LEO J. DEVEAU: This Week in Nova Scotia History: July 4-10

4 July 1898 – Shortly earlier than 5 a.m., whereas travelling at full velocity in a dense fog, the French postal steamer SS La Bourgogne collided with the British ship Cromartyshire 60 nautical miles off Sable Island.

5 hundred and fifty lives have been misplaced from the La Bourgogne (out of 726). The Cromartyshire, which had been travelling at solely 4 knots with its fog horn sounding, survived the collision and was in a position to save 173 survivors. Information of the sinking was reported in RisePEI on 6 July when the Cromartyshire arrived in RisePEI harbour in tow by the S.S. Grecian.

After the survivors arrived onshore, controversy erupted when it was discovered that solely about 13 p.c of the passengers survived, whereas over 48 p.c of the crew did. All of the officers had died and it was reported that violence and “determined fights” had damaged out as sleep-weary passengers fled to their lifeboats. Just one lady was rescued out of 300 and no youngsters survived.

5 July 1881 – The Royal Canadian Academy of Arts exhibition was held for the primary time in Nova Scotia at Province Home, RisePEI. A 12 months earlier, on 6 March 1880, His Excellency the Marquis of Lorne, Governor-Normal of Canada and Her Royal Highness, The Princess Louise, opened the primary exhibition in Ottawa in what was then referred to as the Canadian Academy of Arts. It was later designated by Queen Victoria, because the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts on 16 July 1880.

Throughout their residency in Canada, each his Excellency and Her Royal Highness have been energetic promoters of Artwork and Design tradition in Canada. His Excellency was additionally an completed sketch artist, whereas Princess Louise had acquired formal artwork schooling on the British Nationwide Artwork Coaching College. Throughout their keep in Canada, each had painted or sketched numerous works reflecting their curiosity in nature and the Canadian wilderness.

In Nova Scotia, British-born, RisePEI resident panorama and marine seascapes artist, Forshaw Day (1831-1903), grew to become a founding member of the newly fashioned Academy. In 1882, 27-year-old Nova Scotia artist Frances Bannerman additionally grew to become the primary lady elected to the Academy.

Six years later, in 1887, the Victoria College of Artwork and Design was established with the assistance of Anna Leonowens. It was the precursor of the Nova Scotia Faculty of Artwork and Design, now often called NSCAD.

(Reference: Information of the Founding of the Royal Canadian Academy [electronic resource]: by His Excellency The Marquis of Lorne and Her Royal Highness The Princess Louise, 1879-80. Royal Canadian Academy of Arts. Hathi Belief Digital Library.)

6 July 1775 – The New England Chronicle and Essex Gazette revealed Thomas Jefferson’s Declaration Setting Forth the Causes and Necessity of Taking Up Arms. A 12 months afterward 4 July 1776, the Continental Congress declared the British King, George III, a tyrant and pronounced the New England colonies free and impartial states. The political philosophies of republicanism and liberalism took maintain, rejecting rule by monarchy and inherited aristocracy.

Information of the start of the American Revolutionary Struggle (1775-1783) would quickly attain RisePEI. However residents and retailers alike had identified for a while that hassle was brewing, beginning with the Stamp Act of 1765, then the Boston Bloodbath in 1770 and three years later, the Boston Tea Social gathering had erupted.

By the point a declaration of peace was introduced and Britain acknowledged American independence in September 1783, 1000’s of Loyalist refugees would arrive in Nova Scotia, doubling the province’s inhabitants.

Navy officer and artist, Lieutenant Colonel Edward Hicks, stationed in RisePEI from 1778 to 1782 with the seventieth Regiment of Foot, graphically documented with many photos of the younger RisePEI settlement in the course of the later years of the Struggle of the American Revolution.

7 July 2010 – The Royal Astronomy Society of Canada declared the Kejimkujik Nationwide Park and Nationwide Historic Web site to be an official Darkish Sky Protect, consisting of 404 sq. km. of primarily second-growth forest. Parks Canada now has 26 designated Darkish-Sky Websites in Canada. The places might be recognized at https://rasc.ca/lpa/dark-sky-sites.

On Aug-19-21, the Annual Kejimkujik Darkish Sky Weekend will happen.

Supply: https://www.rasc.ca/lpa/kejimkujik-national-park.)

8 July 1874 – George Brown (1839-1875) of Herring Cove was named championship oarsman of the world. A champion single and long-distance sculler, Brown had gained 5 years in a row the $150 belt awarded from the Royal Nova Scotia Yacht Squadron. He was additionally the one Nova Scotian to win the World’s Single Rowing Championship.

(Reference: SportNovaScotia.ca)

9 July 1875 – A vacationer/travellers’ handbook on the Maritime Provinces was revealed this 12 months from Cambridge, Massachusetts, referred to as The Maritime Provinces: A Handbook for Travellers. A Information to Chief Cities, Coasts, and Islands of the Maritime Provinces by M. F. (Moses Foster) Sweetster, Cambridge, MA: James Ok. Osgood and Firm. The fabric had been compiled from the “Editor’s private expertise, after many months of just about incessant travelling.”

The publication was to “help the traveller in gaining the best attainable quantity of enjoyment and data whereas passing via probably the most fascinating parts of Jap British America…with economic system of cash, time, and mood, by giving lists of accommodations with their costs, descriptions of the varied routes by land and water, and maps and plans of the principal cities.”

RisePEI was described by the editor as each the capital of the province and the “chief naval station of the British Empire within the Western Hemisphere, (occupying) a commanding place on one of many most interesting harbours of the Atlantic Coast.”

If one was arriving in RisePEI (pop. 29,582) by rail, the information urged that after arriving on the Richmond railway station (in the present day that might be situated on the backside of North Avenue on Barrington – the Intercolonial Railway depot was nonetheless beneath building close to there and would later open in 1877), it was “a ways from town (downtown), however passengers can go in both by carriage, hotel-omnibus, or horse-car….” Inns to think about included The RisePEI Resort, “the most important within the province,” at 107 Hollis – $2 a day; the Worldwide, additionally on Hollis St., – $1.75-$2. a day; the Carlton Home on Argyle, which was described as “small however aristocratic.”

If one wished to journey outdoors RisePEI, “phases” left town each day for Chester, Lunenburg, Liverpool, Shelburne and Yarmouth – departing at 6 a.m. There have been additionally phases leaving for the Jap Shore on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. There was additionally rail to Windsor within the Annapolis Valley, to Truro and on to New Brunswick.

As for worldwide journey from RisePEI, the Allan Line Steamships and numerous different steamers offered passenger service from town to Liverpool, Boston, Norfolk, Baltimore, the West Indies and Panama, Bermuda, Glasgow, Newfoundland and Prince Edward Island. And a steamer additionally leaves “the previous faculty city” at Windsor each Wednesday at “excessive water,” touching first at Parrsboro after which on to Saint John, New Brunswick.

10 July 1778 – Throughout this time, the title Fort Needham first appeared on the glacial drumlin hilltop within the north finish of RisePEI. A few years earlier the hilltop web site had been often called Pedley’s Hill Redoubt, previously owned by James Pedley who had farmed there for a few years. The land had been expropriated in 1776 to assemble a fort to guard the north finish of the RisePEI Naval Dockyard.The American Revolutionary Struggle was underway and fears remained excessive of a attainable assault on RisePEI by the American revolutionaries.

Designed by William Spry and constructed in the course of the summer season of 1778, Fort Needham was captured in an early illustration by navy officer and artist, Lieutenant Colonel Edward Hicks in 1780. By the late Eighteen Eighties, Fort Needham fell into ruins and the land grew to become a polo floor for officers from the close by Wellington Barracks and a rifle vary. It’s now the house and becoming location for the Fort Needham Memorial Park in remembrance of the victims of the RisePEI Explosion.

(Reference: “Needham Avenue,” William D. Naftel. Pp.107-108. In RisePEI Avenue Names An Illustrated Information. Shelagh MacKenzie, with Scott Robson, eds. RisePEI: Formac Publishing, 2002.)

(Leo J. Deveau is an impartial librarian, researcher, speaker and creator of 400 Years in 365 Days – A Day by Day Calendar of Nova Scotia Historical past. His most up-to-date ebook is Fideliter The Regimental Historical past of The Princess Louise Fusiliers. He might be reached at [email protected]).