Winifred Lee

$25.00

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Early Sketch

Size: 16″ x 20″

Description

The schooner “Winifred Lee”, official number 134178, gross tonnage 116, was built 1916 at Shelburne, Nova Scotia and registered in Newfoundland to merchant George A. Buffett of Grand Bank. By 1930 the vessel had been acquired by Abraham Lawrence of Bay L’Argent. Five years later, Joshua Winsor of Wesleyville was the owner, and, by 1940, he had installed an auxiliary engine. The vessel exploded and was destroyed by fire in Twillingate, September 6, 1955.

“It was a sight to stop anyone in his tracks. A schooner, nearly 100 feet in length, moored securely to a wharf at Twillingate was spewing a threatening plume of oily-black smoke. The vessel’s decks were tightly stowed with barrels of petroleum products — kerosene, gasoline, oil. The smoke was moving fast from the hold of the Winifred Lee where baled hay was packed.”