Every list of places to see in St. John's includes Signal Hill, and it appeared prominently in many, if not most, of the episodes of the TV show that drew us to the city.The entrance to the bay is flanked by two promontories. Signal Hill overlooks the north side of the opening. Built atop the hill is Cabot Tower, constructed to commemorate the 400th anniversary of John Cabot's discovery of the area and to mark the 60th year of Queen Victoria, who looks decidedly unlike Jenna Coleman.
The hill also formed a strategic part of St. John's defenses from the 17th century through World War. According to the official website, the final battle in North America of the Seven Years' War was fought here in 1762.
You can easily see the strategic importance of the area as you wander about the site. The entrance to the harbor is relatively narrow, and having gun emplacements overlook the harbor meant no ship attempting to enter the harbor could escape the reach of the long guns installed near the cliff edges. Look across the entrance to the other promontory, and you will see Fort Amherst, which I regret to say we did not visit.
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One of multiple guns overlooking the harbor entrance. These guns fired
24 pound shot -- about the size of a cantaloupe.
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Queen's Battery, built in 1796 and decommissioned in 1890. Most of this
is replica. The gun above is part of the array to the left.
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Fort Amherst provided the harbor with another defense, first militarily, and later through the building of a lighthouse on the grounds. The lighthouse became the primary purpose for the fort and was staffed until 1982. The City of St. John's took over the property a little more than a decade later.
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| Fort Amherst |
Cabot Tower served as a communications center for most of its active life before becoming a historical site. Ships arriving in the area would use signal flags to announce their presence, either directly or by signaling nearby Cape Spear, which would relay the information to Cabot Tower and from thence to St. John's.
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Cabot Tower. The first floor is now a gift ship, and the second floor contains
interpretive exhibits. The second floor originally housed the wireless equipment and operators. The top section provides access to the signal flags and
the lookout.
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When wireless communication began, Cabot Tower became the hub for messaging between ships at sea and the city. Marconi received the first transatlantic wireless transmission at the tower in 1901, the letter "s," thus providing some of the earliest evidence that wireless signals could be bounced of the ionosphere and travel long distances.
Radio operators at the tower received transmissions in a variety of codes -- none of which I'd ever heard of before -- and converted the messages to Morse Code for sending into the town.
St. John's is the closest city to the spot where the Titanic sank, and signals from the doomed ship were received in Newfoundland some 85 miles south, so the area has a bit of a fascination with the Titanic story.
The forecast for the day we visited indicated that rain was possible late in the afternoon, so we went in the morning. Unfortunately Canadian forecasters have the same woes as their American counterparts. We had hiked a short distance down the hill to view a recreation of the hill's fortifications when a light mist started up. We made our way back to the top of the hill before the mist began to be driven by a freshening wind. Soon,the mist became a drizzle, all just before the firing of the noonday gun.
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The noonday gun. Several guns have been used over the years. This one, a
3 pound Hotchkiss, once was part of the HMS Calypso, part of the Newfoundland
Naval Reserve. During the season, visitors to the site can fire the gun, after paying
$49C. |
Ordinarily I would have taken photos or shot video of this ritual, but the weather was nasty enough that I did well just to stand behind the gun and listen to the re-enactor explain the purpose of the activity while sheltering my camera underneath my windbreaker. Oh, the purpose? The gun was fired in the beginning so ship's captains could set their chronometers, as keeping accurate time was necessary for determining longitude.
The gun was silenced three times in its history, the most famous interruption coming in 1906 because of complaints that the firing disrupted church services. That wouldn't have been a problem in any church I served because services had better have been over by that time. I mean really; members had restaurants to patronize and football games to watch.
Anyway, tradition won out over carping, but the incident sparked an idea for a clever song, the lyrics of which are remembered in a sign near the gun. You can read the lyrics here: Who Stopped the Gun? (If you know someone with an Irish accent or someone who can do a passable imitation, have him/her read the song to you. It sounds so much cooler.)
After the firing of the gun, we decide to head to the information center/cafe/gift shop to dry out and refuel for the next activity.
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One of a small group, about a half dozen or so, bald eagles that decided
to grace our visit. You can't see it's head in this shot, the best I took, but
it wouldn't matter. This is a young eagle, and the head feathers don't turn
white until maturity. Until then, they're brown like the rest of the bird.
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