Annapolis Royal. NS Rs

June 30. Today we left Hilden and drove to Annapolis Royal, NS. It was a moderate distance, 146 miles, which allowed plenty of time for some sight seeing.

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On our way the trip log that we were given had the interesting note that we were going to be half way between the Equator and the North Pole.

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We stopped at the Grand-Pre Historic Site (Grand Pre is French for great meadow). This area was settled and occupied by the Acadians, who were the original French settlers, in 1682. At that time was under French rule. Later, when the area was under English rule the deportations began in 1755. The reasons for the deportation include religion, war and politics. Some of those deported on ships died when the ships sunk. Many were deported to France and New England while thers decided to stay and hid out and still others migrated to Louisiana and became what we know today as the Cajuns.
Longfellow wrote a poem about the Acadians and the story of the deportation titled “Evangeline”. It had a profound effect. Longfellow is honored at Grand-Pre.

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There is a church that was built in the 1930’s and was thought to replicate the churches of the times. However, research since then shows that it really doesn’t. That said, the church remains and has pictures and story of the Acadian people. The story is too long and there are too many to include here but did I uploaded pictures of these at: http://summer2011jb.shutterfly.com/pictures/1690

If you are interested I these people there is much information on-line.

Okay, now for a tid-bit picked up along the way. In 1694 a guy named Sir Francis Nicholson named Annapolis Maryland in honor of then Princess Anne of England. Later when she was Queen of England Port Royal was taken over by the English and this town was also named Annapolis in her honor but since she was now a queen the word “Royal” was added, Thus we have today the town of Annapolis Royal.

We visited Fort Anne where the French surrendered to the English. To surrender in those days you lowered your flag. Having done this they then turned over the key to the fort and left. The picture below is the actual key to the fort. As you can see, the picture is blurry. There is a clear picture in the album that is on-line.

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Inside the main building are rooms of displays that tell the history of the fort and the area including a four panel tapestry. There were hundreds of people that worked on it for thousands of hours. Some had ancestors that are depicted in it and even Queen Elizabeth II put in a few stitches.

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The fort is a Bastioned Fort. If you are wondering what that means, here is a definition I found. “A projecting part of a fortification built at an angle to the line of a wall, so as to allow defensive fire in several directions”. Gun powder was the downfall of the forts and castles that were made of stone. The impact of the cannon balls would cause large sections of the walls to collapse. Walls were still needed but the problem was how to protect them. The builders used earth, placed in front of the walls to adsorb the cannon ball impact. The earth formed steep slopes that would slow down attacking soldiers and make them vulnerable to fire from the bastions.

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The fort is also part of the Acadian deportation story as over a thousand people were deported from the stone it's wharf.
July 1 is Canada Day and at all parks there were festivities. Here we have some participants, dressed in clothes of the period. There were also some imposters ……our tail gunner, in disguise.

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The only building standing that was originally built by the French is the powder magazine built in 1708. The wharf is the location that more than 1000 Acadians were deported from. There is also a monument in honor of Lt. Gen. Sieut de Monts who explored this area in1604.

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Another stop was at the Historic Gardens, which are made up of many themed gardens. Jackie’s favorite was the rose garden. Here there is a collection of about 200 bushes representing mare than 200 cultivators.

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There was a replica of a 1671 Acadian dwelling. I thought the door hinge was interesting. The tour of the gardens also included lunch before we made a stop in their German bakery

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Port Royal was located on the north shore of the Annapolis Basin and was the original location of the Acadian capital until it’s destruction in 1613. Today it is a recreation and is known as the Port-Royal Historic Site. The docent told us the history of the people and how they lived.

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The people that built the buildings were ship builders and their techniques can be seen in the structures.

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The building on the right has a board and batten roof while the smaller roof to the left and the roof over the well are made of shingles. He explained that the board and batten roof was quick to construct and would last about a year before the boards would warp and the roof start to leak. Shingles were the preferred roof however the shingles took a long time to make. It was estimated that 10,000 shingles were required to cover the roofs. Two men working all day could make about 150 shingles. It sounds like no big deal but there were a lot of other jobs to do just to survive. He then demonstrated the steps in producing one shingles. After he cut a section of wood from a log he then proceeded to use a vice, which he sat on and used his feet to produce the clamping force, and shaped both side of the wood into a shingle using a pull saw. We were able to take shingle as a souvenir. Another person stamped each one with a Port Royal stamp. A nice souvenir of the visit.

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On the way back to the RV park we stopped at the Annapolis Tidal Generating Plant. It is the only one in North America and one of only three in the world. We were fortunate to get there in time for a tour.

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It was about a half hour before the plant was going to start generating and at that time no visitors are allowed in the area of the generator. To make this work, there needs to be high tides and an estuary or river for the water to flow into and out of. The water seen flowing in the picture below is for the “fish ladder”. It isn’t a ladder like those at dams but a seruies of vertical columns that the fish swim in-between to pass from one side to the other.

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This plant can generate electricity when there is about a 6 foot difference in water levels. It generates only on the out going tide for about 5 ½ hours twice a day. In conventional hydro-electric plants the water flows vertically down through the turbine. In this plant the water flows horizontally through the turbine. There was a cut away model to give the visitors an understanding of how the system works.

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See the picture below. The rate of the water flow is controlled by vanes (red parts) that act like a valve. The actuation of the valve is controlled by movement of the (yellow) ring. The rotational speed of the turbine and power output is determine by the flow through the turbine.

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Downstream of the valve is a four bladed water turbine (red) and the rotating part of the electric generator is attached to the tips of the four blades. The rotating part cannot be seen in the picture

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We went down to the floor just above the generator and could look down on it,

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To the left, the valve housing is painted turquoise and control arms are yellow. To the right the stationary part of the generator is painted orange. At full power this can generate 20 Mega Watts, enough power for 4,500 homes. Okay, so that’s probably way more information than you need or wanted but being an engineer in my past life, stuff like this still gets me pretty excited.

The album of all the is at: http://summer2011jb.shutterfly.com/pictures/1394