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| Photo
of John Hindley, 1873; the only child
saved from the wreck |
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The
poem is about the SS Atlantic that was wrecked
near Prospect, Nova Scotia on the 1st of April,
1873. In the poem Charles Fenerty made a footnote
saying:
The
ocean steamship Atlantic, carrying a large number
of passengers, was wrecked near Prospect, N.S.,
every women and child perished; saved was a
boy. Numberless bodies washed ashore and were
buried in a common grave near the scene of the
catastrophe.
The
Citizen (Halifax, NS) on Thursday April 3, 1873
wrote:
The
total known to be saved is 439, and as there
were 976 persons on board, this would leave
the sad total of 647 lost... Perhaps the most
sad part of this calamity is that not a single
women, (and only one child, a boy of six years
of age) was saved.
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