Ellen Munn
Schooner · Newfoundland · Lost 1866 · Newfoundland
A Christmas Day sailing ended two days later when young ice sliced open the schooner Ellen Munn in Bonavista Bay, though all 23 aboard escaped alive.
Become Captain of Record
The Vessel and Her Loss
The 60-ton schooner Ellen Munn left King's Cove on Christmas Day 1866, bound for Goose Bay for winter repairs with Captain James Flynn, his family, and crew - 23 people in all. After a storm and encounters with sea ice, sharp young ice cut through her hull in South East Arm on 27 December. The crew fought the flooding with axes before abandoning ship onto the ice; all 23 survived, a rescue later commemorated in a well-known Newfoundland folk ballad.
Vessel
- Not established
- Not established
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- Wood
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- Not established
- 60
- Sail
- John Munn & Co., Harbour Grace
Loss
- December 27, 1866
- Ice
- South East Arm, near Goose Bay, Bonavista Bay
- Bonavista Bay
- King's Cove, Bonavista Bay → Goose Bay, Bonavista Bay (for winter repairs)
- Not established
- 23
- 0
- James (Jimmy) Flynn
The Wreck Today
- Not established
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Position
- Not established
- Position not established
- Musgravetown (Goose Bay), Newfoundland
Evidence
Overall confidence: Partially documented (65/100)
The vessel's year of build and precise sinking coordinates are not established in the sources reviewed.
Newfoundland's Grand Banks (History of King's Cove)
First-person survivor account, date, ownership, tonnage, and outcome.
