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Halifax Harbour
An infinity of blueThe first lecture this morning was given by our now friend, Peter Sabor, on Jane Austen's reputation in the US during the fifty years after her death. I was surprised to learn that her novels were popular and appeared in several editions. The second lecture was about Fanny Palmer Austen, who married Jane’s brother Charles, in Bermuda, and who lived in Halifax during the years he was stationed here. She wrote often to her own sister and was also accepted by Jane as a sister, which meant that her portrayal of Halifax was known to all the family.
My objective for our free time was to check-out the salt cod supply at Superstore. Yesterday on the way out of town, I saw a Superstore, not particularly far from our hotel. When Ann and I were in Nova Scotia a few years ago, I was able to buy it at a very reasonable price because in the Maritimes it is not a specialty food. In our room we tried to find the right street on our two tourist maps and had a lot of difficulty until I did a Google map search, which told us about an even closer one down
McNabs Island lighthouse
Popular park in the middle of the harbour on the waterfront.
Filled with mission, we set off along the
Victoria Park and into the residential district with Victorian houses. In front of one house sat a girl with a lemonade stand; of course, we had to buy some, and it tasted good – not too sweet. At the bottom of the hill, we discovered a large Sobeys and went in out of curiosity. Their “cod bits” (broken pieces) were on sale for $5.99 for a one pound bag. I bought two. We walked the few more blocks to the Superstore – quite large, but more oriented towards groceries than those in Calgary. Their bags of “cod bits” looked of slightly better quality, so I bought two more for $6.99. Dollar cost averaging. We also bought donairs for lunch, complemented by soft dried apricots and donuts.
Nearby, two cruise ships were docked by
Pier 21, the Immigration Museum. This was the start of the boardwalk along the harbour. Within a few steps we found a free bench and munched on our donairs and dessert, while boats motored up and down, and one of the navy frigates sailed out. We were directly opposite the deeply green park on
McNabs Island, which
Shipyard bell 1759
The common alarm clock we had seen dimly at dusk on our harbour cruise.
Rousing ourselves, we walked amongst other cheerful tourists and near-by pop-up booths. Our next destination was the rum cake store, where Deirdre thought she might buy cake as a gift. The aroma as we walked through the door made me imagine Christmas cake. My disappointment on tasting a sample of a heavy white cake soaked in whiskey (or rum) overcame any temptation to buy.
By now it was obvious that we wouldn’t be going back to the hotel before the afternoon’s excursion at the
Maritime Museum, only a few blocks from where we were. Arriving in good time for the tour with a few others, we were entertained by the traffic jams caused by buses, taxis, cars and trucks trying to squeeze past the adjacent construction site. Our bus became entangled in the worst jam of all as another big bus idled in front of a van that became blocked by a taxi that had slipped in to the bus zone before anything could move. Of course, the disembarking passenger moved at an impossibly slow pace and seemed to be consulting another passenger still inside the vehicle. Meanwhile, two
William Hall, sailor hero in Lucknow
First Victoria Cross for a Canadian 1857 women quickly loaded goods onto the van. When the taxi left, the van slowly moved forward while the women were still stowing their packages through an open door.
At last our tour started, generously focused on Jane Austen’s brothers and the early years of the Halifax port. The Museum displayed the original harbour bell from 1750. In the age of sail, Halifax was an important port for maintaining and refitting ships. Small sailing ships formed the work-a-day transport of the time, until in the early twentieth century when the last of them were grounded to disintegrate.
A new story for me came from the display of Canada’s first Victoria Cross, and one of the earliest ones awarded.
William Hall was a Black sailor who survived the
siege of Lucknow in India and was heralded for successfully manning his gun post after all other members of his squad were killed.
A tall
Fresnel lens made in France shone in the afternoon sun so marvellously as to merit recognition as a sculpture. Beside it was Merlin Macaw, a brilliantly red and yellow and blue Rainbow Macaw (parrot). Such colouring is not from nature but from designed breeding in captivity. He is so popular
Merlin Macaw - web star!
Maritime pet in the Museum that a
web cam keeps the world up to date with his every move. He receives toys from charmed visitors, and he destroys every one in grooming his beak.
On our own, we viewed the centenary exhibition on the Halifax explosion. I had to be reminded that it was not the collision of a munitions ship and a steamship that caused the explosion but the sparks that came from the perhaps too hasty effort to pull them apart. That’s why so many people were looking out at the tangle when the explosion blew a big part of Halifax to smithereens. The tragic number of people blinded led to the formation of the Canadian National Institute for the Blind. The displayed chunks of twisted metal that came from the ships brought to life the force of the explosion. The stories of individuals injured and those who rushed to help from other parts of the city made us feel the emotional desperation of those still alive. The artifacts found near bodies or when buildings were sifted have been preserved in cotton bags, each numbered to record its location and the closest body, in order to return them to relatives if ever claimed.
Fresnel lens
Engineering and art provide high function This attention to detail by the rescuers and others created a special dignity for all. Only recently has the heroic role of the Mi’kmaq First Nation been recognized, both in the loss of their village and for their help as an immediate reaction; their land was confiscated at the time, piling on more misery. Even more recent has been the acknowledgement of the destruction of Africville, the refusal of services for them, and their land confiscation. The most moving part of the exhibit was an imaginative quilt based on the story of one girl who was hurled 500 feet, showing her “flying”, accompanied by smaller quilts each containing names of those blinded, in Braille and in print, and arranged to resemble the windows that changed their lives.
The final exhibit we saw, although there were many more, was about the
Titanic. The stories of individuals and artifacts retrieved from the ocean represented the tragedy of all those who were killed. A diagram of the ship’s layout helped explain why many died below deck. The fairly recent theory by Canadian scientists was mentioned: the steel contained high levels of sulphur, which made it brittle. Halifax was the closest port, thus
it was the location to which the many bodies were conveyed, and there is a special plot in a local cemetery for those who were not claimed, or even identified. Their possessions are also bagged and numbered for relatives to claim. It was poignant that archivists maintain this process even until this day, no matter how unlikely a claim must be.
Our farewell dinner was at the
Citadel, a wonderful place to finish our visit to Halifax. We were piped into the fort and up into a private room, heroically decorated with paintings of the battle of Waterloo. We had our choice of drinks to relax us, as if we needed that. A locally inspired dinner was served with military deference:
Digby scallops in corn chowder soup; tender filet mignon with PEI potatoes, green beans and mushrooms; and for me a special dairy-free decadent chocolate cake, instead of blueberry crumble with cream;
Tidal Bay wine flowed freely. Patrick Stokes gave a speech reminding us of all we had done; two others gave speeches thanking Patrick; and, Peter and Marie sang a ditty in the theme of Molly Malone (Cockles and Mussels) urging Patrick to plan a Bahamas trip. Finally, the Halifax Jane
Citadel piper
Formal welcome to dinner Austen society conducted a draw for gifts. Great fun and good conversation all evening!
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D MJ Binkley
Dave and Merry Jo Binkley
Beautiful Harbour
Oh Canada