We continued our break in Halifax, moving a mile up the harbor’s Northwest Arm from the Royal Nova Scotia Yacht Squadron to the Armdale Yacht Club that’s more conveniently located, better protected and a friendlier club. This is despite the dark past of the island on which it’s situated. Melville island first housed a British military prison used for French soldiers during the Napoleonic Wars, then American prisoners during the War of 1812. Many prisoners died of disease from overcrowded and unsanitary conditions. Later, the facilities were used as an immigration center for freed African American slaves (many of whom also died here), Irish immigrants, German / Austro-Hungarian prisoners and Canadian deserters during WWI, and finally as an arsenal during WWII. After WWII it was leased to the Armdale Yacht Club. What a contrast between an idyllic present-day yacht club and a grim past.
Halifax has an active maritime past and present. A few historical highlights include Halifax playing a critical role in the early transatlantic communications cables at the beginning of the 20th century, allowing telegraphs to transit between North America and Europe. The same cable laying ships were used to rescue in the fortunate cases, and collect the bodies in the less fortunate cases, when the Titanic sunk in 1912. Finally, Halifax suffered an historical explosion in 1917 when a French munitions ship, Mont Blanc, collided with another ship. 2,300 tons of picric acid, 500 tons of TNT and 10 tons of gun cotton caused the largest human explosion up until that time, killing nearly 2,000 people and razing much of the city.
Today, the city, the largest in the Canadian Maritime provinces, continues to be an important maritime center and one sail-crazy town. It’s home to over 400,000 people. It seems everybody you meet is into sailing. There are regattas every day. There’s even a street called Sailboat Lane. And Halifax is home to Binnacle, one of the most famous sailboat supply stores in the world. If you can’t find it here, you probably can’t find it anywhere!
Needless to say, the seafood here is exquisite with Atlantic seafood chowder, lobster, oysters, mussels and all kinds of delicious fish.
They say a picture is worth a thousand words so here are 22,000 words:
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