telematic newfoundland
The massive rock that is Newfoundland is perhaps best known to most Canadians as the place the fish used to be, but its soaring cliff faces and blackwater bays have also played a major role in the development of telecommunications and aeronautics.
Our first stop on the Eastern Winds tour was St John's, Newfoundland and Labrador.
Itis known as the oldest city founded by Europeans in North America, so old in fact that much of its history is steeped in legend and therefore up for debate. Luckily the people of these parts are always ready for a conversation. The story goes that the city earned its name when explorer Giovanni Caboto, betterknown to North Americans as, John Cabot, became the first European to sail into its harbour, on June 24, 1497 - the feast day of St. John the Baptist.
To celebrate the 400th anniversary of his landing, a tower was erected on the site in 1897. The Cabot Tower was built on the cliff's edge known as Signal Hill looking out to the sea. This highest vantage point began simply as the site from which those in the tower could send signals to those in the town to let them know who was approaching. The method of delivery was to use cannons as attention getting devices and then flags and semiphore to get the message across. The receivers in St. John's would respond in kind, flashing signs and cannon fire once all was understood.
Cabot Tower, on Signal Hill, above the Narrows.
On December 12th, 1901 Signal Hill entered infamy with the reception of the first transatlantic wireless signal. The morse code letter "s", signified by three dots, was sent from the Poldhu Wireless Station, in Cornwall, England and intercepted here by Guglielmo Marconi.
Marconi at his station
the antenna was flown from a kite ...
Marconi had proven what no one else thought was possible - that signals could travel wirelessly along the curvature of the earth. Until this time it was believed that radio waves, like the other parts of the electromagnetic spectrum that we perceive as light, travel only in a straight line. It was also not yet understood how far they could travel. By grounding his signal, he was able to amplify it enough to travel the 2100 miles from Poldhu to St. John's.
mileage sign atop Signal Hill
This remarkable achievement meant that communication with people not in a fixed location would be possible. Something inestimably valuable for a colony whose polpulation was regularly dispersed on the sea. Unfortunately Marconi's achievement could not set roots in Newfoundland. He could not even repeat his successful experiment there for the government officials so excited by what this could mean for their populace and the future of Newfoundland. For they had signed an agreement of monopoly for the Anglo-American Telegraph Company, guaranteeing it 50 years of sole provision of telecommunications on the island.
Thus the protection of capital thwarted legitimate progress towards what the real needs of a particular community might be. The trans-atlantic cable kept the colony hardwired to the motherland, but could not help at all the people right outside the bay. The necessity of this kind of comunication would be proven dramatically the night the Marconi station operators Robert Hunston and Walter Gray at the Marconi shore station in Cape Race, Newfoundland would receive the call from the SS Titanic. Without that last minute beacon, certainly all lives on the ill-fated voyage would have been lost.
Long before arriving in Newfoundland I had wanted to see where the trans-atlantic cable had come ashore. While it was no longer the means of communication appropriate to this communities needs, it was a remarkable achievement and to my mind deeply romantic. The cable stitched together the continents and brought us into greater relation, lessening the divide between what Europeans perceived as the old and new worlds. It was one giant step in the compression of physical space on this planet that would mark the 20th century.
"Indeed, virtually the first use of the first transatlantic telegraph cable laid in 1866 was to send star-transit timings between astronomers in Newfoundland and Great Britain, to nail down the exact longitude differences between points in Europe and North America."
so, a day trip was planned.
We would head across the Avalon peninsula, round Conception Bay, stop in Harbour Grace, and then, on to Heart's Content.
Ximena, Bérèngere and i headed downtown to pick up a rental car. On our way we stopped in at a very curious shop on Duckworth Street. Its windows were filled with arcane tools and a jumble of pictures maps and curios. We stepped inside and within a few seconds were met with...
"you girls aren't from around here now are you?"
Newfoundlanders can spot a come-from-away immediately, but thankfully are usually open to conversation. The store was a goldsmith shop and the tools were a combination of those needed for jewellry and watchmaking. Proprietor Christopher Kearney had originally followed his father's footsteps into the watchmaking trade before he developed a unique jewellry practice with a specialization in Labradorite.
Christopher Kearney. Photo: beewoo
Christopher Kearney would prove to be more than just a talented artist and a friendly presence. When we told him of our plans he told us he had a piece of the cable right there in the shop!
it seems his great great uncle had helped with the navigation that led the Great Eastern successfully ashore. In fact, he had been brought out to the Great Eastern so he would arrive ceremoniously in Heart's Content. Young Chris believes the cable is therefore part of his familial legacy and came to own a piece of it.
photo: beewoo
yup that's all it is once you get under the steel cording and horse hair,
there is a lead shield and the copper within...
it is always surprising to realize how normal or small something that has changed the world might be!
he helped us with directions and a bit more lore and off we headed...
getting directions with the cable as a pointer. Photo: beewoo
Heart's Content is just over 2 hours from St. John's so we thought we might stop a little bit along the way. The originally intended stop was Brigus,
Brigus
a fishing village on Conception Bay that is seemingly unchanged for over one hundred years, but we missed the turn and decided to just carry on.
when we saw this though....
boat aground at Harbour Grace
we just had to stop.
Both Ximena and Bérengère are excellent photographers, and the opportunity of this boat aground at Harbour Grace seemed too great a subject to pass up.
Once out of the car we found out another reason to be there. Harbour Grace was where Amelia Earheart had begun her trans-atlantic flight. You see the eastern Edges of Newfoundland are a full 1000 miles closer to England than was New York, the undisputed capitol of the new world.
marker for the Amelia Earheart sculpture
DC3 "Spirit of Harbour Grace with Boat(not Amelia's plane)
amelia with the sun behind her
Just half hour further along the highway we would arrive at Heart's Content.
It is a small, well kept town much like all that we had driven through that day.
thankfully we knew to look for the cable station.
Heart's Content Cable Station from the Road.
across the highway sits the first stone marker.
national historic site designation
from the beach to the station with b in the picture >
cables on the beach all the way from ireland
cables close up
The Cable Station house has been closed for service since 1960 but remains open to the public now as a museum. Unfortunately the hours are seasonal and there are discrepancies as to what they are on the various websites we visited. We suggest you call first to get the complete experience. the museum holds not only the original equipment but both filmic and photographic documents that would be very worth the visit.
i will have to return myself for these, but believe me, nothing felt "missing" that day!
more images from inside can be found here
rockhead of the harbour, ximena above, b below
sundown on a perfect day
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