Interview with S.S. “Caribou” survivor Percy Moores

Transcript of CBC TV News interview with S.S. Caribou survivor Percy Moores on the 70th anniversary of the sinking in 2012:

[Female TV News anchor in a studio speaking in front of graphic featuring a Navy sailor in uniform, a woman, a steamship and a lifebuoy with the words “S.S. Caribou.”]

News Anchor: Welcome back to Here and Now. This weekend a somber ceremony took place on the Cabot Strait in the exact spot where the ferry Caribou was sunk by a German torpedo. That was 70 years ago in 1942. One hundred and thirty passengers and crew drowned. Tonight we get the story of what it was like that night from a man who was there. Percy Moores was in the British Navy and was returning home on leave to Newfoundland. He told his story to Here and Now’s David Zelcer.

[A view of waves on the sea with the lifebuoy marked “S.S. Caribou.” Then a journalist standing by the seashore in a small Newfoundland outport village.]

Journalist: Seventy years ago in 1942, a Gulf ferry, the Caribou, sank off Port aux Basques. It had been hit by a German torpedo. It was the deadliest disaster in Canadian waters during the Second World War. More than a hundred people survived and we caught up with one of them here in Cottrell’s Cove. In 1942, Percy was a sailor in the British Navy on a minesweeper in the English Channel.

[An old photo of a young sailor in a Navy uniform. Then an older man in a flat cap and glasses speaking by the ocean shoreline.]

Percy Moores: We were all pretty well fortified with a little bit of … you know … and stayed up late, talking, fooling on. Nobody even thought … I guess the war was far out of our minds at that time. We were on leave. We were going home.

[Painting of S.S. Caribou ferry. Then a photo of a Navy minesweeper. Old film of German submarine surfacing. Then old photo of S.S. Caribou steamship.]

Journalist: It was a night crossing. The Caribou had an escort, the Canadian minesweeper Grandmere. German U-boats had already sunk 19 ships off the East Coast. They’d only take one more.

[Older man speaking by seashore.]

Percy Moores: Then four o’clock in the morning, we all got rudely awakened.

[Old film of German U-boat captain at periscope of his submarine. U-boat crewman yelling “Fire.” A torpedo speeding through the water, then a merchant ship exploding in flames. Then journalist talking with older man by seashore.]

Journalist: When did you first realize there was something wrong that night.

[Older man speaking by seashore.]

Percy Moores: The torpedo hit us pretty well midships … and knocked … I was in a bunk at the time, at the top bunk. And knocked me out clear out of the bunk onto the floor. So, I scrambled up the stairwell there. But there’s only four minutes see from the time the torpedo hit until the ship was gone. It didn’t give you much time to to think even.

[Old photo of steamship showing lifeboats.]

Journalist: Many people died in the frigid Atlantic because of a problem with the lifeboats.

[Older man speaking by seashore.]

Percy Moores: Art and I tried to help get the lifeboats off, you know. They weren’t prepared for it. I guess they weren’t expecting it because everything was rusty and and no time to do anything about it, you know. We had a habit in the Navy of using our life jackets for a pillow. Most of the time you put your life jacket on, especially if you were in a certain circumstance. You put your life jacket on and use it for your pillow. And that’s what I was doing that night. But the second I came on deck, somebody ripped that life jacket off me. Just grabbed ahold to it and tore it off. So I almost, darned near drowned there. I hope the guy tore it off survived. Yes I survived without it.

[View of waves on the sea.]

Journalist: They were 35 kilometers off Port aux Basques.

[Older man speaking by seashore.]

Percy Moores: I headed for the bridge and almost drowned myself, because the suction of the ship took me under for a while. When I came to surface, I heard people on the … you know, I heard him singing and crying and whatever have you. And I swam for the raft, got on a raft.

[Old film of a rough sea. A sailor swimming in the ocean wearing lifejacket. Wreckage and a dead body floating on the sea. A group of shipwreck survivors huddled on a liferaft.]

Journalist: The sea was calm when the torpedo hit but it was now angry with a southwest wind. The survivors spent four hours hanging on, while people all around them slipped away. Percy Moores was in a life raft that was overloaded with survivors.

[Older man speaking by seashore.]

Percy Moores: It was so full though, so crowded that it rolled a couple times and lost some of the people, you know. But it stayed, it stayed till we were picked up. It couldn’t maintain all the people that were trying to get on it first, you know. There wasn’t room for it. There was nowhere to … there was still a lot of people that just held on to the side of it, you know. And you couldn’t do that for very long in that kind of water. Couldn’t stay in it very long without giving up.

[Old film of wreckage floating on the ocean. Then older man speaking by seashore.]

After things quietened down a little bit, people were singing hymns and songs like “Squid Jigging Ground” or whatever you could think about, you know. Yeah, I didn’t think there was much hope. There, 20 miles out there in the ocean and no life jacket. It’s a pretty … it’s a sort of a tricky situation. I seem to remember saying goodbye to everybody that I knew. But I seem to remember something about that but … guess you know, I didn’t think there was much chance, I guess. Of course when you’re 19 years old, you think there’s you always think there is a chance. Or at least you go for one.

[Framed photo of Navy minesweeper. Old photo of S.S. Caribou survivors on stern deck of minesweeper.]

Journalist: The escort ship Grandmere had been ordered to pursue the German sub but it eventually returned for the survivors.

[Older man speaking by seashore.]

Percy Moores: All I had on was my top, my tunic and stuff like that. I just had the underpants and the rest was naked. And one of the sailors gave me a pair of pants.

[Old newspaper clipping of S.S. Caribou sinking. Lifebuoy marked with “S.S. Caribou.”]

Journalist: It was big news in Newfoundland. Even in 1942, word made it back quickly to tiny isolated Cottrell’s Cove.

[Older man speaking by seashore.]

Percy Moores: It was just … it was war. And it was a little closer to home than any of us expected, I guess.

[Journalist speaking by shoreline in small outport village.]

Journalist: The British Navy docked his pay until it had recovered the money it cost to replace the uniform and the kit that he lost on the Caribou. But Moores says he more than made up for it over the years with free trips on the Gulf ferry. David Zelcer CBC News, Cottrell’s Cove.