Nova Scotia - Halifax

Nova Scotia - part 6

(sightseeing)

July 20, 2018 - July 25, 2018

Finally getting into the large city of Halifax.  Our campground was in neighboring Dartmouth which gave us easy access to Halifax. Long story short, Doreen couldn't open the photos she took off her cell camera and put on her computer so we are using mine. And so, I have been nominated to write the story also, for the three places we visited in and near Halifax. Feedback welcome.

Canadian Museum of Immigration, Pier 21 was a museum-type that we really wanted to see since we all have ancestors that have come to North America. Some came for the opportunity to own land; some to have religious freedom or sometimes, because other members of their family or community came.  This Pier was the location for 1.5 million immigrants who passed through its doors from 1928-71. Immigrants still come into Canada of course, just not at this pier anymore. The building was made into an enormous and wonderful museum!

A happy story in the midst of so much sorrow during WWII, continued in the next few picture's below.

Some of the Baltic refugees on the ship, with happy faces knowing they would soon be in a Country free from war!

This and the next picture is for the verbiage only, to understand how they managed to have enough money to buy the ship and where the ship had to stop to refuel on the way to Canada.

The picture of the photo album (which was behind glass) didn't come out clearly so I haven't included it. The album showed only pictures of the Country they left and pictures of Halifax (the rest of the pictures were not available to us).

Description continued in picture below.

We frequently hear about 'refugees' and I thought this definition was very descriptive. Living in North America, we can not imagine in our wildest dreams, what it would be like having a war go on in our town, state or Country. Nor can we imagine living in a Refugee Camp with our family in a small tent; having to carry water from sometimes miles away or having very little in the way of food or medical supplies. These next pictures should help us understand what it must be like for these people (still today) to be displaced because of a war, live in a tent in a refugee camp and become 'stateless'.

Can you possibly imagine living in a place like this for even one night, let alone, a year or more? Where do they get their water from? Where do they go to the bathroom? How do they keep themselves clean? And how do they protect their children from being hurt, taken, or lost? It has to be a nightmare and yet, it must be better than living in a war zone! 

This is the explanation of where the previous picture was taken and when.

When I came upon this picture, I almost 'lost it'! There could easily be some of this child's relatives among these remains, and imagine the nightmares these people must have had, living through this atrocity!

This tent (provided by UNHCR) looked pretty big from the outside, but looking inside and thinking about numerous people sleeping, cooking and eating in it, just wouldn't be anyone's idea of fun! But if it's all you have and if there is no war going on where you are staying, it's still a better life than what you would have had living in your war-torn Country! The refugee section of this museum was very touching and filled with emotional pictures that will stay with me for a very long time.

This sounds absolutely horrible and I can't imagine living in a Country where the people go through these problems. What can we do? How can we as American's possibly help anyone going through these issues? The only thing I know that we can do is to donate to a charity that helps people in this type of situation. [Just make sure that the charity's money goes to the people in need and not to the CEO's of the Company who claim to help!]

The UNHCR is the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees who "work to protect and assist refugees everywhere...we provide critical emergency assistance in the form of clean water, sanitation and healthcare, as well as shelter, blankets, household goods and sometimes food..." Taken from www.unhcr.org.

Maritime Museum of the Atlantic
This Museum was another type we hadn't seen before, at least not this extensive and informative. It included the Titanic disaster of 1912 also.

This is the ad for the fares and time of when the Titanic was to return from New York to Southampton. The picture below is what the verbiage had to say about the ad. I didn't see an ad for the boat leaving Southampton to New York, only the explanation and tonnage above this picture. It was thought to be a ship that couldn't or wouldn't sink!

This is the adult that took the information from the 'wireless' station (telegraph). Much later, we met people who had been to the Titanic museum in Newfoundland and it said that the first person to hear the signal from the ship over a 'radio' was a 14 year old boy. We weren't there to read it ourselves so I can't confirm or dispute that.

This is an artists rendition of the water gushing in down the beautiful staircase. If you've seen the movie Titanic, you can get an idea how horrendous it must have been. There are many sad stories about third class people not being allowed up to the boats, about men pushing women or children aside to get on the boat. I didn't read any of that here in this museum so I can't confirm that, but anything could be possible when there are too few lifeboat's to go around and someone is desperate to live!

Some of the recovered bodies (most were never found) in wooden caskets (in photo above this one). And an explanation in this picture of wooden markers shown in this picture. 

The workers who had collected the bodies from the ocean and beaches had a heart wrenching task. With tears in my eyes, I read that one man gently carried a little boys body to the grave site, cradled in his arms. Many rescuers were also touched by these babies' shoes which were found on the beach. Who did they belong to? Did the child survive? No one knew. 

This is the little boy who lost his life and his shoes! He was only 19 months old.

Also in the Maritime Museum was the story of a 1917 tragedy in Halifax. A ship called the Monte Blanc coming towards the city caught fire and drifted towards the shore and docks. As it floated to the docks, it suddenly blew up due to its explosive cargo, destroying many homes, railroad tracks and lives around it!

The piece of steel shown above is a part blown to bits from the ship that exploded. If I remember right, it was about 4 feet long and maybe 1/2" thick metal. Imagine that hurtling through the air towards you!

The pile of rubble you see had been docks, dock buildings, railroad tracks and train station, houses and bodies. In the small clear plastic case are pieces of melted metal, the fire was that hot!

This guy is a true hero! Giving his life to save others, he ran back into the building (before it exploded) to send a telegram to stop the trains which were soon to arrive. One did arrive within a short while and since a nurse happened to be on board, she was able to perform life-saving help to some of the injured people nearby.

Peggy's Cove - A real Nova Scotia "treasure" of a fishing village, we really loved this little town. The fog had begun to descend as we drove nearer to it and yet while we were there, it was fairly bright and sunny at times. The wood contraption in the foreground of the picture below is an old-fashioned (but preferred) Lobster trap. One sees them piled high all over NS when traveling near the ocean.

Despite the fog, there were dozens of people climbing around on the granite rocks by the lighthouse and down to the water. Even  Barney and I had to get close but we 'minded the signs' that said "Danger, do not walk on black rocks! The water can take you away!" or some such warning. And yet, there were people walking on the black rocks, duh! The lighthouse was closed while we were there.

A few flowers growing between and amongst the lovely granite with the 'dangerous black rocks' in the background. It looks very calm here but at times there were some pretty large waves crashing on the rocks. In places, the black rocks  were higher off the water so since it was so calm, maybe people thought they would be safe enough.

All ready! Let's go fishin'.

On the other side of this building was a little food truck and the people under the umbrella were having a grand time eating lunch! We had brought our lunch and sat on one of the largest stones looking down on a store and the water.

"Fishermen's Monument" at Peggy's Cove by William Edward deGarthe, carved on-site from granite. Started in the late 1970's, it was a 10 year project to sculpt a "lasting monument to Nova Scotia fishermen". It is 100 ft. long, and a natural outcropping behind his home (on the left and not shown). In 1976, he invited one of his students, J. Rene Barrette to help him and they worked together on it for 5 years. The project was about 80% complete when the artist died in 1983. Not an exact quote from Wiki. For more information, go to Wikipedia under William E. deGarthe.

One last look (from the dock below our perch where we ate our lunch) before we left to go back to the campground, good-bye Peggy's Cove!