First, a Walk Up Signal Hill…

On Friday we went up Signal Hill and around the area. Signal Hill has about as much history as the harbour. If the harbour has a narrow entrance and is easily defended, the cannons shown here along with the cable across the entrance were the mechanisms of that defense. For my fellow Hornblower fans, I kept thinking that in the face of such defense, our Captain would put ashore before dawn and tell his boys to use nothing but cold steel until they controlled the heights. Easier said than done.

Also of historic importance was Marconi’s receipt of the first trans-Atlantic radio signal, as highlighted below.

We suggest you take two minutes at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Signal_Hill,_St._John’s to get more context.

Looking down toward town on our ascent

Looking up toward Cabot Tower. We will give you several shots as we ascend

These blueberries disappeared within 20 seconds of this photo being taken. Like the ones we had for breakfast in Maine they were delicious, so much so that we stopped at the local Dominion to get some. Janet refused to buy the ones sold there however as they were grown in British Colombia!

This is one of the oil-platform supply ships that had been parked in front of our hotel window. We’ll follow it’s progress through the day

Breezy gal above the narrows

The right, outside point of the Narrows, coming out from St. John’s Harbour

Working the artillery pieces

Our supply ship safely get’s past the guns

Getting closer to Cabot’s Tower

Outside Cabot’s Tower

Inside Cabot’s Tower

Yes, signal flags of course

Looking toward town from inside the Tower

Looking north from atop the Tower

St. John’s from atop the Tower

Looking south to the entry into the Narrows from atop the Tower

Noon approaches and we learn that “mad dogs” dwell not only in Hong Kong

…and then on to Cape Spear:

Please ignore the fact that my iPhone sometimes shifts into new settings, such as black white, without warning, and no, we’re not trying to be artsy.

So how in this picture is Janet distinct from the other 300 million or so folks in North America?Standing in this corner near the water at a longitude of 52 37′ 26” she is further east than all of them. (And let’s not quibble about the fact that Newfoundland is an island)

Cape Spear is just southeast of St. John’s. There has been a lighthouse operating here since 1836. Even after crossing that ocean and encountering land for the first time this is not where you’d want to come ashore. Yet Cabot found one of the best harbours in the world within sight only a few miles north.

The British were certainly prepared to welcome German U-Boats:This is the only remaining gun on this spot from the WW2 period (others were mostly removed for use elsewhere during the war after the U-Boat threat subsided). The little fellow was made in New York around the turn of that century to defend Philadelphia and was shipped here in fall of 1941 under the US Lend-lease program. It could cover a wide area (many miles) including north to cover the entry to St. John’s harbour.

Although never fired at in anger, the soldiers stationed here were not wild about the living accommodations:

And it was windy. After the 3000 mile trip from Ireland the wind tends to go pretty hard on these so called “trees”

Meanwhile, the lighthouses are just up from the location of the gun batteries. The taller one is the newer one, in service for several decades and still in service today. The smaller one is the original from the 19th century.

The picture below looks down to the sea from right behind the old lighthouse that includes the care-taker’s residence. Perhaps there once was a little shed-like building above it with a place inside to sit down? If so, I’d be reluctant to “sit” there with a strong west wind!