AirstreamTour: Halifax and the Bay of Fundy

Halifax is quite a nice city. It is relatively small, with a population around 300,000, and young, 51% of the residents are under 40 with almost half of those under 20. The architecture is an interesting mixture of old and new. It has a very cosmopolitan feel, not surprising as it has the second largest harbor in the world (number 1 being Sydney, Australia) with worldwide shipping occurring daily, and over 130 Cruise Ships transiting every year.

The south end of the city is rich in houses from the 1800’s, with wide streets, lots of Victorian style “painted ladies”, and old trees. The northern end is much more modern in style, with a lot of cement-block houses and industrial areas. We both wondered why, and then we heard about the Halifax Explosion. Seems like this is a well known event in Canadian history, but neither of us had ever heard of it.

On Dec. 6, 1917 at 9:05 AM, Halifax experienced the largest man-made explosion in history (until atomic bomb testing) when two ships collided in the channel leading into the Halifax harbor. One, the Mont Blanc, was a French ship loaded with munitions destined for the war front in Europe. The other, the Imo, was a merchant ship. Fire broke out in barrels of benzol stored on the deck of the Mont Blanc, quickly spreading to the picric acid, gunpowder, and TNT stored below. According to records, the barrel of one of the Mont Blanc’s guns landed 3½ miles away, while part of her anchor shank, weighing 1,140 pounds, flew more than 2 miles. Windows were broken more than 50 miles away and the shock was felt in Sydney, Nova Scotia, around 270 miles northeast of Halifax. The north end of town was completely demolished. The blast killed more than 1,600 immediately and wounded more than 9,000 additional people. Ships in the harbor were tossed up on shore by a tidal wave that immediately followed the explosion. Fires then began on shore as coal-fired ovens and heaters were tossed around - all together, over 6,000 were left homeless.

The city rebuilt over the next few years, using “hydrostone”, a type of cement block molded under pressure, for much of the construction. This choice in building material was for its fireproof nature. A 10 square block of housing made of these blocks is known as the “Hydrostone District” for the building material. Though intended as temporary structures, the buildings still exist today, just as built in 1918.

The southern end of the city was spared much of the destruction. In the middle of the city is a high hill, site of the fortress Citadel, that protected that end of town from the blast. On this end of town are most of the Heritage Houses (read old town) of the city.

We spent quite a bit of time exploring the rebuilt waterfront boardwalk, checking out the shops and sights. There is a crystal shop with artisans making hand blown vases and other items, a pewter shop with demonstrations of pewter casting, several galleries selling art by students and alumni of the local College of Arts, and of course, the obligatory t-shirts and souvenir shops.

We also stopped in at two museums on the waterfront: the MaritimeMuseum of the Atlantic and the Canadian Museum of Immigration.

The Maritime Museum covers the maritime history of Atlantic Canada, with exhibits on shipwreck treasures, pirates, the Navy, the Titanic (150 of the bodies recovered are buried in Halifax), the Halifax Explosion, and boats from the eras of sail and steam. Included in your admission price is a tour of Canada’s longest serving hydrographic vessel, CSS Acadia. (A hydrographic vessel is one that is used to plot coastline depths.)

Sounding rope used to chart coastal waters from the CSS Acadia.

Sounding were taken and recorded every six feet around the coast of Canada in order to chart the coastal waters.

Plating model.
The construction of steel-hulled vessels involved the riveting and welding together of plates to form the hull. The exact shapes of all plates were obtained by projecting to full scale the lines taken from plating models such as this. Each plate was marked and numbered to correspond with its numbered position on the model.

The Immigration Museum, located at Pier 21, exhibits the history of immigrants that arrived through Halifax. Pier 21 is Canada’s equivalent to the U.S.’s Ellis Island. Approximately 1.5 million immigrants, mostly European, were processed through here between 1928 and 1971. If you are interested in genealogy, there is also a documents center where you can research your family roots.

We spent an afternoon exploring the Citadel in the middle of the city. The current version of the Citadel was completed in 1856 and has an excellent view of the harbor. It is representative of 19th century bastion fortification design with ramparts, ditches, and signal masts. Its main purpose was as a defensive fortress against American aggression which might occur. It was turned over to the Canadian military in 1906 and was used by them during World Wars I and II to house troops on their way overseas. The fortress was turned over to Parks Canada in the '50's. The 78th Highland Regiment is still associated with the Citadel and demonstrates what life was like in the fortification a century ago.

Moving the cannon after a demonstration.

Tour guide in 78th Regimental uniform of 1860.

Citadel walls

Interestingly, Canada and the Citadel are celebrating the bicentennial of the War of 1812. I remember studying this war years ago. As I recalled, it was fought over British privateers attacking US shipping and the impressment of US sailors into the British Navy. I also remember studying the burning of the White House, the saving of George Washington's portrait by Dolley Madison, and being from Louisiana, Andrew Jackson bringing troops to defend New Orleans at the Battle of Chalmette (anybody remember Johnny Horton singing The Battle of New Orleans?). I had always had the impression that we won that war. It was kind of interesting seeing the Canadian version of the war and then checking out what historians had to say about it.

In Canada the war is seen as an act of aggression by the US in an attempt to expel Britain from the North American continent and expand US territory northward, by invading and occupying Canadian territories. In fact, I found a quote from Thomas Jefferson that seemed to sum up the US thinking of the time:

"The acquisition of Canada this year, as far as the neighbourhood of Quebec, will be a mere matter of marching, and will give us experience for the attack of Halifax the next and the final expulsion of England from the American continent."

Wow, quite a bit different from the history I was taught years ago. According to historians, the U.S. is considered to have actually lost the war as there was no change in the status quo of relations with Britain and Canada by the terms of the Treaty of Ghent that ended the war.

Re-enactor in British infantry uniform of 1812.

The Old Town Clock.

Constructed as a garrison clock in 1803 on the orders of Prince Edward, the Duke of Kent, Commander-in-Chief of British forces in North America from 1799-1802, to help improve the tardiness of the soldiers. Still one of the most recognizable landmarks of historic Halifax.

Our last event in Halifax itself was attending a performance by Shakespeare by the Sea. This is a theater company that delivers nightly open-air performances of plays by Shakespeare and others in Pleasant Point Park. There are no formal ticket sales, but they do ask for donations. The audience can bring their own chairs, rent one for $2 or sit on blankets (our choice). This summer they were performing The Merry Wives of Windsor, Titus Andronicus, and Alice in Wonderland. We decided on Titus Andronicus. Neither one of was familiar with the play, but what the heck, it's Shakespeare, right?

Well, I read a tongue-in-cheek summary of the play and thought again, what the heck, it's Shakespeare, right? The plot summary is: Titus Andronicus returns to Rome after 20 years fighting the Gauls and gets caught up in Roman politics. Over the ensuing acts there are 14 murders, three hands cut off, one tongue cut out, an assortment of rapes, gougings, stabbings, slicings, bloodlettings, and cannibalism. Whew! Apparently this is thought to be Shakespeare's first tragedy and between the convoluted plot and a huge cast of characters, it is rarely performed. But the weather was perfect, the actors excellent, and a great time was had by all.

We took a day also to see some of the surrounding area. We started with the town of Lunenburg, a short drive down the coast. The town was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1995 due to its unique architecture and design. Originally founded in 1745, it has been cited as being the best example of planned British colonial settlement in North America. The town has a long history of building wooden ships, the most famous being the schooner Bluenose. The Bluenose was a fishing and racing schooner launched in 1921. The boat won the Fisherman's Race for 17 straight years. The Bluenose II is a replica of the original and is based in Lunenburg. This schooner is currently in dry dock having the keel rebuilt by local shipbuilders.

Bluenose II in dry dock

Lunenburg from across the harbor.

From Lunenburg we drove north along the coastline to Peggy's Cove, a fishing community of less than 50 residents that is one of the most visited sites in Canada. The community's lighthouse sits on top of huge granite outcroppings and marks the eastern entrance of St. Margarets Bay. The current building was erected in 1916 and is still operated by the Canadian Coast Guard. The town has existed since 1811, but at its peak had only 300 residents, mostly fishermen and their families. There is not much there, but the surroundings are stunning.

Peggy's Cove Lighthouse

Peggy's Cove

After four days in the Halifax area we hitched up the toad and headed off for Fundy Bay National Park in New Brunswick. This park is in southern New Brunswick and rises up from the bay to the Caledonia Highlands. It has been a national park of Canada since 1948. The oldest known red spruce in the world lives in the park - a 450 year old tree.

We spent most of our time here wandering around the bay, exploring the area during both high and low tides. At Alma, the town just outside the entrance to the park, the Salmon River empties into the Bay of Fundy. At low tide you can watch the water flowing out of the river. A few hours later you begin to see driftwood floating upstream as the tide comes back in. At low tide, fishing boats rest in wooden cradles on the muddy ocean floor. Once the tide begins to rise, fisherman have to rush back to their boats to be sure that the lines don't foul as the boats begin to rise with the tide. Tides levels range from 11 feet at the entrance to the bay to 53 feet at Minas Basin at the head of the bay.

Low tide

High tide

We headed over to the Hopewell Rocks to explore the ocean floor. The rocks are formations caused by tidal erosion. Due to the extreme tidal range, the base of the formations are covered in water twice a day. However, at low tide it is possible to walk out on the ocean floor. We made sure we got there both during low tide and high tide.

Low tide at the rocks. You can walk out on the ocean floor.

Or if you're as graceful as me, you can slide across the ocean floor.

Two hours after "high tide" (we overslept)

Top of the dark line was high tide.

We've crossed back into the United States now and have spent a couple of nights outside of Boston, getting caught up on chores. Tomorrow we head west and will be stopping off in Seneca Falls and Buffalo, New York.

Stay tuned:)

Our friends of the day are a bit more unusual: