The Final Rescue:

Tug FOUNDATION FRANKLIN Rescues the M.S. AROSA, January, 1948

oil on canvas,  24” x 36”

$22,500

This incredible painting and story depict the unforgiving power of the sea. Farley Mowat’s (1921-2014) classic book “Grey Seas Under” (pub.1958), details the regularly harrowing rescues by the Halifax-based Tug FOUNDATION FRANKLIN. What follows is the artist’s description of the scene…

“On January 22, 1948 Norwegian motor ship M.S. AROSA with a full cargo, left from Newport News, Virginia bound for Sweden, and was soon thrust into the heaving swells of a hurricane. Her screw came up into the froth astern, then sank into solid depths all night -- by dawn AROSA’s screw had come to a complete stop. The main reduction gears had failed and the ship was dead in the water. The ship’s SOS was received in New York in the early morning of January 23rd, but there was no salvage vessel in New York able to proceed to the AROSA’s aid, and an additional twenty hours had elapsed before the telephone in the offices of Foundation Maritime in Halifax, Nova Scotia, began to ring. One hour later tug S.S. FOUNDATION FRANKLIN was under way with help, to the distant M.S. AROSA-- 580 miles away.

A Radio Direction Finder guided the tug and on the 27th of January at 6:30 A.M., the M.S. AROSA was sighted, drifting alone in the mid-Atlantic. A towline was setup, but the convoy’s speed was desperately slow. At 9 P.M. the vessels were beset by a full hurricane blowing ninety miles an hour. The temperature which had been steady at ten degrees, dropped down to zero. Huge waves were striking FRANKLIN’s upper works, freezing a heavy coating of ice where they struck. FRANKLIN was still making a passage west at the rate of half a knot (0.6 MPH) and she held on until midnight -- then the towline parted…

The next day at 7 A.M. on January 28th -- the ships managed to reconnect. The heavy head seas continued with low temperatures, and the radios were out due to loss of aerial from icing. The convoy made it only twenty miles in the next twenty-four hours, and then a new concern emerged -- that the fuel would not last all the way to their destination of Halifax, still over 500 miles away. The FRANKLIN’s danger increased hourly as the bunkers became lighter and the load of ice on the decks and the superstructure became heavier.

Yet, there was more-- The thirty-year-old FRANKLIN was now leaking water.

On the morning of January 31, the winds rose to force 10 on the northwest, making it impossible to continue on course for Halifax. M.S. AROSA now could not be towed. She fell out of range until she was laying right ‘abeam’ of FRANKLIN. The consequent strain on the towing gear had become intolerable and in desperation FRANKLIN’s captain attempted to bring the tug head up into the new gale so that he could at least hold M.S. AROSA steady. For the first time FRANKLIN reacted way too slow in answer to her helm. The sea struck full on her starboard bow. The towline rose almost clear of the seas and the towing winch itself tore loose from its bed on FRANKLIN’s afterdeck, ripped deck plates curled like paper. The winch’s drum tore from its socket and screamed into the depths astern. FRANKLIN was completely out of control now.

The seas poured in through the gaping hole on the FRANKLIN where the winch had stood and all electric power failed. Water rose above the bed plates. The tug vanished in a towering column of grey spume seen by officers on AROSA’s bridge. An SOS signal was sent and received in Halifax, then call after call began going out under FRANKLIN’s code sign. There was no response. Next, the tugboat M.S. JOSEPHINE FOUNDATION was sent to the M.S. AROSA and FRANKLIN position. The Captain of JOSEPHINE doubled the lookouts going along the track that FRANKLIN might be following if she was still afloat. There was no hope, and, in his opinion, the FRANKLIN had gone down. The M.S. AROSA was taken over by JOSEPHINE battling the storm, to bring the convoy into Boston Harbor in the end. However, this story doesn’t end there…

On February 5th in the first bleak light, about a dozen people at the Foundation Maritime dock in Halifax watched with unbelieving eyes. The S.S. FOUNDATION FRANKLIN was seen approaching the harbor under quarter power, listing twelve degrees to port and she was far down by the bow. The FRANKLIN had come home with their complete crew from her last voyage."

What a story. What a painting!