Halifax, Nova Scotia -Day 1

 July 18, 2024

We woke in the morning to dense fog and could barely see Lyla and Rory’s cruise ship pull in.

But the fog began to lift and Rory came out to wave

And took a photo from his perspective

Immmigrants came through Pier 21, which is now also home to the immigration museum and there were many sculptures related to immigration on the walkways

This was slipped into the shoe

Cute playground on the pier

Charming musical options on the pier

Somehow we neglected to get a photo of all of us, but this is Lyla and I entering the Maritime Museum

We were mostly interested in two exhibits - both involving tragedies and major loss of life. The first was the 1917 explosion in Halifax Harbor. The Harbor was a major port in WWI and on Dec 6, 2017 a steamship, the Mont-Blanc, was heavily laden with explosives and flammable material to resupply Europe. The IMO was headed to NY to load food and clothing for occupied Belgium. Through. Series of errors they collided in the narrow harbor inlet, causing a spark that ignited a fire onboard. The city residents, unaware of the contents, came out to see the fire. When the explosives detonated it was the largest explosion of its time with at least 1782 people killed, over 9000 injured, every building within a half mile obliterated, debris scattered for miles, and a resultant tsunami that wiped out the indigenous community.

Deniedprivileges at the Halifax hospital, Dr. Ligoure worked nonstop for 3 days and nights in his clinic with only his boarder and housekeeper to help treat over 200, mostly white, victims. He eventually was granted several nurses to help.

Over 5900 eye injuries were reported, with 41 losing their sight permanently

Hinge for the Mont-Blanc

Platingfragment from the Mont-Blanc found embedded in a house 4 km away

A pleasant surprise was this exhibit in another area of the museum - this is the family we saw at the canoe building demonstration in Kejimkujik National Park

Todd Labrador built the birch bark one, his mentor and great grandfather Joe Jeremy built the cloth covered one

Then there was the Titanic disaster exhibit. The Survivors were brought to New York but all of the bodies found were brought to Halifax. 

We left the museum and Lyla returned to the ship to rest and I went to the van, giving Rory and Matthew time to catch up before Rory had to board for their voyage to the US

Ended our day with a pizza and beer on the pier.