Sunday, August 28 – Heart’s Content and Harbour Grace, NL

On another beautiful day here, we departed for our drive on Highway 80.  Note the photo of the “Salvation Army Cemetery”.  We didn’t know they were in this line of work, but have spotted at least a dozen cemeteries with a similar sign. 

 Proceeding along Trinity Bay, we bypassed Dildo, Heart’s Delight, Heart’s Desire, and arrived at Heart’s Content! This pretty town was the western terminus of the Transatlantic cable in 1866, and its very complete museum has the story of this world changing event in the former Cable office located there.

Original Cable

On the bay where the SS Great Eastern (largest ship in the world at the time) unloaded the final lengths of the cable, you can still see some of the original rusted cable on the beach. 

Painting of the Great Eastern

    

Jim with Isambard Kingdom Brunel

Great docents inside, beautiful paintings, a model of the ship, and the complete cable office as it was used made for an educational and enjoyable visit.  There is also a 20” movie that explains the full story of how it transformed world communications, and how it affected the citizens of Heart’s Content.  It was particularly interesting to hear the tales of Isambard Kingdom Brunel, the designer of this ship and also the Titanic!  All in all, a very good stop!

Employee explains equipment to Becky

Proceeding across the peninsula to Harbour Grace, we visited the oldest continually operational airport in Canada, opened in 1927. The road to Harbour Grace Airfield is poorly marked and a challenging drive on a gravel road, with the final leg up Amelia Earhart drive to a sloping grass field with 2 small hangers and one lonely airplane.

Harbour Grace Airfield

  A lot of history was made here, including non-stop flights by the “Winnie Mae”, the “Southern Cross”, and the “Pride of Detroit” on their historic flights (first two around the world, and the latter’s 1927 first crossing of the Atlantic from North America to England).  In 1932 Amelia Earhart departed as a passenger from here on the first Atlantic Crossing by a woman.  The runway slopes fairly steeply, and its better to takeoff downhill to the west than uphill to the east and over a granite rock!

Runway looking uphill to the east and the granite rock

  In July 1987, the “99’s” of Canada placed a memorial rock symbolizing the fellowship of those who fly. The “99’s” is an organization of pioneering women pilots founded in 1929, many of whom delivered bombers across the Atlantic in WWII, and is headquartered in Oklahoma City.  There is also a museum in Amelia Earhart’s home (now a museum) in Atchison, KS celebrating their accomplishments.

 From the airfield we drove into Harbour Grace, and had an enjoyable visit at the Museum there guided by docent (and author!) Patrick Collins.  Patrick was quite the talker, and a very interesting guide.  In addition to being a docent, he is the author of several books (that just happened to be for sale there!) and Becky bought one - "The Spirit of the S.S. Kyle".  

Harbour Grace has had quite a history, and the story of the pirate Peter Easton from 1610 set the stage for the town's historic significance.  Easton essentially took over the harbour, and position guns on the small island at the entrance to ward off or sink ships at his discretion.  He had a fairly large fleet of his own.

Entrance to Harbour Grace Harbor

Becky in the aviation room

The exhibits include a room dedicated to the Airfield and its history, another celebrating the local Veterans from Harbour Grace, and a model of the flagship of the pirate Peter Easton. In 1610 Easton made the town his headquarters for his eminently successful fleet of 10 ships!









 Last stop of the day was the Harbour Grace tourist office, located alongside a pretty park on the water where the grounded hulk of the SS Kyle, a locally famous passenger ferry and cargo ship rests.  

The S.S. Kyle

There is also a DC-3, the “Spirit of Harbour Grace” that was donated by native Roger Pike, who had been President of Labrador Airways.   The plane came from the airline. Finally, there is a nice statue of Amelia Earhart there-we’re sure it’s larger than lifesize.

Becky and Amelia