Georges Island, Halifax Nova Scotia

#Georges_Island_Halifax

Finally now in 2024 you can visit this National Historic Site with a ferry ride from the Cable Wharf area on the Halifax Boardwalk & explore Fort Charlotte;
 from its tunnels, fortifications plus all the other history with guides (period correct in costume) or if you choose, self tours

Little know fact that Georges Island (named after King George11 of England) was earlier selected as the gravesite for the French Admiral Duc dAnvile who had tried earlier to reclaim the Fortress of Louisburg from the British. 
After Britain settled in Halifax (1749) a French warship was permitted to visit the harbour to reclaim dAnvilles body & to be shipped back to France 

The first fortifications on Georges Island were constructed in 1750 to protect against the French ships from entering the harbour
Then with the French Revolutionary Wars beginning in 1792 Halifax became the principal Naval Base in North America for the British, so more upgrades were required
So then the son of King George (Prince Edward) was dispatched & put in charge for the construction of Fort Charlotte on the island 

 

 Then during the American Revolution the island defense systems were updated & renewed again

 But it did not see an attack like other points of my Province of  Nova Scotia as Georges Island was just one of five parts of the Halifax Defence Complex (Halifax Citadel Fort, Fort McNab, Prince of Wales Tower & York Redoubt)

 

During the 1850s the fort was rebuilt to be mostly subterranean with a maze of tunnels, corridors, storage rooms plus sleeping quarters buried deep inside the island.

 Then in the late 1890s because of the rapid pace of weapon development it soon rendered the fortress guns obsolete, so then the British installed a new torpedo system & established a manually operated submarine mine field across the harbour's channel, again by using Georges Island as its base.

 

Other history of Georges Island was the years of the French Acadian Deportation
So the island was used as an so called holding area for around 900 prisoners, which were then exiled to various parts of North America, Caribbean & some ended up in Louisiana because of language (still a French Territory at this time) & started the Cajun Culture 
 

Finally during World War One the island was used as an anchor to hold submarine nets to prevent those U-Boats from entering the inner bay where all the ships would gather to form a convoy to cross the ocean with the Canadian Navy to provide protection

So with the over crowded harbor that was what created The Halifax Explosion (December 6th 1917)
 as two ships collided by accident;
Belgian relief vessel Imo & the French munitions ship Mont Blanc
 This then created the biggest man made explosion up to the Atomic Age
with least 1782 people who lost their lives plus another 9,000 others injured from this tragedy 

Since 1971 we have given the City of Boston a Christmas Tree ( lit every season at the Boston Common) for their assistance during this horrific event as a way of saying Thank You

  

 To present times; Georges Island was deemed a National Historic Site in 1965 & finally after many years of closure (with the help of Federal Funding) the island has now opened up to the general public

Plus now with over the 200 Cruise Ship visits per season, direct flights from Europe & the City being host to hundreds of Conventions plus International Events it has become one of the top tourist attractions here in Halifax

 In closing, it shows there is a great interest in our history here on the east coast of Canada.