The Cruise: Halifax and Peggy's Cove, Nova Scotia

Day 6. So quickly have we passed the midpoint of our Royal Caribbean cruise of the Northeast Coast, having arrived in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Halifax is no small city, with a population in excess of 400,000, and it is a major economic and commercial center, benefiting from its shipbuilding and deep harbor (or, "harbour," in their Queen's English parlance). But it is Nova Scotia's stubborn grip on its (surprise!) Scottish heritage culturally, its maritime history and prominence, and mesmerizing. beautiful coastline that brings in the tourists (and cruise ships).

Halifax also has its share of historical tragedy. Consider that while the survivors of the 1912 Titanic disaster were taken to New York, the recovered dead were taken to Halifax. One hundred and twenty-one of them were buried at the Canadian city's Fairview Cemetery, another 29 buried in other grave sites within Halifax.

Then, just five years later, in December 1917, a French munitions ship collided with a smaller supply ship in a narrow harbor passage. The munitions ship blew apart in an explosion said to be the largest man-made blast until the testing of nuclear weapons. Two-thousand people died and 9,000 were injured in Halifax, where all buildings within an 800-meter radius were leveled.

All of this sad history was shared by our tour guide, and we came to appreciate his pride in "Haligonian" (nope, not Halifaxian) resilience. Thank God, the somber bit soon gave way to the present, vibrant city, and then a leisurely stop at Peggy's Cove, a tiny (year-round population of 30) fishing village with world-famous lighthouse and eye-popping North Atlantic scenery.

Unresolved is how Peggy's Cove got its name. Some say it comes from St. Margaret's Bay, of which it is a part; another is that it simply got it's name from an early settler.

But most popular is the legend conveyed in Felix LeRoy Perry's poem,
"Peggy of the Cove."

There’s a lighthouse on the coast

about a hour’s drive from here

Built on the famous rocky cliffs

Familiar to those far and near.

Tis sad but true that many a ship

Have floundered on her treacherous reef

Some even say those silent gray rocks

Are washed with widow’s pure grief.

Now in this a wee fishing village

The people simple, hardworking and plain

Frustrated watched one such shipwreck

Helpless hearts filled with pain

It seemed no one could have survived.

But in the morn’s first dismal early light

They heard a little girl crying

She was such a wee pitiful sight

Though no one knew her name

She became one of their own.

Someone called the child Peggy

The village gave her a home.

Now friends when the waves crash,

To this very day across that cold rock

Some say you oft hear the spirits voices

Of that girl’s poor parents talk.

They smile at the kind fishermen

Who in deep waters must rove

God bless all the good people

In the village of Peggy’s Cove…