When I planned my trip to Atlantic Canada, I didn’t think I was going to end up in Nova Scotia, I only planned as far as New Brunswick because Nova Scotia wasn’t fully open for discretionary travel yet. A couple of days before my departure date, Nova Scotia finally opened up, so I tacked on two more days to my trip. All hail free cancellation.
I remembered an article I had to read for class on the Swiss Air 111 crash in 1998 off the coast of Peggys Cove and decided to pay the place a visit. I have more than just a passing interest in the incident; the plane was headed to Geneva, where I took off on a Swiss Air flight in 2020 with mechanical issues and was forced to turn back to Geneva. The memorial is triangle shaped, drawing out the bit of ocean between the crash site, Peggys Cove, and Bayswater.
Initially, I thought it was just a lighthouse on some rocks, but I discovered that there was a charming little fishing village attached too. Little fishing boats and lobster traps sit in the waterway waiting for the next fishing season. Tourists mill around the lighthouse cautiously between the many signs that warn of injury and death on the smooth, weathered rocks. Gulls gladly pick off whatever food the tourists leave behind.
The cove used to be difficult to navigate, so fishermen blasted the rock with dynamite to make it safer to enter and leave the cove. They wrapped the loose rock in chains and waited for the tide to wash them up before pulling them to the shore with their boats.
Generations of fishermen caught pollock, haddock, and cod here since 1811. They cleaned and gutted them in the fishing sheds sitting on wooden stilts. Not all days were spent out at sea, sometimes, fishermen got up early to perform maintenance on their boat and equipment.
A lot has changed in the last couple of decades. The fish population declined so the few who remain catch mackerel, bluefin tuna, and lobster, the boats are made from fibreglass instead of wood, nets are bought instead of made, boats are powered by diesel instead of wind, and GPS navigation means stars are just pretty dots in the sky.
There’s a red-roofed church near the entrance of the village that tourists forget. St. John’s Anglican Church has been a place of fellowship for the community since 1885. It replaced an earlier chapel built in 1850. It’s only open every other Sunday between Easter and Christmas.
