22 July 2013 Louisbourg, Nova Scotia, and Marconi National Museum

Today we visited the Fortress of Louisbourg located in Louisbourg, Nova Scotia, and the Marconi National Museum located in Glace Bay. Both of these facilities are National Historic Sites of Canada. What a great sunny warm day for sight-seeing!

The first French settlers (mainly cod fishermen) arrived in Louisburg in 1713 after having been driven out of St. John's, Newfoundland, by the English. Under the Treaty of Utrecht France was permitted to keep Cape Breton Island (eastern island of Nova Scotia) and Prince Edward Island. Between 1720 and 1745 the French built the massive Fortress of Louisburg on 6,000 hectares (14,826 acres) to defend these colonies. The fortress town was surrounded by a masonry and packed earth wall nearly two miles long.The fortress served as a headquarters for the French fleet and became an important fishing and trading center.

In 1745 the fortress was captured by the British after a 47-day siege. In 1748 the colony was returned to France by Treaty only to be again lost to British forces in 1758 following two blockades. The fortress was demolished by the British in 1780.

About one fifth of the original colony has been reconstructed at the site to its 1714 appearance. The reconstruction has been based on the original stone foundations that remained after the fortress was demolished, and on copies of the blueprints used by the fortress engineer who designed all of the buildings. The engineer returned to France every winter and registered the blueprints, which have been preserved.

Fortress of Louisburg from across the bay 

Patrice and Marge at the entrance gate to the Fortress of Louisburg

Reconstructed stone buildings

Reconstructed buildings include several houses of the lower, middle, and upper class residents of the colony including the residences of the governor and engineer;  bakery, laundry, theatre, church, ice house, and kitchen; and storehouses and stables.  

Barred window at stone building

Chimney with lichens and fleur de lis 

Thick rampart walls

Reconstructed military buildings and installations include the King's bastion, barracks and ramparts, guardhouses, powder magazine, artillery storehouse and forge, armoury, and chapel.

Canons at King's Rampart

We were scheduled for a guided tour of all of the building and facilities at 1:30 so we walked around the fortress and inside of some of the buildings prior to the tour.

[Patrice writes] The reconstructed Roman Catholic military chapel was enclosed in the King's Bastion, different from the parish church that was outside the military fortress area. It would have been for the use of the soldiers exclusively.

There is a mission in California called, San Luis Rey de Francia, "Saint Louis King of France," and refers to the French saint whose portrait is pictured below. The French saint was honored because of favors done for the Spanish missions during their establishment.

Even for such a popular saint, I have my doubts that a large portrait of a saint would be hung above the altar in a chapel where mass was held. [I have since seen another treatment of a French church with another saint, and another large picture of the saint above the altar. So, I was mistaken about that.]

 Portrait of Saint Louis IX, King of France, in military chapel

A statue of Saint Roch was placed in this chapel also. I asked a soldier guard nearby, and he said that Saint Roch was a priest who lived in northern Italy. He caught some malady (he's pointing to an owee on his leg) and rather than be a burden, went out into the woods to die alone. A woodsman and small dog found him, took care of him, and nursed him back to health. The dog has some bread in his mouth to signify that he had been nourished. After he returned to his people, he went on to perform miracles, and after he died was declared a saint by the Roman Catholic Church.

This saint was prayed to for intercession to heal illnesses and maladies. [Patrice is done now]

Saint Roch in military chapel

Marge and Jerry with Saint Roch at the military chapel 

Painting of the harbor and fortress hanging in the theatre building

Fortunately we were able to observe the noon musket and canon firing at the King's Ramparts.

 Patrice, Jerry, and Marge waiting for the noon firings

 Drum and fife troop and soldiers parading to posts for firing

 Musket firings at noon

You can tell that the third musket did not fire--the soldier looked up, and there is no smoke. Muskets that don't fire are set aside and dismantled carefully, so that they don't explode before the misfiring is corrected.

Canon firing at noon 

After the noon firings we had lunch at one of the period restaurants. Our group had seafood chowder, split pea and vegetable soups, french toast, mussels and bread, and chocolate cake, and bread all around, all served on pewter plates. We were each given a large pewter spoon (only!) to eat with, and wore large cotton napkins tied around our necks. No food had potatoes in it, because potatoes had not been introduced yet, and tomatoes were considered poisonous at the time. 

Most of the buildings were open for public viewing and several of them had actors who were doing period work related to the building type. Most of the actors would only converse as if they were actually working and living in the year 1714. In addition, many actors were roaming around the fortress and buildings, engaged in period activities and performing skits.

Woman in kitchen of a fisherman's house

Those who lived outside the fortress agreed that if a British ship was seen to be advancing on the colony, the residents would set fire to their houses, gather the family and grab what valuables and belongings they could, and head for the fortress.

  

Actors with pilgrim geese

Pilgrim geese were common in the colony. They were flightless and rather gentle, only attacking if provoked. Cattle, goats, and chickens were also kept, along with the horses for the soldiers.

 Actors playing games

Impromptu court, trying a thief who stole a loaf of bread

A visit to Louisbourg Fortress is educational and entertaining. Of course, this is the height of the tourist season; we arrived early in the day--not so packed. In addition, this year is the 300th anniversary of the colony, and the big celebration is this coming weekend. We noticed many French-speaking visitors enjoying the setting and activities. Being a Canadian National Park, all tours and signage are available in French as well as English.

It is evident that Parks Canada has made major investments of money and time in this reconstruction--Marge and Jerry had visited about ten years ago, and at that time there was no visitor center. You drove up to the gate and parked right outside the fortress walls; none of the reconstructed buildings we saw today were present then. Today we parked near the visitor center and a bus took us to the gate at the fortress. 

Because all the buildings were destroyed and the fortress also dismantled when the English took over, it was necessary to do extensive archeological research to make all the buildings as authentic as possible. Furnishings are mostly reproductions, with a few precious items original to the time period. The research continues, and there are plans to reconstruct more buildings. We could have spent several more hours exploring this important Canadian National Historic Site.

After spending time at the Louisburg Fortress we returned to our rig, picked up Carlos, and drove about 30 miles east to visit the Marconi National Historic Site of Canada located in Glace Bay. From here, on December 15, 1902, Guglielmo Marconi transmitted the world's first official wireless message to Europe.

The Glace Bay station, completed in 1902, consisted of four 200-foot high wooden towers that supported an inverted array of wire cables. There is a large picture on the wall of the museum, taken of downtown Glace Bay in 1902--you can see the towers in the distance. The concrete foundations are still visible at the site.

Model of the Glace Bay Marconi Wireless Station

The museum shows the life of Marconi, and you see pictures of him as a boy, and follow his interests and passions as he matures. The story of his pursuit of wireless communications is fascinating, as you see the same handsome sober face, looking directly into the camera, among his colleagues and business partners.

In our July 6 blog we described our visit to the Marconi relay station on Fogo Island. Here trans-Atlantic wireless messages were sent to ships up to 288 miles offshore and then relayed on to Europe. As noted in our July 15 blog, we visited the St. John's Marconi Signal Hill station where he received the first direct trans-Atlantic wireless signal (a Morse Code "S") from Europe. Marconi wanted to establish a permanent wireless station in St. John's but was sued by existing competing American telecommunications companies. Marconi fled St. John's rather than face a court trial. He planned to try to set up his station at Cape Cod, Massachusetts; instead, he was offered a Canadian permit and $80,000 to set it up at Glace Bay. In 1904 the station was dismantled and moved to Fort Morien, across the bay from Glace Bay.

So ends our visits to the Marconi sites where modern telecommunications began. We had dinner at the Miner's Museum Cafe in Glace Bay, part of the exhibits of a miner's village outside. Patrice had a wonderful seafood chowder and I had a pork roast dinner with turnips, peas, and carrots. For desert we shared a ginger bread pudding with rum sauce. In Nova Scotia we found the restaurant food prepared with tasty spices and the presentation is attractive.

We visit the Miner's Museum in Glace Bay tomorrow.