2019 MAY 25 —–
At the Maritime Museum I headed straight for the Titanic display, which is a separate blog. https://anoldladywithabackpack.travel.blog/2019/05/20/canada-nova-scotia-halifax-titanic/
The Halifax Explosion exhibit is also a separate blog. https://anoldladywithabackpack.travel.blog/2019/05/20/canada-nova-scotia-halifax-explosion/
The Maritime Museum foyer had a large map of the world that showed a real-time acts of piracy. There were 68, year to date, acts of piracy when I was there on 25 May 2019. This is modern machine gun toting pirates; not the Pirates of the Caribbean, patch over one eye, parrot on the shoulder pirate.
Halifax was called the Great Harbour by the Mi’kmaq even before the settlers arrived. It is deep (76 metres), wide (3.2 km) and long (35 km). It is sheltered and ice-free through the winter.
Canada was one of the greatest shipbuilding countries in the world in the 1800s. With so many sheltered bays, sloping beaches, and ample timber from nearby forests, it was the perfect place to build boats for fishing, local trade or trading worldwide. In the peak year of 1865, over 660 vessels were built in Canada and 350 of those were built in Nova Scotia.
It was destined to be a thriving business. There is a database that records shipwrecks between 1583 and 1999. There are 5000 recorded. But it is estimated that 25,000 ships went down off the Nova Scotia shore. Famous for its feral horses, Sable Island, alone, has witnessed over 350 shipwrecks. Sable Island is really a 44 km long sand bar and is hidden by waves, storms and fog.
Halifax provided ample opportunities for those willing to manipulate them. Everyone from the opportunist to fugitives to rebels all came to try their luck for a new and better life. The most successful were resourceful, ruthless and cunning. One fellow, Joshua Mauger, had already made a fortune in the slave trade. He built a fishing station, rum distillery, and warehouse in Halifax. He opened a store, which in hindsight seems like a front to launder money. He had trading posts in Mi’kmaq territory. He had a smuggling business with the French. He also had a contract to supply the Royal Navy. He retired in England a very rich man.
There
was a huge crystal lighthouse lens just inside the museum. It once
sat in the Sambro Island lighthouse. The first lighthouse at Sambro
Island was built in 1758. It was the very first act of business for
Nova Scotia’s first elected legislature. The lighthouse was paid for
by a special tax on imported liquor. It is the first and oldest
lighthouse in Canada and the oldest surviving lighthouse in both
North and South America. In 1906, this particular crystal glass prism
lens was built in Paris, France. It stood 2.8 metres high and was
1.76 metres wide & deep. The Sambro lighthouse had to be
heightened by 7 metres (22 feet) to install the lens. Illuminated
with petroleum vapour burner, this lens made the light visible for 17
nautical miles (31.5 km). It was replaced with an airport type
beacon 1967. The prisms were surprisingly thick, about one
centimetre. The 10 cm light in the centre magnified to half a meter
when viewed through the prisms.
Upstairs, just past the Titanic exhibit, were large models of ships. They were a couple metres long and built to scale. The shipping company used them as advertising to entice customers. Another entire section was on sailing ships, and another on war ships. There was a naval mine, that was much bigger than I imagined they would be.
A separate attached building, but also part of the museum was the Wm Robertson & Son store. It was a restored version of the original 1840 store that stood in the same location. It sold everything naval – ropes, rigging, repair parts and even clothes. If I understood more about sea life I would have found it fascinating, but my lack of knowledge was my detriment.
Theodore the Tugboat was not in harbour yet. Other ships advertised to be available for viewing were also not open for the season.
I ended my visit to the Halifax Harbour front by having lunch on the Boardwalk. Whereas a few days ago it was completely empty due to the bad weather, on this warm sunny day it was a beehive of activity. Alas, I had a plane to catch. I was off to London, UK to see my kids and grandkids.
The Halifax International Airport had a shop with live and cooked lobster.
An Old Lady with a Backpack 
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