June 1st - Halifax

On our last full day we had the worst weather of the whole trip. Torrential rain for most of the day. Undaunted we made the short trip by car to see two memorable places in Halifax. The first, the monument to victims of the dreadful Halifax explosion of December 1917. The monument is sited in Fort Needham Memorial Park which is directly above the Narrows and Pier 6 where the ship collided and then exploded.

I can't say it is the most beautiful monument I have seen, but its location within a few hundred yards of the Narrows makes for a very poignant memorial to over 2,000 dead.

There are ten renovated bells in the monument taken from a church that was destroyed in the explosion.

In the pouring rain we then drove a few kilometres to the Fairview Lawn Cemetery where over a hundred of the Titanic victims are buried. It was a very moving moment for us when we stood in front of the grave stones looking at the names of both passengers and crew who had died in the disaster.

Each stone has the name, where known and a number. The number indicates the order in which the bodies were recovered from the sea by the ships sent from Halifax after the sinking.

Some were particularly tragic like this one to Alma Paulson and her four children.

This one was erected by Bruce Ismay the chairman of the White Star Line, who survived the sinking, in memory of Earnest Edward Samuel a steward on the Titanic and apparently one of Ismay's favourites.The inscription Ismay put on the stone speaks volumes for a man who was accused of putting himself before his passengers and crew.

Another stone had this card placed on it only last October, 97 years after the disaster

It was a very moving moment for both of us to stand there in front of the graves of so many who had died on that cold April night in 1912.

We left Fairlawn Cemetery and drove a short distance to the hill that overlooks Halifax, The Citadel Hill (Fort George) where the British built their fort in the mid 18th century. With the rain teaming down we drove up and around the fort briefly looking at the clock that Queen Victoria's father, Prince Edward, donated to Halifax at the beginning of the 19th  century.

The entrance to the fort.

We left the Citadel Hill and headed down to Pier 21 which has been turned into a museum dedicated to the history of Halifax as the principal entry point into Canada of over one million immigrants between the 1920's and the early 1970's. One exhibit I found of particular interest was this postcard of the MS Maasdam. The card had been sent from the ship by one of the immigrants when they had arrived in Canada. My interest was because I sailed on the Maasdam from Southampton to New York in 1960 with my mother, sister and brother.

With the weather remaining bad we went back to our hotel and spent the rest of the day organising our luggage so we could leave some bags in the car and bring the rest back with us on the plane.

We had our final meal in Halifax in the bar of Salty's where we had our final meal with Bob & Thelma a couple of nights ago. Our great adventure had nearly ended.