For our Something Saturday this week, we ventured along the Eastern Coast of Trinity Bay where we came across icebergs, lighthouses, long winding roads, lots of connections, and the Heart’s Content Cable Station!
Outside the Heart's Content Cable Station
We spent the weekend in Ocean Pond with Elizabeth’s parents, and at lunchtime on Saturday we packed some snacks and hit the road. The intention of the trip was to visit the Heart’s Content Cable Station, a Provincial Historic Site, however we decided to take in the entire area and ended up driving back down the other side of the peninsula, going through Carbonear and Harbour Grace. Here’s a map of the route we took:
The Avalon Peninsula
Along the way to Heart’s Content, we came across some picturesque communities, as well as a variety of icebergs. Somehow due to the beauty of our surroundings, and the fact that we had four cameras in the car, the trip turned into a photography competition with a few different categories. The downside to the competition was that at the end of the day, we had 350+ pictures to sort through, but the upside was that we ended up with some great, sometimes artsy, pictures…
… and a few crazy ones.
After visiting the Heart’s Content Lighthouse and eating a quick picnic lunch in the car, we drove to the Heart’s Content Cable Station. The cable station is significant because it is the location of the transatlantic telegraph cable that successfully connected Europe to North America in July 1866. All transatlantic telegraph messages from Europe from then on went through Heart’s Content, before being sent across Newfoundland, over to Nova Scotia, and then on to the rest of North America. It was a critical centre for global communications until it was closed in 1965, as trans-ocean telephone cables and early satellite communications rendered the telegraph technology obsolete.
We started off our visit by watching a video which provided some context to the story of the cable station. The cable that was laid in Heart’s Content was not the first attempt to lay a telegraph cable across the Atlantic - the first attempt was in 1858 and there were four more unsuccessful attempts before they made it all the way across the Atlantic and the cable functioned for more than a month. The 1865 attempt actually made it most of the way across before losing the cable in the ocean, so after The Great Eastern laid the functional cable, it went back and picked up the lost cable which was subsequently successfully hooked into the system at Heart’s Content.
Before the transatlantic cable was successfully landed in Heart’s Content, it was a small community of 90 people. But the cable brought with it 300 European workers and a different way of life. Eventually locals got jobs at the station, but initially it was only foreigners. They also hired local women to work there in the late 1800s, which was fairly progressive at the time, but women had to quit their job when they got married. By the time the station closed in 1965, we noticed that there were no female workers in the photographs of employees.
After watching the video, we had a chance to explore the old cable station, which contained many artifacts and some information panels. It was fascinating to walk around the station to see where the employees socialized and worked. If you walk to the back of the building and go up the stairs, you can explore the old set up of the facility and all of the equipment is still in place.
We started off our visit by watching a video which provided some context to the story of the cable station. The cable that was laid in Heart’s Content was not the first attempt to lay a telegraph cable across the Atlantic - the first attempt was in 1858 and there were four more unsuccessful attempts before they made it all the way across the Atlantic and the cable functioned for more than a month. The 1865 attempt actually made it most of the way across before losing the cable in the ocean, so after The Great Eastern laid the functional cable, it went back and picked up the lost cable which was subsequently successfully hooked into the system at Heart’s Content.
Before the transatlantic cable was successfully landed in Heart’s Content, it was a small community of 90 people. But the cable brought with it 300 European workers and a different way of life. Eventually locals got jobs at the station, but initially it was only foreigners. They also hired local women to work there in the late 1800s, which was fairly progressive at the time, but women had to quit their job when they got married. By the time the station closed in 1965, we noticed that there were no female workers in the photographs of employees.
After watching the video, we had a chance to explore the old cable station, which contained many artifacts and some information panels. It was fascinating to walk around the station to see where the employees socialized and worked. If you walk to the back of the building and go up the stairs, you can explore the old set up of the facility and all of the equipment is still in place.
After we finished exploring inside, we walked to the beach nearby where the transatlantic cable was brought onshore. The cable is over ground so you can go right up and touch it. It amazed us that the cable is almost 150 years old and was still fairly intact.
Last summer, we took advantage of our Provincial Historic Sites pass and saw most of the Historic Sites. We visited Commissariat House, the Newman Wine Vaults, Cupids Cove Plantation, as well as various sites in Bonavista and Trinity. After visiting most of the other sites, we knew we had to make the trip out to Heart's Content this year - and we’re glad we did.
After our trip to Heart's Content, we continued on driving through Carbonear and Harbour Grace. After a bit of iPad searching, we realized that Sheila NaGeira, the somewhat legendary Irish princess/noblewoman that ended up in Carbonear after being rescued by English privateer/pirate, Peter Easton, is thought to be an O’Connor. There’s a lot more to the story but that’s all we could fit in one run-on sentence...
After we got over the prospect of potentially being related, we drove on to Harbour Grace and saw the place where Amelia Earhart took off on her transatlantic flight. As we discovered over the weekend, Newfoundland is a good starting/ending place for most transatlantic things.
After our trip to Heart's Content, we continued on driving through Carbonear and Harbour Grace. After a bit of iPad searching, we realized that Sheila NaGeira, the somewhat legendary Irish princess/noblewoman that ended up in Carbonear after being rescued by English privateer/pirate, Peter Easton, is thought to be an O’Connor. There’s a lot more to the story but that’s all we could fit in one run-on sentence...
After we got over the prospect of potentially being related, we drove on to Harbour Grace and saw the place where Amelia Earhart took off on her transatlantic flight. As we discovered over the weekend, Newfoundland is a good starting/ending place for most transatlantic things.
Here are some more pictures from our mini road trip (and photography competition)!
