After breakfast, I headed off to catch Bus 9 to the Fairview Lawn Cemetery. This is where the majority of the 150 bodies recovered from the sinking of the Titanic in 1912 and not claimed at the time by others were buried. It was also where a number of the unidentified remains of victims of the Harbour Explosion in 1917 were buried, and has a monument to them. Without wishing to be morbid, I was unaware of the harbour explosion, or the burying of Titanic survivors in Halifax, when I planned to visit the city. Having heard so much about Titanic growing up, it just makes sense to make a respectful visit to the site.

Here are the two plaques which provide some information on the burials, the design, as well as the relatively recent identifying of the “unknown child” through DNA testing. So I have also included a photo of the overall Titanic cemetery stones and the specific stone of the former unknown child.

Going back to my visit yesterday to the Maritime museum, herewith a few other photos from the Titanic exhibit. A couple are photos of small-scale models of the ship going down and the shipwreck itself (camera up close to increase the size). Others are informational about the construction and design of the ship and living quarters, as well as an artist’s impression of the impact of the waters on the “great staircase”.

Regarding the model of the row boat in the front with the Titanic in the background, I took a number of photos of the display, with different parts in focus. So I hope to use some focus-stacking software to try to stitch together the whole scene (it also includes the iceberg) all in focus.

Herewith also a photo of the memorial to the Unidentified Dead from the Halifax Harbour Explosion, and one of the sign next to it.

After this I walked a couple of kilometres to the Halifax Shopping Centre to buy a couple of items I could not get downtime. As part of this I saw a couple of police officers escorting a young child through the shops. Lost child I assumed. Then I saw another police officer and another young child. Two lost children – I suppose that happens. Then after another minute I walked into Walmart and saw another 3 or 4 police officers with young kids. Then they were in every aisle. Bring your kid to the shops day? So I asked one of the staff and they said that every year on this day, police officers take underprivileged children out to buy them and their families gifts, and take them to get something to eat as well. I saw one police officer and a child being pushed on a trolley by another officer. So they were having fun too. It seems to be such a nice gesture.

After I got back to the hotel, I rested my feet for a half hour, had a coffee and then headed off to the Canadian Museum of Immigration. The Museum is at Pier 21, which is the building that was opened in 1928 and used to process around 1 million immigrants before it closed in 1971 (with more immigrants not coming by aircraft there was no longer the need for this particular facility). Halifax was the one site in Canada used for processing immigrants in this time that was on the ocean, and was also the city closest to Europe from where most of these migrants emigrated.

The display starts from a small model of the inside of the facility, from when they come off the boat, wait to be processed, and all the different sections such as where their belongings are checked and certain items confiscated (such as food and drink, certain knives, offensive literature (for the time), etc. – see below).

There was also a mock up of the shop that the migrants purchased food from to replace that which was confiscated, or if they needed to stay more that the day for various reasons – medical issues needing resolving, documentation not in order, etc. – plus food for their onward journeys.

There was also another short film and photos of the time, in the mock up interview room.

There was significantly more set up, including full size cabins the migrants travelled in, full sized train carriages including cooking implements (70 per carriage) that the migrants then travelled to their final destination in, information and models of doctors and nurses, and many other exhibits. All demonstrating the Canadian support for immigration during this period. We have some of these museums in Australia too, which the presenter hopes to one day visit.

After seeing this area, I sat down to watch a 20 minute film on stories from a number of migrants covering the past 30 years or so, although one was a Vietnam draft dodger from the USA so some of the stories stared earlier. But all were up to the last 5 years or so. They were will intertwined and the stories showed their sheer happiness for being allowed to move to and seek work / contribute to their new country. They all had different reasons for coming here, civil war being a common one, as well as one man from Pakistan who was gay, and one from Russia who was given a week to leave the country or be murdered. So an interesting sample. Although these all seemed to be success stories (which are generally the significant majority) and there was no real negative stuff.

After the film I left as the museum was closing. So I took a wander down along the Boardwalk and took some photos. I also took a ferry across the river just to see some of the basic sights of the city.

I’ll wander back out tomorrow with a tripod and a couple of different lenses to see how I go.

After that I walked back to the hotel, poured a glass of Kahlua I bought today (Pumpkin Spice flavoured), added some liquid coffeemate – I had no milk – and it tasted pretty good. Now it’s bedtime.