Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Halifax is more of an industrial town than most of our previous stops and was described by the cruise director as having three distinct areas, residential, urban and gritty. The advice being to stay in the residential area!

We were one of four cruise ships in town today and Princess seemed to have drawn the short straw as we were moored in the industrial dock area. This necessitated catching a shuttle bus to the cruise terminal and with their usual efficiency the ship operated a ticket system. This meant that the gangways were really busy when we first arrived and so we decided to stay on the ship until our trip in the afternoon.

We boarded our coach at 2.00 and after passing through the busy city streets we were soon into very pleasant countryside where the trees had began to get their autumnal colours. As we approached our first stop, Peggy’s Cove, the trees gradually disappeared to be replaced by a rocky landscape. This is the location of probably one of the most photographed lighthouse in the whole Canada and the place was packed with visitors, who like ourselves were trying to get that perfect shot.

Luckily there were plenty of people willing to take a photo of the two of us together.

The small settlement of Peggy’s Cove was once a busy fishing village with its own school and pub, although still supporting a number of fishing boats, tourism is now the key industry. The village however still retains its picturesque charm.

This part of Nova Scotia is famous for being the last resting place of many of the victims of the Titanic tragedy as it was from here that the rescue ships were launched. Our guide, Donald, told us tales of some of these victims as we made our way to the graveyard.

The first was that of a young child who was found by a local boat but had no means of identification. All the graves were marked by a simple headstone provided by the White Star line except one, that of one of the directors, which was more elaborate. The locals felt that this young boy was as important as any director and fund raised to provide a stone that was identical in design.

Later when DNA testing became available the body was identified as being that of Sidney Goodwin, a one year old who was travelling with his father. They had hoped that it might have been one of the children of Alma Paulson, whose husband had emigrated to the USA in 1910 from Scandinavia. Having worked hard he saved enough money to pay for his wife and four children to come over and join him. They were on the ship and although the grave indicates that the whole family were buried here only Alma’s body was found. Nils visited the White Star office on a daily basis awaiting news of his family and fainted with shock when his wife’s body was identified.

After visiting several Titanic museums on our travels this was a taste of reality as these were real people in real graves. A very somber end to a very enjoyable trip.

We now have six days at sea before returning to Southampton so there will be no daily posts but I will post a roundup of the cruise in a couple of days time.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.