Swashbuckling then . . . seafood now

Instead of privateers, Halifax waterfront now has fine restaurants and shops

Author: By Stanton H. Patty, Globe Correspondent

Date: SUNDAY, May 10, 1998

Page: M10

Section: Travel

From the wharves of old Halifax, Collins used to send his pirate navy out to capture enemy shipping.

The enemy? That was us during the War of 1812.

Collins, so the story goes, placed about four dozen of his toughs aboard a British warship, HMS Shannon, for a sea battle off Boston with an American frigate, the Chesapeake.

The fight took only about 15 minutes. Shannon was victorious.

All Halifax cheered when Shannon -- with Chesapeake in tow -- sailed into the harbor here on June 6, 1813.

Meanwhile, Enos Collins and other Halifax-based privateers were filling their stone warehouses along the waterfront with booty.

The swashbuckling Nova Scotian also found other ways, including banking, to make money. By the time Collins died in 1871, at age 97, he was one of the richest men in North America.

So how come he didn't think of opening a seafood restaurant, too?

One of the original Collins buildings, where lofts once were stuffed with loot, is doing business these days as the Privateers' Warehouse, a popular restaurant and pub.

Privateers' Warehouse anchors a restoration project known as Historic Properties, one element of a reborn waterfront that is the pride of Halifax.

It's a thoroughly pleasant array for visitors, with museums, gift shops, art galleries, harbor-tour offices, and eateries strung along more than two miles of salt-air walkways.

Haligonians get downright emotional when they talk about their beloved harborfront. They almost lost it to developers.

City officials were all set to demolish this slice of Halifax's historic harbor for a freeway.

``We stopped them just in time,'' says Lou Collins, the Halifax historian who chaired the citizens' committee that saved the waterfront.

``An expressway? Can you imagine? You would be driving along there today at 50 miles per hour and waving to seagulls -- because there would be nothing else left to see.

``As it is, we managed to save only remnants from the past, but they are important remnants.''

Maclean's, Canada's weekly news magazine, describes Halifax as having a ``penetrating sense of history.''

Halifax also is a great place to be young.

``Totally cool,'' says Peggy Bowman, 20, a Dalhousie University student.

That's mainly because seven colleges and universities have campuses in the Halifax area. Student life has sown 60 or so lively coffee houses and pubs through the downtown core. Spring Garden Road and Argyle Street are where visitors find most of the action.

Grateful students regularly pay homage to Alexander Keith, the 19th-century brewmaster who gave Nova Scotia its favorite beverage. There's almost always a bottle of Keith's ale atop his resting place in Camp Hill Cemetery.

But that ``penetrating sense of history'' still overlays this good-time city of Atlantic Canada.

Follow the skirl of bagpipes to the crest of Citadel Hill, the 19th-century fortress above downtown Halifax -- then look back toward the great harbor.

Down there, where travelers stroll the waterfront, is where England's Edward Cornwallis led 2,500 soldiers and settlers ashore in 1749 to found Halifax.

Britain's plan, and it worked, was to counter the French presence at the Louisbourg Fortress on Nova Scotia's Cape Breton Island. France lost Louisbourg and the rest of Canada a few years later.

But Cornwallis didn't stay long as governor of the colony. He was homesick. His gull-splattered statue, down by the Westin Nova Scotian Hotel, gazes longingly across the North Atlantic toward England.

Halifax Harbor also is where they brought ashore the bodies of more than 200 victims of the Titanic sinking in 1912. Mortuary ships had been dispatched from Halifax to the scene of the tragedy, off the coast of neighboring Newfoundland.

Records show that 150 of the Titanic dead are buried in three Halifax cemeteries. Many could not be identified.

Saddest grave of all in Fairview Cemetery belongs to a lad, about age 4, who was buried as ``The Unknown Child.'' Nobody claimed the youngster's remains.

Look again toward the harbor.

Down there also is the site of the biggest man-made explosion the world had known until an atomic bomb burst over Hiroshima.

The date was Dec. 6, 1917. Two vessels -- the Mont Blanc, a French ship loaded with explosives for World War I battles, and the Imo, a Belgian relief ship -- collided in Halifax harbor that morning. First there was a fire, then a terrible explosion.

It's another story that won't go away.

``About 2,000 people died here that day,'' says Janet Kitz, author of ``Shattered City,'' the definitive account of the disaster.

``I still go to birthday parties for the survivors -- and to funerals, too.''

But not all of Halifax's history is so gloomy.

Up there on Citadel Hill is the Old Town Clock, a stately tower that has become the city's signature.

Prince Edward, the Duke of Kent, ordered the clock installed in 1803 when he was commander-in-chief of the Halifax garrison. The prince insisted soldiers and civilians alike be punctual.

But there is a sort of royal ``deja vu'' footnote to the story. Gossips soon learned that Edward -- later to be the father of Britain's Queen Victoria -- had been accompanied to Halifax by his pretty French mistress, Julie St. Laurent.

And we can blame a chap from Halifax for burning our White House.

That happened also during the War of 1812. In fact, the White House wasn't white until General Robert Ross rode down from Halifax to lead British forces into Washington, D.C.

Ross's troops set fire to the presidential mansion, and the badly scorched structure was painted white to hide the damage.

Presto! The White House.

Ross was killed near Baltimore shortly afterward. He rests here, in the Old Burying Ground, close by St. Paul's Anglican Church.

Then there is the Chapel of Our Lady of Sorrows, a tiny Catholic church in the center of Holy Cross Cemetery. It's known here as ``The Church Built in a Day.''

Irish emigrants were assigned a plot of land in downtown Halifax, and told they could keep the property if they could build a church in a single day. About 2,000 of the faithful turned out Aug. 31, 1843, and completed the job before midnight.

Halifax hospitality comes with a foot-stomping beat at O'Carroll's (1860 Upper Water St.).

Come on in. There's fiddle music and there's singing.

``No chair, mate?'' asks a local.

He slides a chair my way, aiming it so that my knees buckle and I'm seated instantly.

``How's that?''

Someone was singing a Gaelic tune from Cape Breton Island. The lyrics went like this:

``I asked her if she loves me.

She called me a fool . . .''

``But it has a happy ending -- not to worry,'' said my new friend who had pitched the chair.

And then he raised his glass for a traditional Cape Breton toast:

``Sociable!''

That pretty well sums up Halifax.

-- Maritime Museum of the Atlantic: one of Canada's foremost museums. Downtown, at 1675 Lower Water St. Exhibits about the Titanic sinking in 1912, the Halifax Explosion in 1917, and Halifax's role in assembling North Atlantic convoys to beleaguered England in World War II. Historic vessels berthed by the museum include HMCS Sackville, last of the Canadian naval corvettes that escorted the wartime convoys, and the Acadia, a pioneering research ship. Open every day. Tickets are about $3.25 US for adults, 75 cents for children ages 6-17; about $7.50 for a family.

-- St. Paul's Anglican Church: on the southern end of the downtown Grand Parade, Halifax's early-day military parade ground. Opened in 1750, St. Paul's is the oldest building in Halifax and the oldest Protestant church in Canada.

-- City Hall: The Victorian building at the northern end of the Grand Parade dates to 1890. Visitors are invited to have tea at City Hall with His Worship, Mayor Walter Fitzgerald, at 3:30 p.m. Monday through Thursday in July and August. No charge.

-- Halifax Public Gardens: The 17-acre park, established in 1866, is considered a superb example of a formal Victorian garden. The garden is at Spring Garden Road and South Park Street, an easy walk of about 10 minutes around the south side of Citadel Hill.

-- Province House: Canada's oldest legislative building (1819), still is in use for the Nova Scotia government. Downtown, framed by Granville, George, Hollis, and Prince streets. Charles Dickens called it ``a gem of Georgian architecture.''

-- The Old Burying Ground: Halifax's first cemetery, with burials from 1749. Fascinating old gravestones, including many decorated with sorrowful carvings, ranging from angels to weeping willow trees. Downtown, at the corner of Spring Garden Road and Barrington Street.

-- Our Lady of Sorrows Chapel: Also known as ``The Church Built in a Day.'' The tiny church is in Holy Cross Cemetery, a short walk from the downtown core, bordered by Queen, South, and Park streets.

-- Harbor Tours: Book at Murphy's on the Water, at the Cable Wharf on Halifax's historic waterfront. Tickets are about $2 US for two hours of sightseeing.

-- Farmers' Market: A Halifax tradition since 1750. Housed in the former Keith's brewery complex downtown at 1496 Lower Water Stt. The public market, featuring items ranging from fresh produce and seafood to berries and flowers, is open from 7 a.m. to noon Saturdays; from 3 p.m. to 8 p.m. Thursdays. No charge.

-- Shakespeare by the Sea: The bard's plays are staged in summer in Point Pleasant Park, on the southern tip of the Halifax waterfront. Guests follow actors and actresses through the park's footpaths during the productions.

-- Tourism Nova Scotia, Nova Scotia Marketing Agency, PO Box 519, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada B3J 2R7. Phone 800-313-4447 or 902-424-5000; fax 902-424-2668.