Monday we moved and set up camp here at Terra Nova National Park. There was a bit of sun in the clouds. I took this picture yesterday (Wednesday afternoon) and it’s the first sun we had seen since.
Tuesday was cloudy, cool and misty so we opted to take a walk on the two and a half mile trail around the campground. It started down this set of stairs. I thought the plain below was marshy, then I thought I was seeing rocks, not water.
When we got down there I found it was lichens. They’re piled up like snow around here.
This lovely mix of lichens and moss is right by our campsite.
The campground trail wound through some of the boreal forest here.
It afforded some views of the big brook next to the campground named “Big Brook”.
It eventually led us out to Newman Sound Day Use Area.
Moss and lichens were colonizing the conifer needles on this roof. They don’t require much to establish a foothold.
Steps then took us back to the campground level. A nice walk on a cloudy day.
Yesterday we decided to drive to Bonavista on the next peninsula, hoping the weather would clear by the time we got there. It didn’t. We discovered this statue of John Cabot, or Giovanni Caboto, an Italian navigator who sailed west for Henry VII of England making the first European landing in North America in 1497. On the 500th anniversary (1997) of his landing, Bonavista was selected as his probable landfall and this statue was dedicated there with Elizabeth II in attendance.
What we could see of the cliffs was quite dramatic and I took this video to capture the sight and the sound of the foghorn from the nearby lighthouse, which was invisible in the mist.
From there we drove to Elliston. We were looking for puffins. But first we found this memorial to the sealing disasters of 1914. Sealers went out in early spring into the ice floes. In the early 1900’s small boats were replaced with larger, sometimes steel, steamers that could penetrate the ice further. Wireless was available but not deemed worth the expense by most sealing companies. In March of 1914 a father and son captained two ships for two different companies. Abram Kean helmed the SS Stephano, a steel steamer. His son, Westbury Kean captained the SS Newfoundland, a wooden steamer, which had the wireless removed after the last year’s season because it didn’t increase the take.
The Stephano was able to penetrate further into the ice. On March 30 they located a herd of seals and raised a derrick to flag the Newfoundland. Westbury Kean could not get his wooden ship in to where his father was. The next morning he ordered his men onto the ice. They were to walk to the Stephano to find and hunt the seals and then spend the night, if they had to, on that ship. The morning was mild at 7 AM when the men set out. It turned bad and at 10 AM 34 men turned back. The other 132 arrived at the Stephano at 11:30 and were given a lunch of tea and hardbread. Captain Kean thought they had made it to his boat in two hours and at 11:50 sent the men back out on the ice to capture 1500 seals and return to the Newfoundland. It was snowing hard then and soon turned worse. The men had to abandon hunting but no longer knew where either ship was. The SS Newfoundland never blew the ship’s whistle because they assumed the men were safely aboard the SS Stephano.
The men spent that night on the ice. Many froze, the next day those who could kept walking. They continued through that night and were finally spotted crawling towards the ship on the morning of April 2. When help finally arrived 78 had died (one after being rescued).
Among the dead are the father and son depicted in the bronze statue at the memorial. Rueben Crewe had survived a sinking in 1911, after which his wife Mary persuaded him to give up sealing. But when their son, Albert John, turned 16 he wanted to try his hand at sealing, a rite of passage for Newfoundland’s young men. He begged and his mother relented if his father would go along to protect him. They were found frozen on the ice, the father embracing his son to try to shield him from the cold.
At the same time another sealing ship, the SS Southern Cross, sank with all hands lost. It was thought she was overloaded and trying to hurry through the blizzard to be the first ship back with her bounty. 173 men were lost on the SS Southern Cross.
As a result of these disasters new rules were imposed on the sealers. The ships had to carry a barometer and a thermometer, flares and wireless. And load limits were implemented.
But the little town of Elliston has not forgotten their loss.
Oddly enough, the other thing that Elliston is known for is root cellars. Here are three of the 133 known to be in this town of 315 people living in 148 houses.
They were constructed from the easily split local sandstone…
and used to preserve the precious cold weather vegetables like potatoes and cabbage that the townsfolk could grow.
The examples we saw were at the beginning of the short path out to see the puffin colony.
And yes, there were puffins, though with just my phone’s camera and in the mist and poor light I couldn’t get a very good picture. Still it was an interesting day despite the weather.
On the Roam Again 
Very interesting to me, too – both pictures and descriptions! I couldn’t hear the fog horn very well, but the picture that went with it was great!
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