Skipper

She's a dory, not a taxi.

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A shared trip

Games

Come in. Pull up a chair.

Trivia

The Board

Them days you sent a youngster up the road to say there was a game on. Now you send the code, and if a chair's still empty when you deal, one of the regulars takes it.

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Down the road

Well, Sunday after Mass we'd walk it. Start at the gate and go down, and every house along here I'll tell you who's in it.

The Bell Island U-Boat Attacks (1942)

German U-boats sank four ore ships in sight of Bell Island - one of the few direct attacks on North America in WWII.

On 4 September 1942, U-513 under Commander Ruggeberg followed the ore carrier Evelyn B into Bell Island anchorage after dark and waited on the bottom at 24 metres overnight. On the evening of 5 September it torpedoed and sank the Lord Strathcona and the Saganaga - 29 sailors died, all from the Saganaga. On 2 November 1942 U-518 under Wissmann came in so close that the crew on deck could see car headlights ashore; a torpedo aimed at the Anna T missed and blew up Scotia Pier, and the U-boat sank the Rose Castle (28 men lost) and the Free French PLM 27 (12 lost), escaping past HMCS Drumheller and two Fairmile patrol boats. A spy scare swept the island - even the PLM 27's captain selling a piano drew suspicion - but the only real German agent connected to the attacks was Werner von Janowski, carried aboard U-518 and landed at New Carlisle, Quebec, on 9 November; he was caught within 24 hours carrying out-of-date banknotes and Belgian matches, and was turned as a double agent. In total, four ore ships and more than 60 lives were lost at Bell Island - one of the few places in North America attacked directly by German forces in the Second World War.

How to get there

The blast scar on Scotia Pier is visible from the Bell Island ferry out of Portugal Cove; the full story is told at the island's mine museum.

Fact

Where that comes from

On the go

Them days the garden party was the whole summer. Here's what's on the go now, and when.

The kitchen

Well, Sunday the pot was on before Mass and the smell of it met you at the gate. Here's what was in it, and how it's done.

The hall

Them days the hall had a dance Saturday and the kitchen had music the rest of the week. It's still playing. Come in and listen.

The yarns

He said, you know the one about the light on the water. I said, I do. That's a story, mind, and I'll tell you which parts.

Not the house

No, I said, that's not the house. It was down just below there. Go back up the road.

Back up the road