Day 16 - Bonavista

 This morning we stopped at the puffin colony again and had some good sightings of them.  They are not plentiful at this time of year.  They actually nest in little burrows in the ground, so you can only see them when they fly out to go fishing and then return again.

In Elliston we also stopped at the Sealer's Memorial Museum.  That was really interesting.  The sealing industry started slowly because of the demand for seal oil for lamps.  The meat was also very necessary as it came in the early spring of the year and the fur was also valuable.  Seal flippers were also eaten by the locals.  It turned into a very industrial pursuit and many men were killed doing it.  Part of the museum is dedicated to a huge disaster that took place during a large storm in 1914 in which 251 sailors died.  It was actually men from 3 different ships.  One entire ship sank without a trace and 2 others got stuck in the ice and couldn't retrieve their men.  We saw film footage of when the men were on the pack ice and it's terrifying.  The waves continue under the ice so it goes up and down with the swells.  Of course, in the 1970s or 80s the green movement objected to the clubbing of baby seals and that really changed things.  The sealing continues, but in a much reduced and more humane manner.

We also went to Bonavista today.  It has a very nice lighthouse, a John Cabot memorial as he discussed New Found Land and a replica of his ship the 'Matthew'.  We visited the museum that the replica ship now sits in and they had a lovely display of where you pretend to be 'Carlo' a 12 year old boy who describes his life starting out in Genoa and how he ends up on the ship with John Cabot.  Then we got to tour the actual ship and climb all over it.  It was surprisingly small (94 feet) and spartan.  I would not want to go to sea on it.  The first replica ship they built in Bristol, England and sailed it to Bonavista in 1997 where they were greeted by the Queen and 30,000 visitors to mark the 500th anniversary of John Cabot's voyage.  That was really cool.  We watched a video of the ship coming into harbour and the Queen's speech on that day.










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