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The S.S. Kyle
History
The S.S. Kyle was built in Newcastle-on-Tyne, England, by Swan Hunter and Wigham Richardson from 1912-13. The famous steamship is 220 feet (67m) in length, 32 feet (9.8m) in width, and 18 feet (5.5m) in depth. Its gross tonnage is 1,055 tonnes.
Under the direction of its first captain, Lorenzo Stevenson, the Kyle arrived in St. John’s on May 20, 1913, for coastal service. Originally part of the Reid Newfoundland Company’s Alphabet Fleet—a fleet of ships each named after Scottish towns—the Kyle was primarily used as a transport ship, bringing people and goods from the island to Labrador. The steamship also did the Port aux Basques-North Sydney ferry run for several years. Though strengthened for ice and nicknamed the “Bulldog of the North,” the ship was not the strongest in Reid’s fleet, but it was the fastest; at top speed, the Kyle could notch 19 miles per hour (19 knots).
In 1923 the Canadian National Railway acquired the ship from Reid Newfoundland Company.
In 1927 the Kyle gained international recognition, discovering the wreckage of the Old Glory aircraft in the Atlantic. Attempting to fly across the Atlantic, the Old Glory crashed 500 miles off the coast of Cape Race, Newfoundland. (Notably, an aircraft that left Harbour Grace airstrip around the same time, the Sir John Carling, was never recovered.)
As the first regularly scheduled ferry between Newfoundland and coastal Labrador, the Kyle is often fondly remembered in twentieth-century stories of the latter.
In 1958 the Kyle was sold to Arctic Transport Limited, who changed its name to Arctic Eagle.
However, this ornamental change was only brief. In 1961 a Carbonear firm, Earle Brothers Ltd, purchased the ship and returned her original name, SS Kyle. Under Captain Guy Earle, the Kyle was converted to a sealing ship, bringing sealers to the ice floes for several successive springs.
On one sealing expedition, the ship was damaged and tied up in Harbour Grace for future repairs. However, on February 4, 1967, a storm and strong northeast wind blew the Kyle from its moorings, carrying her to the mussel bank in Riverhead, Harbour Grace, where she has remained ever since.
The Newfoundland government purchased the Kyle for $4,000 in 1972.
In 1997 the exterior of the ship was repainted through federal and provincial funding. The SS Kyle remains a marquee tourist attraction in Harbour Grace, attracting hundreds of international visitors each year. In the nearby Kearney Tourist Chalet, one can find artifacts from and pictures of the famous vessel in the ‘Kyle Room’. A boardwalk along the beach offers a spectacular view of the Kyle.
Location: GPS Coordinates: 47.670481, -53.218784
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