SS Sagona

SS Sagona was a passenger and freight ferry used by the Newfoundland government ferry service on its northern coastal routes between the island of Newfoundland and the coast of Labrador. Sagona was primarily a sealing vessel until 1938 bringing a total of 165,599 seals from 1912 until 1938 under captains Job Knee, Jack Randell, Lewis Little and Jacob Kean.

Sagona was built in 1912 at Scotland by the Dundee Ship Building Company. It was 175 feet in length and could accommodate 50 salon and 40 steerage passengers. Its hull was made of steel with double rows of pitch pine that gave it ice breaking capacity. It was built for the Newfoundland Produce Company and arrived in St. John's on March 14, 1912 under the command of Captain Marshall. Sagona made its first trip to the seal hunt on March 15, 1912 under Captain S.R. Winsor.

In 1923, the Sagona was acquired by the Newfoundland government as part of the arrangement that saw the Colony acquire the railway. The Sagona helped in the rescue of survivors of the SS Viking disaster in 1931. In 1941 the Newfoundland Railway sold the Sagona to Colliford Clarke Company of London.

See also

• Newfoundland Railway
• Marine Atlantic
• CN Marine

References

• Paddon, Harry; Rompkey, Ronald (2003). The Labrador Memoir of Dr Harry Paddon, 1912-1938. McGill-Queen's Press. p. 252. ISBN 077352505X. http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=yMge3Qu8IeMC&pg=RA1-PA252&dq=%22SS+Sagona%22&num=100&client=firefox-a&sig=_8xsFUUsuNo6cLI9ua236OnXxcQ. Retrieved 2008-05-16.