The newspaper The Fisherman's Advocate called the men those "Eighty-Eight Unfortunates." They were loggers. Most of them came from Conception Bay, Trinity Bay and South West Coast ports. They had travelled long distances to work in the logging woods. But life in the camps was bad and the wages were poor. It was impossible to make any money. The men decided to quit.

But they had no money for train or boat fares to get back home. The group of 70 men felt they had no choice. They took the train anyway. They boarded the Express at Grand Falls, Bishop's Falls or Badger. But when they reached Clarenville twenty policemen sent from St. John's were there to meet them. The loggers were quickly arrested.

Eighteen men from a camp near Paquet also decided to quit. Here is how one of the loggers described what happened:

We had very little food. We started to walk to Paquet. In a straight line that would be about six miles. The route we had to take over rough country and through the woods gave us about ten miles walk. When we reached Paquet we were exhausted. Some of the weaker hands would not be able to go much further. We had all our grub pretty well used when we got there. The Prospero was due and soon after we saw her approach. When she docked we went to get aboard and the Captain said we were not to come aboard unless we had money to pay our passage. We told him we had none, and had no food. He replied that we were not to come aboard unless we were prepared to pay. One of our gang said: "What must we do, stay here and perish?" He replied: "Yes, stay and perish." We discussed the matter. We had no one to apply to. No one at Paquet would interest themselves in us. We were without shelter or food. We had no money. We had no one at home or in St. John's to telegraph to even if we could do so, which we could not, unless we could prepay the tolls. We were faced with starvation if we remained, and with violating the law if we boarded the ship. We decided to board her and take the consequences.²

The consequence was a thirty day prison sentence. After they served twelve days of the thirty, the governor of Newfoundland pardoned the men. Once the men were released from prison, the government was forced to send them home—free of charge!