This is a re-imagining of a horrible night in 1942:

On February 18, 1942, two U.S. Navy ships, the U.S.S. Truxtun and the U.S.S. Pollux, heading to the U.S. Naval Base in Argentia, Newfoundland, were caught in a violent Atlantic storm and shipwrecked off the coastline of southern Newfoundland at Chambers Cove and Lawn Point. Prospects were dim for the sailors until one sailor from the U.S.S. Truxtun managed to reach Iron Spring Mine, St. Lawrence. The miners rushed to the scene risking their lives on ice-covered cliffs and in the raging sea, and managed to save 186 of the US sailors. Despite the courageous and heroic acts displayed by these men, 203 American sailors lost their lives.

Shipwrecked Souls

Along the narrow path that leads from the sky down to the water

Towering cliffs that stand together

Holding up the hands of time

One night so long ago they cried

Cold and wet, they could not survive

Until someone heard their cries

In the darkness when they felt the rush of ocean water in their breech

They shouted, prayed for deliverance

From the dark graves of the sea

Finally, a voice called back

To wonder if this was truly real

Or ghosts that lived within the wind and chased their dreams away

More voices came to witness the scene of desperate men between the seams

Some living and some surely passed

They hung on to forever

Then, one by one they were raised above

With callused hands that spoke of love

Ever grateful to the rope that brought them to salvation