Artillery shell pulled from Bell Island waters delivered 'a good boom,' says navy diver

A possible Second World War-era artillery shell that was recently pulled from the waters near Bell Island created quite the boom on social media as word spread of its discovery — and a larger boom when it was disposed of by a specialist team with the Royal Canadian Navy. 

The shell was discovered more than a week ago by two fishermen who were checking their lobster traps. Police then transported the device to a nearby airstrip and warned residents to avoid the area until further notice.

The Fleet Diving Unit Atlantic, a Halifax-based unit in the Royal Canadian Navy that specializes in explosive ordnance disposal, was called in to detonate the shell.

"It was a good boom for sure. Not the biggest that we may have seen, but that may have been due to the fact that we did protect the area a bit with those sandbags," Sailor 1st Class Aaron Clarke told CBC Radio's On the Go.

Clarke said the unit brought explosives with them, placed them on the projectile and covered it with sandbags to protect the area from shrapnel that could fly out. Then they retreated with the RCMP to a safe distance away and used a wireless transmitter to detonate the explosives.

He said the device was possibly a naval projection fired from a ship's weapons system that could have dated back to the Second World War.

During the war, Bell Island was the target of Nazi U-boats aiming to disrupt iron ore exports. In 1942, the attacks resulted in the sinking of four ships and the deaths of 70 men.

Museum artifacts

Teresita McCarthy, the executive director of Bell Island No. 2 Mine Tour and Museum, said she could hear the sound of the explosion from her home, which is two kilometres from the airstrip.

After the shell was found, she said someone suggested shell artifacts currently in the museum should be examined as well.

"Out of an abundance of caution for our visitors and our staff, I did call the RCMP. They came and visited last Thursday and took some pictures and sent them to their own experts and nothing seemed to be untoward," said McCarthy.

However, police couldn't definitively say if those were live shells, so again, acting with caution, she said the police suggested the museum close for a few days so someone could travel to Bell Island to remove the artifacts so they could be examined up close.

"Do I think there's anything dangerous about what we have? One hundred per cent not," McCarthy said.

But, she said, the move was part of due diligence, and police officers will arrive soon to collect the artifacts and bring them to St. John's for examination.

McCarthy said she's hoping the museum will open again by noon on Tuesday.

"And there shall be no boom," she said.

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