Learned a few things about Halifax during a ride around the city and the port in an amphibious LARK (the amphibious landing ships we built for the Viet Nam war to ferry cargo ashore -- at least something good came out of it) called the Harbor Hopper:
- Halifax is the 2nd deepest port in North America
- Halifax was the center of the the search and resue effort when the Titaanic sank. Over 200 victims are buried here and the whole town turned out for the funerals
- The British used Halifax as a base of operations for the War of 1812 and brought many captured ships, including one called the The Chesapeake to Halifax.
- Downtown Halifax was obliterated in 1917 in the worst man-made explosion in the world (before Hiroshima) when a French ship carrying explosives for the war collided with another ship in the fog. When the French ship caught fire, lots of people came out to watch it burn. It did more than burn! It exploded with a fury that was heard 200 miles away. Over 4000 people died, and countless were injured. All the buildings in the city were flattened!
The Maritime Museum was worth a lot more time than we could give it. Great displays on Tugboats, the Titanic, and the explosion of 1917.
In the evening, we drove south to Lunenberg, the center of the Fishing Schooner operations in the late 1800s and the Balsam Fir Christmas Tree Capital of the world. Bluenose 2 was built here, a World Heritage Site. A must see, if you ever get up this way.
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