Day 17 - Halifax, NS Part 3

Our last stop was the Halifax Maritime Museum. One of the interesting things it has is a large collection of realia relating to the Titanic as this is the closest port to the sunken ship. Most of the victims were sent here after the ship sank. This is a model of the Titanic.

Here is an actual menu for third class (poorest) passengers. The menu for second and third class passengers were much, much better.

This was part of the woodwork inside the Titanic that was picked up after the ship sank. Rescuers collected anything that floated to the surface - not just bodies but any pieces of the ship that they could find.

These shoes belonged to a child that they never could identify until this year when DNA allowed them to figure out who he was. He wasn't claimed as all his family died in the sinking of the Titanic.

Some people took the pieces of wood that they collected in the ocean and turned them into all kinds of items - here a rolling pin and a plate among other things.

How dangerous are these waters? Each red dot on this map represents a sunken ship or boat. These are unforgiving waters. Overall this was a very interesting day.

Day 17 - Halifax, NS Part 2

If we wanted to reduce our trip to three words it could be "trees, lighthouses, and forts." Those were the three constants of the trip. Our next stop was the Citadel atop a hill in the middle of Halifax. Of course this picture isn't it - this is one of the two companion forts built to defend the whole harbor. Another fort was across the bay.

Though it was initially built in the 1700's it was never captured by enemy armies. If you build a fort correctly, in a perfectly defensible position, it should be successful and this one was. This was the inner wall of the fort - using natural defense (earth) the walls were up to 25 feet thick. The big cannon ringed the fort and living quarters were under the guns built into the wall.This was our guide dressed in enlisted soldier clothes. He is actually a volunteer for the local preservation society.

This volunteer is dressed as a British officer as they would have been dressed during the Revolutionary War.

The inner walls were surrounded by another, even bigger, outer wall. With the dual walls, and being in a star shape, any attackers would have a terrible time actually defeating this fort. Any attackers who could get down in between the walls would face rifle fire and cannon shots from three directions. The narrow slits are rifle locations and the rectangles are where cannons would be placed.

How do you get messages out? Indians use signal fires, but the British used flags. The shorter pole was for messages to the other forts and the taller one was for hanging of the flags of the ships coming in or those in port. It would fly company flags of commercial ships. The flags of navies could also be flown here so everyone would know who was in port.

Oops - here is a mess up. This artwork is called "Fishermen's Monument" by William DeGarthe out at Peggy's Cove. Somehow I forgot to put this in the last post. It took this man years to carve the granite memorial.

Day 17 - Halifax, Nova Scotia Part 1

OK - this really fits in with the day before, but we will put it here. After dinner (the night before) Barbara had an extreme attack of esophageal spasms, and we ended up in the ship's infirmary. To get an idea of the pain, she said she wanted to rip off her clothes and jump overboard! It was bad!!! After a careful evaluation of her, and an EKG, she was allowed back to our stateroom. I don't know if the smile is because she feels better or she was happy the bill was as small as it was.

Halifax is a bustling modern city in Nova Scotia (New Scotland for all the people who escaped Scotland and moved here.). We had another beautiful day. We were extremely lucky that the weather was on our side almost every day.

No tours in Halifax for us. On our trip to Alaska, we met a mother and daughter (Pauline White and Cindy Patriquin) and have kept up our friendship. They were gracious in offering to chauffeur us around for the day. It was a delightful day. They also were willing to take us into Dartmouth to see some old friends from Fresno (Elder Michael and Sister Lois Tanner) who are missionaries for the Church and run the office for the Halifax Canada Mission of the Church. This mission covers Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Newfoundland, Prince Edward Island, Labrador and a little of Maine. This is an immense area in size - about as big as the United States. It was fun to see them, since they left Fresno several years ago for Utah, and are now here in Nova Scotia.

Our first tourist stop was Peggy's Cove - the place all tourists have on their list when traveling to Halifax. It is about a 45 minute drive from town, and, of course, has the classic lighthouse. This one is exceptionally photogenic. being out on a rocky point. When storms come through, the breaking waves can literally break up on land up to the lighthouse. I loved this on a sign on the lighthouse:

Warning

Injury and death have rewarded careless sight-seers here.

The ocean and rocks are treacherous, so savor the sea from a distance

We were greeted by the sounds of music coming from a bagpiper. We found her down by the lighthouse. She is a struggling college student, playing music for donations. This was so appropriate out here at Peggy's Cove.

Cindy, Pauline, Barb and I next to the lighthouse. This is from the ocean side of the lighthouse.

Peggy's Cove hugs the coastline in a tundra environment. Because this area is washed over by waves on a regular basis, there are few plants here, though a couple of miles away it is forest land. The salt in the sea must kill off most of the natural vegetation.

Here is another shot of this picturesque little village. The nice thing of being on our own was that we could wait for all the tourist boats to leave and have the village almost to ourselves. We ate lunch here without a ton of people all over the place.