In the snowy predawn of February 18, 1942, a convoy of three American ships zigzagged up the North Atlantic toward Newfoundland, heading for one of the worst disasters in naval history.
The ships were under radio silence to protect their position from the threat of German U-boats. A storm was raging, visibility was zero, and the currents had turned wildly unpredictable. With only unreliable soundings to guide them across the jagged ocean floor, all three vessels ran aground on the sheer rock coast of Newfoundland.
Attempts to carry lifelines ashore were thwarted by heavy surf, cold, oil slicks, and floating wreckage. A few sailors, however, overcame the odds and managed to reach the coast where the communities of lawn and St. Lawrence effected a super-human rescue operation.
span lang="EN-US" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; white-space: normal; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Two hundred and three American sailors died as the Wilkes, the Pollux, and the Truxtun were battered against the icy shore by the treacherous North Atlantic. And those who survived would return home to receive not a hero's welcome but the harsh interrogation of their naval superiors.

Cassie Brown was a Newfoundlander, born and bred. A successful writer of stage and radio plays, she was also a reporter and columnist for the Daily News in St. John's for seven years. She is now considered one of Newfoundland's most respected authors. Cassie Brown passed away on December 30, 1986 in St. John’s, Newfoundland & Labrador.

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