Aug 6, 2024, Ellison, NL
Drove back through the Terra Nova NP and stopped at the Northwest River Ranger station to ask about this structure on the river. They are using it to count fish as part of their monitoring of the river and and fish population health.
Many smaller stations call themselves gas bars, which tickles me
Passed through Port Union, the only union built town in North America
Many Bruins fans here - and many people, upon hearing we are from Kansas City, mention the Chiefs and Patrick Mahomes (some also mentioning Taylor Swift, of course)
Again, don’t fix, just warn
Our destination was the Bonavista light house, but it was raining heavily and as we approached it the road became a dirt one, so we decided to skip it and instead decided to spend some time in the Home From The Sea sealing museum.
Sealing vessels were the only fishing ships to sail in the ice floes and losses were common. Even sealers lucky enough not to have their boat sink then had to face up to 12 hour days walking on the shifting ice, will little food, no shelter, and poor clothing for the harsh weather.
The most horrific accident was in 1914 when two different accidents caused the deaths of 251 men. The SS Newfoundland got stuck in ice and the Captain ordered his men off the ship with instructions to walk towards the SS Stephano, captained by his father, as they hunted. The men reached the Stephano after four hours of walking and were given tea and biscuits, then sent on their way, the father Captain thinking they were only 2 hours from their boat. The weather worsened and the 132 men walked through knee deep snow drifts and shifting ice flows until dark, when they tried to build shelters with the ice. Both Captains thought the men were on the other ship. Between March 30 and the morning of April 2nd when they were rescued 78 men froze to death or drowned, many of the survivors lost limbs to frostbite.
This wall sized painting is one of three telling the story of the artist’s grandfather, a survivor of the SS Newfounland disaster.
This is the Sealers Memorial, a memorial to the 1914 Sealing Disaster. The statue here depicts a particularly sad scene from the SS Newfoundland disaster. Sixteen year old Albert Crowe desperately wanted to go sealing. His mother did not want him to go but he signed up anyway. His father, Ruben, a survivor of another sealing disaster, no longer wanted to seal, but he went along to protect Albert. Both died on the ice, father trying to protect his son from the cold.
The weather cleared and we continued on through Elliston
Elliston touts itself as the Root Cellar capital of the world.
This town dwells in its losses
The puffin roosting area
Walking out to see the puffins
Zooming in
This little one was just below us
This was his high point of the trip
They got within 6 feet of Matthew as he sat on the rocks
Then we saw a humpback whale off in the distance slamming its fin repeatedly on the water surface
Finally drove on to Clarenville to spend the night in the Walmart lot.
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