Of the roughly 1,000 members of the Third Jamaica Contingent aboard the SS Verdala, which was diverted to Halifax in the winter of 1916 on its way to England, 600 suffered acutely from frostbite and 40 developed gangrene. Hyacinth Simpson, an associate professor of English at Toronto Metropolitan University, has studied the tragedy and recently gave a lecture about it at the Jamaican military museum.