firemen aim a hose into the inferno. The roof line on the left is probably a two-storey Company house on Grammer Street. (Slide 2)
The photo above is probably taken from Grammer Street with a two-storey Company house in the right foreground. (Slide 6)
The photo above looks like a closer shot of the one above it, taken from Grammer Street. (Slide 7)
The photo above seems to be taken from the north side of the one-storey section with the auditorium on the left. Some Grammer Street houses seem to be on the right. I believe the low structure with chimney in the left foreground is where the school's heating system was housed. (Slide 1)
The photo above was taken from the same vantage point as the previous one except looking further to the left towards the auditorium with the chimney showing more prominently. (Slide 3)
The photo above is a view of the auditorium exploding in smoke and flames, taken from north of the building on Bown Street. (Slide 10)
The photo above was taken from the Sports Field and is another view of the auditorium exploding in smoke and flames. (Slide 9)
The houses on the far right look like the small Company bungalows at the bottom of Fourth Street on the south side and the roof line on the left looks like a two-storey Company house on Grammer Street. If that is the case, this is a photo of the original 3-storey building almost completely collapsed. (Slide 5)
Following the fire, the students of St. Augustine's were accommodated in other schools and buildings around Bell Island, where they saw out that school year and the next. A new school was erected on the original site and opened in the fall of 1965. It did not last long, however, as it also burned down in the summer of 1981 (to be verified). It was then rebuilt at the present location on Davidson Avenue, just north of Jackson United Church.
Following the fire, the students of St. Augustine's were accommodated in other schools and buildings around Bell Island, where they saw out that school year and the next. A new school was erected on the original site and opened in the fall of 1965. It did not last long, however, as it also burned down in the summer of 1981 (to be verified). It was then rebuilt at the present location on Davidson Avenue, just north of Jackson United Church.
Dr. John Derjanecz (standing) hosting a gathering in the kitchen of his Staff Company house on the SE corner of Bennett and Bown Streets, Feb. 1964. Seated, L-R: Fred Rees, Tom Careless (with guitar), and Max Bugden.
A front-end loader ploughing snow on Greenwood Avenue, February 1964. Below are 2 enlargements of the buildings on Main Street and Church Road in the background of this image.
The buildings (above) from left to right: the brown house with white trim is the back of Anthony Simon's house on the west side of Main Street near the corner of Church Road; the pale yellow houses in the background and to the right of Simon's are on the east side of Armoury Road and are members of the Skanes family; the next 3 buildings are all on the east side of Main Street: the small mustard-coloured building was Dr. H.F. Giovannetti's dental office; next to it on the right was a large 2-storey building that housed Walter Squire's Store (groceries and provisions) on the main floor and apartment(s) above; next to that is the CLB Armoury. In the far right of the photo, opposite the Armoury, is St. Cyprian's Anglican Church. Continuing along the south side of Church Road (below): St. Cyrpian's Church; the 2-storey house next in the photo was the home of William J. Bennett (his Golden Eagle gas station and garage across the street are obscured by the loader in this photo); the 2-storey with the dormer window in the roof is the Anglican Rectory, which is actually behind and east of Bennett's house. The small shed in the far right of the photo was on the corner of Greenwood and Church Road. It belonged to the RCMP residence, which was opposite it on the south side of Church Road. The officer living there at the time of this photo (1964) was Sgt. Randall.
Ron and Helen Bartlett at Toronto Airport, February 1964. The Bartletts were from Australia. Ron was a Project Engineer with DOSCO's Wabana Mines in the early 1960s.
New Year's dance at the Legion, January 1965.
A ewe and her lambs, Spring 1965.