Cape Race

For other uses, see The Cape Race (the band).

Cape Race

Location of Cape Race in Newfoundland

Cape Race is a point of land located at the southeastern tip of the Avalon Peninsula on the island of Newfoundland, Canada. Its name is thought to come from the original Portuguese name for this cape, "Raso", or "bare". The Cape appeared on early sixteenth century maps as Cape Raso and its name may derive from a cape of the same name at the mouth of the Tagus River in Portugal.

Geography

Dense fog, rocky coasts, and its proximity to trans-Atlantic shipping routes have resulted in many shipwrecks near Cape Race over the years. One of the most famous was the SS Arctic. Cape Race is a flat barren point of land jutting out into the Atlantic Ocean, its cliffs rising nearly vertically to 30.5 m (100 ft) above sea level. On average it is shrouded in fog on 158 days of the year.

Cape Race Lighthouse

Cape Race

The second Cape Race Lighthouse from 1907
Location	Southeastern Newfoundland
Coordinates	46°39′31.43″N 53°04′22.27″W
Year first constructed	1907
Construction	Concrete
Tower shape	Cylindrical
Markings / pattern	White with red lantern
Height	29 metres (95 ft)
Focal height	52 metres (171 ft)
Original lens	Hyperradiant Fresnel lens by Chance Brothers
Range	24 nautical miles
Characteristic	Fl. 7.5s
Fog signal	Horn (2) 60s
Admiralty number	H0444
NGA number	1904
ARLHS number	CAN-118

In 1856, the first lighthouse was installed by the British Government's Trinity House. It was a cast iron tower with a coal oil lamp turned by clockwork. It was replaced in 1907 by a 29 metres tall concrete tower and a light with a massive hyperradiant Fresnel lens made by Chance Brothers in England. The original lighthouse was then moved to Cape North; it now stands in front of the Canada Science and Technology Museum in Ottawa. The light's characteristic is a single white flash every 7.5 seconds, additionally a foghorn may sound a signal of two blasts every 60 seconds. There is also a high-power LORAN-C transmitter at Cape Race, whose mast was, until the completion of CN Tower, the tallest structure of Canada.

History

Postage stamp of Cape Race, Newfoundland

From 1859 to 1866, the New York City Associated Press kept a newsboat at Cape Race to meet ocean liners passing by on their way from Europe so that news could be telegraphed to New York. These news items carried the byline "via Cape Race".

In 1904, the first wireless station in Newfoundland was built at Cape Race. This was the only land-based location that received the distress call from the RMS Titanic. On the night Titanic sank, wireless operator Jack Phillips was sending telegraphs to Cape Race for relay to New York City. When Cyril Evans, wireless operator of the SS Californian, sent an iceberg warning to Titanic, only a few miles away, Phillips was annoyed with the loud signal (due to the proximity) and responded “Shut up, Shut up, I’m working Cape Race.” This would become a famous incident, as the bored Evans soon went to sleep, and Titanic hit an iceberg only fifteen minutes later. After Titanic's distress call, Cape Race played a major role in relaying news of the sinking to other ships and land locations.

References

• Rowlett, Russ. "Lighthouses of Southeast Newfoundland". The Lighthouse Directory. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. http://www.unc.edu/~rowlett/lighthouse/nfle.htm. Retrieved July 24, 2008. 
• http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Amerika14April1912.JPG

External links

• Cape Race Wireless log at sinking of Titanic preserved at the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic, Halifax