August 18, 2014 The Big Bang Theory, or That Sinking Feeling

Monday August 18, 2014

Feline training of humans, how to get love... I use this one very sparingly as I do not want to overwhelm them, but I will actually go and sit on their lap.  Because I do it infrequently, I know they will stay.  They will pet me and make me purr.  I am ok with that.

This morning's walk took me around the cove behind us.  There is cove to the right, then cove to the left.  It is very scenic.  There are fir trees with Spanish moss, which seems contradictory since firs are cold tolerant and Spanish moss is a warm grower.  And the firs appear to have keikeis (growths off of growths).  I will try to remember the camera tomorrow.  When I get back, the skies opened up and it poured.  Timing is everything!

Our mission today is to go to the maritime museum on the waterfront in Halifax.  After a brief stop at Canadian Tire to pick up some parts for Hannah, we set Samaaaaantha to our goal.  Amazingly, there were parking spaces available right in front.  I hate the way you pay here though.  You have to estimate how much time you will be spending and pay up front.  How the heck do we know how long we will be here?  We pay the all day fee, knowing that Spouse (the entrepeneur) will sell the parking ticket when we leave.

 

It isn't that I am particularly  fascinated with Canadian maritime history.  But they do have a couple of exhibits that pique my interest.  They have many artifacts from the Titanic.  Halifax was where they brought many of the survivors and bodies after the disaster.  One hundred years later and there is still such fascination with all the artifacts and it was all very interesting.

But the bigger draw for me was the history of the 'big explosion'.  On December 6, 1917, the Mont Blanc was a french cargo ship carrying wartime explosives into Halifax harbor expecting to meet up with a convoy.  It collided with the Norwegian vessel SS Imo (who would not give way and was going the wrong way).   When the fire started, the French crew knew what was about to happen and they abandoned ship as fast as they could running to a house up the hill to a woman who was holding her baby.  They tried to tell her to run but they spoke only French.  Instead, they grabbed the baby and ran.  Of course she ran after them.  All but one of the crew survived.

 

When the town heard the collision and saw they smoke, they all came running.  Bad idea.  Another ship tried to tow the drifting Mont Blanc away from the docks, but could not.  After about 20 minutes, the fire ignited the explosives and the biggest man made explosion in history occurred.  The anchor of the ship was found 5 km away.  The entire waterfront was destroyed.  2000 lives were lost, a tsunami was created which took those lives that were not already blown away.  The injuries were in the thousands.  So many children ran to the windows at school to see the fire.  When the explosion occurred, they were permanently blinded.  9000 were homeless and it snowed that night.

 The city of Boston mobilized a relief team.  To this day, every year the city of Halifax sends Boston a Christmas tree.  So many personal stories are on exhibit.  They have a log of all the people that died.  You can see 10 or more people with the same name so you know entire families were totally wiped out.  Fascinating.  Totally fascinating. 

There was also a great exhibit on the war of 1812 as told from Canada's point of view.  Not quite as I remember from the history books.  My schooling taught me that we won.  This representation said it  was a draw, but Canada emerged as its own country.

 

As we were getting ready to leave, the skies opened up again, BIG TIME.  We watched, ran to the truck and ate our lunch.  And we decided NOT to take a harbor cruise!  But when the rain waned, we did walk around the waterfront.  As we left, Spouse sold our parking pass.  What a guy!