Time for another rant

I’m getting sick and tired of being forced to look at anti-piracy adds before I watch a DVD. No matter what the studios do the experts are going to find a way to get past their safeguards and rip a copy, for the rest of us it’s just another annoyance. If they weren’t so greedy they could price DVD’s so that no one would want to buy a pirated version in the first place.

Have you had this one played out on you? You go to a customer service counter with a problem and the gal behind the desk has no intention of offering you any assistance. When you become frustrated they start making it all about you being beligerant in order to divert attention from the complaint you came to file in the first place. Don’t let them get away with it. Pick a time when you aren’t already at the end of your rope to go file a complaint and if you don’t get satisfaction ask for a supervisor. These people seem to be trained in how to handle people, not their complaints. Don’t let them get away with it.

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More:

"A bore is a man who deprives you of solitude without providing you with company.”
Gian Vincenzo Gravina (1664 - 1718)

People demand freedom of speech as a compensation for the freedom of thought which they seldom use.
Soren Kierkegaard (1813 - 1855)

How verbose are the Taki?

The language of Taki, spoken in parts of French Guinea, consists of only 340 words.

Behind every great fortune there is a crime.
Honore de Balzac (1799 - 1850)

Believe those who are seeking the truth. Doubt those who find it.
Andre Gide (1869 - 1951)

I don't know if God exists, but it would be better for His reputation if He didn't.
Jules Renard (1864 - 1910)

Saint John's, Newfoundland

[If you are reading this know that I’d like to hear from you, my ‘Inbox’ is barren real estate lately]

June 21, 2010

On Monday I left Trinity in fog so thick one could barely see a car-length in front of one. Fortunately it lifted somewhat as I drove inland as my route off the peninsula was a recently paved highway. By the time I reached the TCH it was raining heavily and thundershowers continued off and on all day. I stopped at the Trinity Tourist Chalet but the gal who assured me I couldn’t miss Rising Tide was having the day off. After Clarenville the next Visitor’s Centre proved to be a regional one serving the Burin Peninsula and the Come By Chance Refinery. It hove out of the fog along the highway, how was I to know it wasn’t a Provincial Welcome Centre. After the Whitbourne Tourist Bureau TCH became a four-lane divided highway but the twin ponds of rain in the rutted travelled lane continued and moderate crosswinds buffeted amid the hills and valleys along with the concussions thrown off by the increasing truck traffic. It was with some relief I found exit 46 for Pippy Park, finding the actual campground took me twice around the block, someone omitted placing a sign at the actual RV Park entrance.

Pippy Park is yet another concept for which we are indebted to Joey Smallwood and named after the entrepeneur with whom he smoozed to make it happen. It sits in the middle of Memorial University with the Provincial Legislature, Arts and Cultural Centre, Hospitals, and Marine Centre surrounding it and a botanical garden, ski slopes and golf course among its amenities. While it’s nice to be camped inside the city the downtown core is still 3 miles distant and that climb up Mount Scio at the end of the day is a killer. On the other hand driving and finding parking downtown in one of Canada’s oldest cities? Finally got to a grocery store in a suburban mall where there is parking and although the selection was better the prices? PEI potatoes get trucked across the Confederation Bridge and through Nova Scotia to the ferry and Port-Aux-Basque, then trucked another 500 miles across Newfoundland. Butter, ice cream, and dairy products from Halifax. Flour and grains from the Prairies. Expiry dates, you expect to find fresh?

With all that fog and rain the first day of summer did not seem long with a nimbus of clouds bringing darkness around 5 in the afternoon and Tuesday was little better though in typical Newfoundland fashion just before dark gusting gales parted the clouds making sunset the brightest part of the day. It was hard to believe the temperature could hit 70 on Wednesday when it didn’t top 45 the day before so I sweltered all day under too many clothes. I hiked all the way to the harbour area, got brunch at a local cafe, and wandered into The Anglican Cathedral of Saint John the Baptist for a 1:15 organ concert. The church with its 4-foot thick stone walls and dark woods looks ponderous and solemn, the unadorned lead and tin pipes of the organ look hundreds of years old. The Catholic Basilica/Cathedral of the same name nearby has a brighter airier look about it and larger windows. I had to ask, the site where Mount Cashel Orphanage once sat is now a shopping mall. I survived the long hike back uphill.

Drove down to the foot of Signal Hill on Thursday where the Johnson Geo Centre provides parking. The place is a rock hound’s paradise with exposed rock forming its very walls. Just what the sinking of the Titanic has to do with Geology I’m not certain but the exhibit was facinating nevertheless. Upon entering the main theatre I questioned why the entrance was situated in the spot where the best seats in the house should have been located. Gordon Pinsent appears in his own window clad in Chambray work shirt, leather gloves and work belt, canvas jeans, and workboots to narrate the show, in subsequent movies throughout the centre I was amused to see how the buttons on that shirt came undone. An entire centre devoted to the rocks that make up ‘The Rock’.

The road up to the castle atop Signal Hill is a construction project though why the sidewalk was placed away from the view where everyone wants to walk I couldn’t fathom. On the rare day when the wind doesn’t bring tears to one’s eyes and the view isn’t obscured by cloud and fog the place is a photographer’s delight. The ghost of Marconi listening for those 3 dots is palpable. Although no icebergs have made it this far south this year thoughts turned to that wireless operator on the Titanic who having ignored previous iceberg warnings now franticly taps out SOS. A south-east wind brought traffic from the Torbay airport directly over the city and the air was filled with helicopter traffic--servicing oil platforms? However you draw the lines the airport is in Torbay and to the south lies the autonomous city of Mount Pearl though a visitor such as myself could be forgiven for thinking they all merge into one large metropolitan area.

Saint John's from Signal Hill

Saint John's from Mt Scio

Trinity

June 15, 2010

Left Grand Falls and set out in driving rain for Gander. The ruts in the pavement of the travelled lane were ponded with water and the crosswind tugged at my home as I drove making the drive an ugly experience. I was more than thankful I had only 90 km to go. Stopped at the grandiosely named North American Aviation Museum because it had been commended to my attention and was disappointed. Aircraft including a water-bomber were anchored to the ground outside and inside most things were labelled “do not touch”. What’s the point of a simulator if you can’t even see inside? What was on display seemed to a large degree to be castoffs from the airport bequeathed the museum when the equipment was upgraded but there didn’t seem to be a lot of thought given to how it might be made interesting to a non professional public. The Arrow Crash may have been the worst Newfoundland air disaster but surely the crash at Peggys Cove and the Air India Flight were bigger. Maybe I was just in a sour mood that day.

It wasn’t improved when a couple with a large cart of groceries jumped my place in the line-up when I ran to replace a torn bag of sugar. Enjoyed my talk with the guys at the Newfoundland Liquor Store. I’ve never had rum with a cork before. It is good. Spent two days in rain driven by gusting winds at a spartan campground amid large puddles walking up to the motel dining room to use the Internet. After hearing others discuss the road to Twillingate I decided to pass on the experience. Thursday morning drove in sunlight down to Terra Nova to find the Visitors Centre closed until 10. Went for a hike along the inlet and admired the wildflowers. This East Coast park lacks the dramatic scenery of Gros Morne but makes up for it in plant life and trees. Back at the centre watched the introductory movie just ahead of a bus-load of kids, toured the marine exhibit and got up close and personal with a cod and less handsome looking fishes, toured the gift shop and went on my way. There are no guides to the park and the yearly newsletter and other programs were not out yet. Drove into East Port along a highway that fronted the sea and even crossed one inlet. The Shriner’s Park was basic and the Internet worked on and off. I’d had my exercise for the day.

On Friday discovered there are multiple Trinity’s in Newfoundland and worse, that my GPS had no idea where the one I wanted was to. The road in comes out occasionally on water but for much of the trip crosses hills filled with birch, balsam fir and black spruce. Many times I hoped I wasn’t about to drop off the end of the world. At a so-called visitors trail centre I was told, Oh you can’t miss Rising Tide Theatre, just follow the signs. There were no signs. The road into Trinity Bight is posted at 30 kilometres and this isn’t solely to give the local RCMP a chance to catch up on their speeding ticket quota; there’s a reason outports were only accessible by boat until recent decades.

Trinity Harbour was discovered by Captain Cook on Trinity Sunday and the original hand-drawn chart is remarkably accurate. Once a bustling fishing port shipping barrels of salt cod to Europe the community has suffered major setbacks with the cod moratorium and a severely dwindling population. Nowhere is that more evident than at St Paul’s Anglican Church which has a hymn in the Anglican Hymn Book that was written specifically for this congregation. The church, built to hold 500, serves a community that in winter barely has 50 residents. The Catholic Church has two aged members, the United Church is no more.

Today tourism is the mainstay of the community. The Trinity Experience Historical Society not only sells tours of the community but also uses its funds to restore and maintain significant structures. Rising Tide Theatre draws theatre goers such as myself and helps fill restaurants, inns, and B&Bs. The scenery doesn’t hurt either. And I found the theatre mistakenly walking into the Artistic Directors Office and mentioning that they might want to let their audience know where they were. Two days later the sign was up.

Faced with a performance that could be in a backyard or upstairs at the parish hall a quarter mile distant in a strange town I demurred learning later the show was cancelled due to lack of ticket sales. It came off Sunday night outdoors for an audience of seven fending off blackflies while a kitten mewed in the background. My campground proved to be a hollow beside the highway down the road from Trinity Cabins Office which started business in 1948.

On Saturday I got lucky with the weather and went for a hike around gun hill that started at the Anglican Cemetery and Mortuary Chapel used for services in winter. To see the harbour today it’s hard to picture it in the days when the town merchant had a fleet of 200 ships moored there. Like so many other places I’ve visited in Newfoundland the talk is of former glory days and the present struggle to find work to encourage the young people to stay on. Not that the average working man got rich on his labour making the merchant owners rich on his toil--but at least he had employment. My host pointed out the fate of his 18-year-old son who went to rough-neck in the oil fields of Northern Alberta and met his death there. Life at sea may have been equally treacherous but it was work a Newfoundlander could understand.

Spent an hour at the Dockside dissecting two snow-crab legs determined to get my moneys-worth before walking over to catch an evening performance. Sunday I drove in early, parked in general parking and wandered around town in earnest. When the belfry of Saint Paul's began insistently calling the faithful to worship with a non-stop 15 minute peal I wandered over to find a phalanx of Mason’s lined up in the narthex in full regalia. An ageing organist played the church’s pipe organ assisted by a gentlemen who laboured in obscurity to work its hand-pumped bellows. I did my best to make sure the singing didn’t drag. I did not expect to hear jokes from the pulpit.

Spent my afternoon wandering around town inspecting the historical buildings and the wares of the various craft and gift shops then dropped into the box office to find where the evening performance was to. Saltwater Moon is a two-hander here performed in a backyard with two rows of lawn chairs, a bench, rocking chair, amber spyglass and Jacob Mercer’s hemp-roped suitcase. He’s fresh off the boat from Port-Aux-Basques to see the girl he left behind him. Lee Fowlow’s performance was the highlight of my visit. Only in a place like this would one run into an actor after the show and be thanked for being such a good audience.

Frost Wrecks Strawberry Crop

Frost wrecks strawberry crop

Gerard Beautieu says he lost thousands of dollars during a single frosty night. Gerard Beautieu says he lost thousands of dollars during a single frosty night. (CBC)

An overnight frost crunched the petals of a Newfoundland farmer's strawberry plants, robbing him of acres of crop he says is worth thousands of dollars.

Gerard Beautieu said 80 to 90 per cent of his strawberries at their flowering peak died when temperatures plunged below freezing Wednesday night in Reidville, on Newfoundland's west coast.

"When you freeze a strawberry flower, you won't have any strawberries on that flower," said Beautieu.

"Last night, I lost well over $10,000."

Clear skies overnight led to the cold temperatures, which according to Beautieu's scientific thermometer, reached minus four degrees Celsius.

On most of the dead flowers the stamen, the male reproductive part of the flower, is black, and the yellow pistils, which normally like a sunny yellow button, are losing their colour as well.

Beautieu said some other flowers were also dead, but hadn't turned colour yet. He said by the end of the day they would also likely turn black.

Beautieu used to have an expensive irrigation system to protect against frost, but said it wasn't economically feasible to use it every season. The only hope, he joked, lies elsewhere.

"If you're not religious when you start I guess you will be before you're finished," said Beautieu.

Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/newfoundland-labrador/story/2010/06/18/frost-wrecks-strawberry-crop-618.html#ixzz0rJdmlnRO

Port-Au-Choix & Cow Head

In the last week or so I’ve been busy doing what I came here to do, enjoy Newfoundland. As the three theatre reviews posted since my last entry would suggest I got to partake of Cow Head’s Gros Morne Theatre Fest. I may not get invited into the lives of Newfoundlanders but at least I can do so vicariously.

On Saturday June 5th I walked up to check out downtown Port-Au-Choix. The town has two gas stations--the ubiquitous Irving and a Western with a coffeeshop that is the town meetingplace. There’s a general store in town, a pharmacy, Riffs clothing store, and marine hardware wholesaler. The fish plant stands at one end of the harbour, the motel with dining room and bar, a second restaurant fronted by a ship’s prow, and the two churches. Sunday evening the portly priest at Saint Thomas Beckett Anglican Church thanked God for the fish plant’s licence and played 12-string guitar for the singing of hymns.

The RV Park beside Cow Head’s Seabreeze B&B is a parking lot overswept by Atlantic gales run by a couple from Edmonton. To get to the stoney beach one must cross the armour stone in place to protect the narrow paved road. At low tide Shallow Bay lives up to its name. Behind the town loom the still snowy mountains of Gros Morne. How one feels about the place depends upon the weather--either wind-driven rain, howling gales that let in the occasional patch of sunlight, or calmer warming trends that bring with them fog banks off the Strait. Clouds of some sort or other usually figure in all pictures of the place. Whatever the weather when there is fish to be caught the fishermen drive out the sandbar to Cow Head Harbour and put out to sea.

At the National Park’s Shallow Bay Campground one can walk the portions of the beach not closed for tern nesting, examine the well-kept pioneer cemetery that marks a former outport, or walk the Mail Road over which couriers with dog teams took the mail all the way to Saint Anthony 200 miles distant up the Great Northern Peninsula until the road was built. Here that road passes through the middle of a dense black spruce forest with open patches marking former homesteads. I walked a few miles of it in the fog. Taking the road along the sandbar one reaches the government wharf and a few wind blasted fisherman’s homes. There too are the Catholic and Anglican Cemeteries, a playing field and amphitheatre. A hiking trail leads to the top of ‘the big hill’ and at the look-off one gets a view of the town with a honking big communication tower in the foreground. Continuing on the trail one reaches the rusting circular steel ‘old lighthouse’ and an off-trail leads to the point where a stone was once thought to resemble a cow’s head.

By-passed by the new highway the town no longer supports a gas station though there are repair shops, a marine wholesaler, post office where people come to get there mail from their post box, 185-room motel, dining hall and bars, the supermarket, and the general store that sells everything from rented movies, nails and brass screws by the pound, groceries, Sears outlet, licences, lotto tickets, liquor, and tombstones. At Saint Mary the Virgin Anglican Church a midi-player provided music for hymn singing on Sunday. It’s the only church in town. The town rings Shallow Bay with the Long Range Academy and rec centre at the south end of town amid more prosperous looking homes. A few other eateries complete the picture and the warehouse theatre stands amid the motel complex in what appears to be a symbiotic relationship. I attended the three plays reviewed below and an evening of outport songs.

On a windy but sunny Friday I drove down to Western Brook and made the 2 mile hike to the dock at Western Pond that gives access to the land-locked fjord. Two thousand two hundred-foot sheer cliffs hem in five hundred seventy feet of the purest water known to man. The cliff faces are green with birch trees that cling to the soil-less rock faces. Waterfalls cascade over the heights above. One has to see it to believe it.

Yesterday, Monday June 14th I pulled up stakes and drove south through the town of Saint Paul and over the steep mountains of Gros Morne to Deer Lake; stopped for gas; and headed east through forested hills on Highway One, the Trans Canada Highway. No moose today but plenty of road repairs, the highway alternated between recently paved sections and bumpy older patches. Steam shovels clearing the ditches to prevent washouts seemed to be the order of the day. At Grand Falls/Windsor I pulled into Sangor Memorial Park on the Exploits River where the sun laying into the valley made things hot and brought out the first insects I’ve met in Newfoundland. The rain started next day. Aside from the mill which once owned the town salmon fishing draws people to the place which was home to Mary March, Newfoundland’s last Beothuk and one Gordon Pinsent.

Tempting Providence

This is the fourth in my series of GMTF Reviews. I came back to camp for a week in Cow Head expressly so that I could take in these productions. It’s too bad that the owners of the Seabreeze RV Park are even more remotely from away than I as I’d like more local contact. The museum that marks Nurse Bennett’s home in Daniels Harbour is not yet open or I’d have visited it in preparation for seeing this play. This community of about 300 which she made her centre of operations is again threatened by landslides caused by the erosion of the clay cliffs that front the sea.

The offspring of a famous woman, (Elenore Roosevelt I believe), was being interviewed and asked about the privilege it must have been to grow up with such a Mother and replied, “But I had to live with her”. Even Nurse Myra Bennett would have difficulty today living up to her legend. Dubbed the Florence Nighting Gale of the North, she came to Newfoundland to minister to the medical needs of a people separated by hundreds of miles of rugged geography from any other care; married a local man; and bore him three children. I’d be curious to hear about the lives these offspring led. The play attempts to introduce us to the woman behind the legend. The nurse who hid her insecurities behind a formal professionalism; the homesick young woman far from home; and the lady in need of male companionship.

The set is comprised of a bed sheet, one simple kitchen table, and four pressed-back chairs on a cushioned stage floor. What the actors are able to construct with these simple materials and mime without benefit of any other props is amazing. The actors clad entirely in white costumes spend the entire play on stage standing in the background when not engaged in playing a part and all participate in arranging their set pieces folding that single sheet into a wedding dress, bassinet, receiving blanket, backpack, and bedsheet--well may it have a few wrinkles when it resumes life as a tablecloth.

GMTF productions are ensemble pieces with each actor often playing multiple parts. We get the sense that they enjoy working with each other and playing to a home-town audience. There are no strangers in Newfoundland, only friends who haven’t met yet. I’m grateful to have had this opportunity to receive incite into the lives of people who confront hardship with cheerful grace and take life as it is.

Sinking of the SS Ethie

I can think of no finer recommendation for Gros Morne Theatre in general and this production in particular than the fact that the locals come back to see repeat stagings because they find them new and refreshing each year or that their fellow actors attend on their days off.

The remains of the Ethie can still be seen at low tide off Martin’s Point south of Cow Head where it was grounded on Dec 11, 1919. Although not mentioned directly by name the resonances with the SS Titanic are invoked, the major difference being that this shipwreck resulted in no loss of life. With nothing but a railing and a few barrels and boxes the cast make us feel we are on board; the only thing missing is the salt spray that washed over the decks. Indeed the audience are made to feel like the passengers whose lives are in peril, I know I felt their panic.

Special kudos to Adam Drake who performed the dual roles of Walter Young the ship’s purser who was charged with keeping the passengers calm as well as using his local knowledge to act as pilot to bring the ship to a safe beaching point AND the hyperactive, excitable Director. And to the comic relief provided by the three stokers caught below the waterline shovelling coal and in particular to the one who talked, talked, talked while ‘his’ mates did all the work. The parts may have called for it but I found the two captains rather stiff. The ship’s owner is its husband?

Along with the part played by the Director the author with her pad interviewing Ship’s Mate Gullage invoke the limitations of eye-witness accounts in getting at the truth of any matter. Excerpts from local newspapers at the time printed on the placemats serve to eloquently illustrate the point. When it comes to theatre fiction gets closer to the truth of the matter than dry facts. Whatever the challenges involved I’d have preferred to have seen Ruffles played by a real Newfoundland Dog.

Except for the soggy over-cooked carrots the Dinner was acceptable at the price. To me the only authentic way to serve cod is pan-fried with scruncheons. The coffee was rather weak but it kept me awake for the second play.

The Double Axe Murders

The windstorm that forms the background for this play could have been piped in live from outside the theatre this evening. A real oil lantern is burning on stage as the audience files in and remains lit until the last minute of the play, the smell of kerosene pervades. The set is imaginative and spare, smoke billows out of the stove when the door is opened. The bone-like rafters evoke a whaling past and the rustic props and set pieces the primitive conditions in which these people lived. It is theis attention to fine details that makes this production so authentic.

Naughty children have been threatened with the boogeyman for centuries but in Cow Head in 1809 there was a real boogeyman in the person of John Pelly hung for the axe murders of his two fellow trappers. That it was generally accepted that he’d escaped Ireland after the murder of his wife only adds to his menace.

The play begins with our chief protagonist in the murdered men’s cabin with a blizzard raging outside and his own demons haunting him within. Soon to arrive are the murdered men’s sister and fiancée accompanied by the man for whom she keeps house. These two spend the rest of the play menaced by the storm without and the unhinged murderer within. Unable to safely leave they do their best to placate their unstable ‘host’ and hide from him their growing suspicions as to the ghastly deeds that have taken place. The play takes the form of murder mystery thriller concentrating on the growing tension between the murderer and his guests. The audience learns the clues to the crime as Sarah discovers them and our sense of horror is only heightened by the fact that we never do get the entire story.

The actors manage to inhabit their parts and carry the audience along for the suspenseful ride. One can feel chills running up and down one’s spine and had a chunk of ice dropped on our backs I and most of the audience would have jumped several feet. It’s a pity the tension had to be broken by an intermission and its desired beer sales.

It was good to see that locals attend these productions. I recognized one of the crew from my Bonne Bay Cruise and his wife in the audience.

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Double Axe Murders June 11

Found your brochure at the National Park’s Visitors Centre, then online and in the Newfoundland Travel Book.

Once I’d learned of the Festival I planned to be in Cow Head for this week’s plays.

The Ticket Prices? Who can say? Do they enable you to meet costs? A third row seat for a Mirvish Production in Toronto would be twice or triple the price.

NL GenWeb Oral History
Northern Peninsula ~ St. Barbe South District
Cow Head - Double Murders at Cow Head, 1809
The information was transcribed by ALEXANDER PAYNE, September 1999. While I have endeavored to be as correct as humanly possible, there could be some typographical errors.


Double axe murders: it could be the headline noting yet another grisly death in some large American city, except that it happened in Cow Head in 1809.
At that time, there was no Cow Head and in fact, very little settlement on the entire Northern Peninsula, aside from French fishermen who were based along the "French Shore" during the summer.
Then, as now, Cow Head was comprised of a rocky peninsula joined to the mainland by a narrow spit of sand and gravel. The site of the present community was thickly forested, and the only inhabitants of the entire region were a few trappers.
Merchants in the Bonne Bay area were involved in both fur trading and the fishing industry, and they often hired trappers and sent them north to take animal pelts. Among the men hired were Joseph Rendall, who had a camp at Shallow Bay, Richard Cross and a man known as John Pelley, who had settled there from St. Mary's Bay.
Pelley (locally pronounced as 'Peeley') had come to Newfoundland from Ireland and it was commonly understood that he had murdered his wife and escaped the law by crossing the Atlantic Ocean.
The three men were sent to cover the area north of Rocky Harbour, with Pelley and Rendall being sent to Shallow Bay, as Cow Head was then known, to set their traplines. Cross would visit his traplines once or twice a week, sometimes staying overnight at Rendall's Shallow Bay camp.
Cross left for one such trip on April 10 and said he would return later that week. Several days after his expected return, his absence was causing concern among friends and relatives. Among the Rocky Harbour residents who expressed concern was his sister Sarah Cross Singleton, who was also the fiancee of Joseph Rendall.
She worked as a housekeeper for John Paine, said to be an ex-Navy man. In fact, a relative described Paine as a deserter from a warship, who jumped ship near Quirpon and hid in the woods. He eventually walked to Rocky Harbour, where he became known as "Man-o-war John Paine."
Nearly a week after the trappers left Rocky Harbour, Paine and Sarah Cross walked 28 miles to Shallow Bay in search of them. When they arrived at Shallow Bay, Pelley was standing in the doorway of Rendall's camp. He told them he had not seen Cross at all, and that Rendall had gone into the woods and it was uncertain when he would return.
Paine and Sarah Cross stayed at Rendall's camp that night. The next morning, Paine went out and discovered two pairs of cuffs and a set of rackets, which Sarah identified as belonging to her brother. She became very agitated, but Paine managed to escort her back to Rocky Harbour without alerting Pelley of their suspicions.
One local version of the story states that Sarah had galled her foot while walking and asked for a bandage. Pelley directed her to a room, where she noticed bloodstains and her brother's snowshoes. She also noticed that in the main room, her fiancee's mittens, which she had knitted, were hanging up to dry.
She knew the men would not have gone in the woods without their mittens and snowshoes, and relayed her fears to Paine. The two, who had planned to stay overnight in Pelley's camp, were unable to sleep, especially when Pelley took his gun into the bunk, claiming he had seen a weasel.
The two returned to Rocky Harbour and told of their fears that Cross and Rendall had been murdered by Pelley. An armed search party set out for Shallow Bay to investigate. When they got to a marsh half a mile from Rendall's camp, they saw Pelley with his axe and gun. When he spotted the men, he grabbed his gun and started running for Shallow Bay.
He was ordered to stop or he would be shot. Pelley obeyed and was escorted back to the camp and questioned. He denied any involvement in the apparent murder of the men, so, according to the local story, the men resorted to stronger measures.
They apparently built a fire and threatened to throw Pelley into it if he didn't confess. He finally broke down and admitted to killing the men. He directed the searchers to remove some snow and boughs from a spot near the camp and there the bodies of the two men were found, with their skulls bashed in.
There are two versions of the explanation Pelley gave for his actions. One is that he felt the two men were encroaching on his trapping territory. While in the camp, one of the men bent down to put a stick into the stove, and Pelley hit him. He then turned on the other man, killing him too.
The other explanation is that a quarrel had arisen between the men in connection with a boat Rendall planned to build. There was a crooked tree in front of the camp which was suitable for boat timbers and as Rendall started to chop it down, Pelley struck him with the axe. As Cross reacted in horror, Pelley turned on him too, and he met the same fate as his partner.
At any rate, Pelley was taken to Rocky Harbour and held there until the spring, when a British man-o-war transported him to St. John's. There, he stood trial for the murders, and the official version of the story was given on September 1, 1809 before chief justice Thomas Tremlett.
On the witness stand, Sarah Cross stated that while he was being held, Pelley had said to Paine: "Ah John, I have murdered them both, and you may kill me if you please." Paine asked the prisoner why.
'The prisoner said he had been ordered by Rendail to cut some wood," the transcript reads. "On his (Pelley's) grumbling, and going reluctantly, Rendall said if he was not quiet he would knock his liver out...Rendall approached toward him when he (Pelley) struck him a blow and knocked him down, but perceiving him move, he struck him a second time and killed him." Pelley was judged guilty of the murder and n Sept. 5, was hanged from a yardarm of a naval ship in St. John's harbour. However, there a happy ending to part of this story, as John Paine and Sarah Cross were married at St. John's before they returned home to Rocky Harbour. Although the murders took place nearly 200 years ago, the story lives on as a legend. Older residents of the community recall how they would never walk alone at night past the spot where the bodies and the axe were found over 100 years after the double, murder.

Court Records (1809)
TRANSCRIPT OF COURT PROCEEDINGS
Cout of Assizes held at the Court House Saint Johns, September the first one thousand eight hundred and nine.Honorable Thomas Tremlett Chief Justice
The Court opened in the usual way, when the following Gentlemen were sworn in as Grand Jurors.
List of the Grand Jury
Robert Hutten, Foreman
Philip Beenlen
Samuel Bulley
Walter Baine
John Congdon
Nicholas Gill
Patrick Huie
Richard Langley
Newman Wright Hoyles
James Milledge
Samuel Prowse
Patrick Ryan
George Richard Robinson
Thomas Stabb
William Bevile Thomas
James Stewart
John Butler
David Tasker
James Fergus
John John Masters
Andrew Simpson
Luke Murdock
Peter MacKellar
The Grand Jury returned a Bill of Indictment into Court, a true Bill, against John Pelley for the Murder of Jospeh Rendall of Shallow Bay.
The prisoner was arraingned and pleaded not Guilty. The following Jury was Impanneled to Try the ....
Court of Assizes held at the Court House Saint Johns first September, one thousand eight hundred and Nine.
List of the Petty Jury
Robert Andrews
Jonas Baxter
John Burke
Richard Cooke
Michael Farrell
Anthony William Godfrey
William Branscombe
John Dowsly
John Guist
Matthew Guzwell
William Long
James Lane
Rex -- versus John Pelley of Shallow Bay, for the Murder of Richard Cross of Rocky Harbour
First Witness
Sarah Singleton sworn, deposed that she lives at Rocky Harbour at the entrance of Bonne Bay, that on the thenth of April last her brother Richard Cross, who lived with deponent and John Pain, left Rocky Harbor for the purpose of setting traps, and said on his departure that he should return on thursday, or friday at the farthest but not returning on Sunday, She in company with John Pain went in search of him, they proceeded along the shore, but not meeting him they returned on tuesday to rocky harbor and on wednesday morning sett off again and proceeded farther along Shore, till they reached Shallow bay, where the prisoner John Pelly was standing at the door of Joseph Renda11s house, deponent asked him if he has seen her Brother Richard Cross who replied he had not she then inquired for Joseph Rendall prisoner said he was gone into the woods about his traps and that it was uncertain when he might return, that this deponent remained at shallow bay that night with John Pain and sleft in Rendalls house where the prisoner also remained, that the prisoner went out in the morning, and deponent shortly after went out, and near the dwelling house of Joseph Rendall discovered two pairs of cuffs and a pair of rackets which she knew belonged to her Brother Richard Cross, she was much agitated and said, my poor brother is murdered, on which John Pain said hold your tongue, Pelly is not far and if he hears you he may come and kill us, that deponent and John Pain returned to rocky harbor and on the morning proceeded to Bonne bay, to the house of William Norris, that no person seemed willing to accompany them, and they left it, but a short time after they were joined by William Salmon and Thomas Skinner, with whom they proceeded to Shallow bay, they met the prisoner on a marsh about half a mile from the dwelling house of Joseph Rendall, with a Gun and Hatchet on his Shoulder, they inquired if he knew anything of Richard Cross, he said he had been there but was gone, and that Joseph Rendall was in the woods about his Traps, that the prisoner was taken into custody and kept in confinement during the night, that in the morning when they were getting up, deponent saw the prisoner Pelly look hard at John Pain, and heard him say ah John I have murdered them both, and you may kill me if you please that Paine asked the prisoner how he could kill Richard Cross who had never done him an injury but Pelly replied he never had injured a hair of his head and that he was very sorry, that the prisoner shewed them, the place where the body was deposited, that on removing some grass and sand they discovered the body of Richard Cross, that on removing it, a wound was visible on the back of the head from whence blood then issued, that the prisoner said he has been ordered by Rendall to cut some wood, on his grumbling, and going reluctantly Rendall said if he was not guiet he would knock his liver out, that Rendall approached towards him when he struck him a blow and knocked him down but perceiving him move, he struck him a second time and killed him, the prisoner took them to the place where he his Rendalls and Cross's Guns and Knapsacks, and that the tinder box of Richard Cross was also re cognized by this deponent, but that it had been altered in its appearance by being scraped.
Second Witness
John Pain sworn, deposed that he lives at Rocky Harbor, that Richard Cross who lived with deponent, left his house on Monday the tenth (transcript ends here)
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Fort Townshend, 3rd Sept 1809
Sir
I beg leave to acquaint you that on Tuesday next the 5th inst between the hours of Nine and Eleven in the Forenoon, will be executed on the Barrens near the Kings Wood Yard, the Felon John Pelly who has been convicted for the Murder of Joseph Rendall and Richard Cross at Shallow Bay and in pursuance of the Sentence passed on him this Session in the Supreme Court of Judicature of this Island, I have pitched on this spot for his Execution as most conspicuous for the purpose of its being seen by all the Crews of His Majesty's Ships, in this Harbour, I have therefore to request you will be pleased to order such a Guard to attend on this Occasion as you may deem suitable and adequate to the purpose.
I have the honor to be
Sir Your most obedient
humble servant
J. Holloway
Major General Moore
Commanding His Majesty's Troops
at Newfoundland
---------------------------------------------------
Fort Townshend, 4th Sept 1809
Sir
Herewith enclosed you will receive a Warrant for the Execution of John Pelley, who for the more Public Example, is to be drawn on a Sledge from the Gaol up the King's Road to the place of Execution on the Barrens near the King's Wood Yard.
I am Sir Your most
obedient humble Servant
J.Holloway
Henry Phillip Esqr
High Sheriff
-------------------------------------------------
By His Excellency John Holloway Esqr
Whereas a Court of Assize and General Gaol Delivery holden at the Court House in St. John's in this Island on the First and Second days of September instant, John Pelley was in due Form of Law convicted on the Murder of Jospeh Rendall and Rich'd Cross at Shallow Bay in this Island, and was sentenced for the same to be hanged by the Neck until he is dead. I do by virtue of His Majesty's Commission made Letters patent bearing date at Westminster, the Sixth day of May in the Forty Seventh Year of His Majesty's Reign hereby authorize and command you that Tomorrow morning being the Fifth day of September instant, between the Hours of Nine and Eleven, you cause Execution to be publicly done upon the said John Pelley; according to the Sentence aforesaid, by hanging him by the Neck until he is dead. And for so doing this shall be your warrant.
Given under my hand and seal at
Fort Townshend, St. Johns Newfoundland
The Fourth day of September, One
Thousand, Eight hundred and Nine
J. Holloway
Henry Phillips, Esqr.
High Sheriff of
Newfoundland
By Command of His Excellency
-----------------------------------------------------------
St. John's Newfoundland
10th of September 1809
Expences incurred in the apprehending and Prosecution of John Pelley convicted of the Murder of Joseph Rendall and Richard Cross.
To William Salmon for 8 days loss of time in the assisting in apprehending John Pelley
a 7/6* 3 " ~ " ~ D° for the passage of Pelley and three of the Evidences from Bonne Bay to St. John's.
8 " ~ " ~ D° for the boarding of Pelley 119 Days
a 1/6 8 " 18 " 6 D° for extra trouble in guarding the prisoner during his confinement.
And for his attendance to give Evidence at the Assizes. L 24 " 18 " 6
To John Paine for his Labour in searching for and securing Pelley 17 days a 5/ 4 " 5 " ~ D° for 40 Days absence from his home and coming to St. John's to give Evidence 10 " ~ " ~
Sarah Singleton for her Expences and loss of time in attending to give Evidence 8. 5 " ~ " ~
Joseph Norris for Tho~ Skinner attendance 8 Days in assisting to apprehend Pelley Thos Skinner for his Expences and attendance to give Evidence on Trial 2 " ~
APPROVED L 51 " 3 " 6
(Signed) T. Coole, J.P. Approved for Payment
J. Rennell " (signed J. Holloway)
J. Harries "
J. Broom
St. John's 18 Sept 1809
Approved
(signed) Thos Tremlett
Ch Justice
· 7/6 = 7 Shillings 6 pence
· 3 " ~ " ~ = 3 pounds, 0 Shillings, 0 pence
District of St John's (partial transcript only)
1809 Sept 22

John Paine for Mr Cooks Order 19 ~ 5 ~
Wm Salmon for Mr Cooks Order 24 ~ 18 ~
Jas Norris for Mr Cooks Order 7 ~ ~

Oct 16
For executing Pelley 5 ~ 5 ~
------------------------------------------------------------
1809
13th Sep. John Payne and Sarah Singleton of Rocky Harbour the straights of Belle Isle were married by me John Harries
John Paine
This marriage was sol- her
Lemnized between us Sarah X Singleton
Mark

In the presence of Willm Notting
Jane Hollwill
© Alexander Payne and NL GenWeb

Woman Sues Google for Bad Directions

Woman Sues Google for Bad Directions

Sarah Jacobsson, PC World

May 31, 2010 8:30 am

One day I was using my cell phone's GPS service to find the nearest Target. I was driving down the road when suddenly my cell phone piped up, "Turn right here." I looked to the right. There was no road, just a tree and some grass. I chalked it up to a GPS glitch and turned right at the next corner.

If I had been Lauren Rosenberg, however, I would have turned right at that very moment, hit the tree, suffered some cuts and minor brain damage, and then turned around and sued Verizon for the glitch in its GPS service.

Seriously.

Search Engine Land reports that Rosenberg, a Los Angeles California native, is suing Google because Google Maps issued directions that told her to walk down a rural highway. She started walking down the highway--which had no sidewalk or pedestrian paths--and was struck by a car. She is suing Google for her medical expenses ($100,000), as well as punitive damages. She is also suing the driver who struck her, Patrick Harwood of Park City, Utah.

On January 19, 2010, Rosenberg was apparently trying to get from 96 Daly Street, Park City, Utah, to 1710 Prospector Avenue, Park City, Utah. She looked up the walking directions using Google Maps on her Blackberry. Google Maps suggested a route that included a half-mile walk down "Deer Valley Drive," which is also known as "Utah State Route 224."

There's not much more to say--she started walking down the middle of a highway, and a car hit her. Who wouldn't have seen that one coming?

According to Rosenberg's complaint filing:

"As a direct and proximate cause of Defendant Google’s careless, reckless and negligent providing of unsafe directions, Plaintiff Lauren Rosenberg was led onto a dangerous highway, and was thereby stricken by a motor vehicle, causing her to suffer sever permanent physical, emotional, and mental injuries, including pain and suffering."

Google actually does offer up a warning about its walking directions--if you view Google Maps on a computer, it gives you the following message: "Walking directions are in beta. Use caution--This route may be missing sidewalks or pedestrian paths."

This warning does not show up in PDA's and cell phones, however. I suppose Google figured that people who are smart enough to use Blackberries are probably also smart enough to not walk directly into the middle of traffic.

For the record, when I look up driving directions from my current city (San Francisco, California) to the city I grew up in (Tokyo, Japan), Google Maps suggests I kayak across the Pacific Ocean (with a rest stop in Hawaii, of course).

I can't wait until Ms. Rosenberg tries to travel overseas ("The plaintiff was unaware that attempting to kayak 5,100 miles is an unreasonable endeavor").

Wherefore our heritage?

976 lighthouses declared surplus

Last Updated: Wednesday, June 9, 2010 | 1:44 PM AT Comments143Recommend111

CBC News

The lighthouse in Peggys Cove, N.S., has been declared surplus by the federal government. (CBC)

The Department of Fisheries and Oceans has declared 976 lighthouses across Canada surplus property, raising fears about the future of some of the country's most iconic landmarks.

The Peggys Cove lighthouse in Peggys Cove, N.S., and the Cape Spear lighthouse near St. John's, N.L., are among the active lighthouses named on a list posted on the DFO website.

The surplus lighthouses are those that Canadian Coast Guard officials determined "could be replaced with simpler structures whose operation and maintenance would be more cost-effective," according to the DFO website.

The department also said some of the former lighthouses are no longer part of Canada's navigation system.

"I'm very, very disappointed," said Barry MacDonald, president of the Nova Scotia Lighthouse Preservation Society.

"Although the aid to navigation that's on that location is not declared surplus, what they're coming at here is the fact that they can maintain a steel tower on that site with a solar light a whole lot cheaper than they can maintain a heritage structure."

The 488 active lighthouses and 488 inactive lighthouses were declared surplus on May 29, when the new Heritage Lighthouse Protection Act came into force.

Heritage Lighthouse Protection Act

It is now up to individuals, municipalities and community-based non-profit groups to try to take over the surplus lighthouses. Under the act, they can seek heritage designations for the lighthouses through a petition to Parks Canada.

But the designation won't be granted without a written commitment from someone willing to own the lighthouse.

MacDonald said that means communities hoping to save larger lighthouses will be saddled with any associated maintenance costs.

"We've been as realistic as possible in our negotiations with DFO to say, 'Look, we just want a couple of these icons in each province protected,'" he said.

"By declaring all the lights in Canada surplus — with the exception of the staffed lighthouses on both coasts — they've in fact pretty much absolved themselves of any kind of responsibility."

MacDonald said a few years ago, the coast guard painted the Sambro Island lighthouse — the oldest working lighthouse in North America.

He estimates that job cost between $20,000 and $50,000.

"Those kinds of maintenance dollars are just out of the range," said MacDonald. "I can't think of any way that a community group could raise that kind of money."

The act will serve smaller lighthouses well, MacDonald said, because there are many communities who are willing and able to take them over.

Futures questioned

Anyone interested in taking over a lighthouse and having it declared a heritage property has two years to submit a petition.

Any surplus lighthouses that don't receive a designation will remain in the DFO's real estate holdings, according to the website.

There is no mention of whether the department will continue to be responsible for the maintenance of any unclaimed lighthouses.

"It puts the future of these iconic structures across the country in jeopardy. There's a big question mark now," said MacDonald.

DFO did not respond to requests for an interview and directed inquires to their website.

Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/nova-scotia/story/2010/06/08/ns-lighthouses-surplus.html#ixzz0qPQdGfTt

Saint Anthony & L'Anse-Aux-Meadows

The sun came out for the first day of operations for L’Anse-Aux-Meadows National Historic Site and I rode over on my bicycle to see the place. I did not get to use my newly purchased National Parks pass as the powers that be decided to improve on what was already considered a world class exhibit and have their Visitors Centre off-limits to all but construction personnel in consequence of which the artefacts it holds are not on exhibit and admission to the park is free. A few photos grace the temporary trailer where we met parks staff and in one a buck-toothed urchin named Clayton Anderson rides in a powerboat with the Norwegian who discovered the site. During our tour of the site the adult Clayton tells us of playing Cowboys and Indians among those mounds and of how he and his brothers made daily bread deliveries from his mother’s oven to the Norwegian Archaeologist who explored the site. These kind of anecdotes and his intimate knowledge of the area and unhurried approach to showing us the site made the visit. Once I caught onto the fact that ‘hice’ was ice and got an ear for his priceless accent his commentary was informative and entertaining.

The reconstruction and enactors did their best to demonstrate what life was like over 1000 years ago. Wearing handmade leather shoes, and hand woven wool and linen garments they talked of life in that small colony. A weaver was at work at weighting her yarn after her loom was moved to give a classroom demonstration. In my own home we gave up on growing our own wool when the only carding and spinning mill in Nova Scotia closed, I was to learn that in Newfoundland they have always mailed their wool to New Brunswick. Their fires are propane fired simulations made necessary when real wood fires caused the dried out roof to catch fire in mid-August. The re-enactors don’t miss smelling of wood smoke for the entire season and at least a month afterward. The Norseman Restaurant on the bay was too high-falootin for the likes of me but the light on the bay was magical with streamers of fog drifting near the waterline.





Blessed with two successive days of sunshine I drove the 30 km to Saint Anthony and took the iceberg tour. After two and a half hours of bobbing about on the high seas the earth under me continued rocking most of the remainder of the day. Have you heard of Sir Wilfred Grenfell? A doctor and Anglican missionary he came to Northern Newfoundland and Labrador in the mid-1800’s. Enkindled by the poverty, starvation, and lack of education that confronted him he resolved to do something about it. By summers he and his coworkers toured the Labrador coastlines in hospital ships. He built hospitals on land and in Saint Anthony became a one-man make-work project. There he built a hospital, cottage industries, a school, orphanage and set up a CO-OP to counter the company store mentality. Were he alive today he’d be incensed to hear that the government plans to move the air ambulance away from Saint Anthony. The local waterbomber is out of commision due to rusting wings.



Beside the lighthouse out at the point is an over-priced cafe and gift shop. The 90-ft iceberg we circled is visible from shore grounded in 200 ft of water. The Grenfell Memorial COOP still operates and has an instore bakery. Noted cinnamon spread among other local specialties. Fruit and vegetables are in short supply and expensive. (My raisin bread toast just set off the smoke alarm).

Drove down to the fishing village of Englee yesterday on someone’s enthusiastic endorsement. Had I known I’d encounter the worst pot-holed roads I’ve driven in 50,000 km I’d have gone no where near it. Beauty, it appears, is in the eye of the beholder. At Roddickton I stopped at town hall which doubles as a ‘Green Moose Interpretation Centre’. Along with a mature stuffed moose the exhibits chart the lumbering industry, the great fire that burnt the local mill, the ecology, and moose. The twenty-something lads who posed for the lumbering photos are at pains to show off bulging biceps but would look more authentic with a bit of sweat and dirt on their shirts. I made it out through rock, stunted trees and moose to the Great Northern Highway, 430, without losing a tire or hitting anything.

Port-Au-Choix looked more inviting without the wind, rain and fog cover.



The Visitors Centre in the National Park at the point has 5000-year-old early Dorsett Marine Eskimo artefacts and the wind-blasted landscape that surrounds it bears stunted Tuckamore and ground-hugging avens and saxifrage.

I have no internet access here but can pick up CBC Radio One on my RV’s AV system, a first in Newfoundland but no TV signal. Nothing of interest on either I fear. The forecast was for three days of rain but when my programmed coffee maker awoke me at 6 AM the sun was out and only some high altitude scud in the sky. Since weather changes quickly here I’m not sure it’s worth the effort getting my bike down off its rack for the two days I’ll be here. I can walk over to the local Foodland across the road and once it gets a chance to warm up slightly will probably walk up to check out the harbour area. This it would seem is the Shrimp Capital of Western Newfoundland but the nearest liquor store is in Port Saunders. Anglican Church Service is 7 PM tomorrow, The RC Church being the only other option.