RESTORATION, PRESERVATION & ARCHIVING

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1942 The Halifax Chronicle newspaper describing an amazing story of WWII rescue of Canadian merchant marine who survived three sinking of convoy ships after they were torpedoed by German submarines.

RESTORATION OF A WWII NEWSPAPER

During WWII thousands of merchant ships organized into huge convoys that sailed from the United Kingdom, Iceland, and North America to the Arctic ports of Murmansk and Archangelsk. The ships deliver millions of tons of food, fuel, ammunition, airplanes and armor, desperately needed by the Soviet Union. Eighty-five merchant vessels and sixteen warships were lost and hundreds of seamen perished in the icy waters of The Northern Atlantic when the ships were attacked by Nazi submarined and air force. The bravery of the sailors demonstrated the Allies' commitment to helping the people of Russia in their epic struggle against Nazi Germany.

On their way to Russia, the ships manned by civilian merchant sailors were under constant attacks. First by submarines hunting for the prey along the East Coast on the Unite States, then entering the Northern Atlantic and the Barents Sea, falling pray to Luftwaffe dive bombers and torpedo planes. The subzero weather, hurricane straight winds, and waves as high as 70 feet sailing on a ship making what became known as Murmansk Run, was a true test of a semen’s courage and skills. If a ship was hit by a bomb or a torpedo, or if a sailor fell overboard, he was as good as lost.

When the British destroyer HMS Matabele was torpedoed and sunk, a rescue ship arrived almost immediately but was able to save only two survivors out of a crew of over 200. All others frozen to death within minutes.

This makes a story of the courageous Canadian Merchant Marine sailor especially extraordinary. Rescued three times from the ships that went down after being torpedoed by Nazi submarines he chose to do his duty and return to the sea. The article was published in 1942 by The Halifax Chronicle and for many years the copy of the newspaper was kept by the sailors family.

As it often happens with old documents and items, over the years the paper yellowed, became dry and brittle, tears developed along the fold lines, and parts of the pages fell of. The sun of the sailor embarked on writing a book about his father’s heroic service it became necessary to restore the newspaper and to assure that original will not continue to deteriorate into oblivion.

The newspaper was carefully cleaned up from dust and a few stubborn stains and marks removed with the help of an art gum eraser. The tears were reinforced with Japanese tissue paper and Nori Paste. Since a lot of the text was completely missing, a high-resolution archival scan was made of the newspaper page. After getting a copy of the newspaper from a library microfiche archive, the missing text was recreated to fill in the missing area. A lot of work and attention went into matching the appearance of the font, kerning and spacing of the original typeset.

After all the work was done, the original newspaper was placed into archival folio to protect it from exposure to dust, chemicals and exposure to UV light. The digitally restored copy was printed on archival paper, and the high-resolution digital images produced to be used as illustrations and cover image.

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