February 18, 1942 was commissioned by the School of Music at Memorial University on behalf of the community of St. Lawrence, Newfoundland. It was written to be performed by the high school students of St. Lawrence and surrounding communities at an event commemorating the 70th anniversary of the sinking of naval vessels U.S.S Truxton and U.S.S. Pollux. During World War II, the two vessels ran aground and wrecked ashore near St. Lawrence, and two hundred and three souls were lost on the night of February 18, 1942. Despite the tragedy of the events, a touching story emerged: one of the survivors, an African American man named Lanier Philips, was forever touched by the kindness and care he experienced from the people of St. Lawrence. On before being rescued that night, Philips said “I had never heard a kind word from a white man in my life.” His lasting friendship with the town of St. Lawrence, and Newfoundland, is a now familiar story in the province. February 18, 1942 attempts to recreate the atmosphere of that night with the ominous beating of the drum, the piano acting as foghorn, and the whisper of the wind and waves. The text, from E.J. Pratt’s The Ground Swell, describes an ocean with a primal violence. Interspersed with this text is a fragment from the African American spiritual Let Us Cheer the Weary Traveller in a minor mode.