| The Burin Peninsula is an amazing drive. The scenery | | | | ropes down the cliffs and hoisting the men up to |
| constantly changes. We stayed at Golden Sands | | | | safety, they were able to save 186 personnel. 203 |
| Camp Ground on beautiful Golden Sand Lake outside | | | | perished in the oil slick freezing waters. |
| of Marystown. The lake, fed by two salmon rivers, is | | | | Many of the townspeople suffered frostbite |
| about four miles in diameter and three feet deep for | | | | themselves and other injuries. They took the sailors |
| at least ½ mile from the shore. Then it drops | | | | into their homes, warmed them, ministered to their |
| off to about two hundred feet. The lake bed is | | | | injuries and sheltered them until help could come. A |
| sandy, which makes it a great place to do water | | | | grateful US Government erected a hospital for the |
| hiking. We were fortunate to get the last space | | | | community. A trail, which we took, leads the way to |
| available. | | | | the wreck site. A hay building still has the scars of |
| Wednesday, August 13, 2003 | | | | the tar from the sailor's clothing as they rubbed |
| Drove the loop around the Burin Peninsula. Our first | | | | against it to ascend the hills. |
| stop was St. Lawrence, a town which produced the | | | | Our next stop was Point May, from which we were |
| best soccer teams in the nation. The town is noted | | | | able to see France, over 1,800 miles away. Really we |
| for its flourspar deposits, which accounted for its | | | | saw France's holdings in North America, the islands of |
| prosperity, but also for the numerous deaths from | | | | St. Pierre and Miquelon, quite visible from shore.They |
| respiratory diseases and cancer, the later cause by | | | | can be reached by ferry. |
| radon gas present in the mines. A museum shows | | | | Off to Fortune to seek the ecological reserve. |
| the life of the miner. | | | | Reached by some precarious paths leading the cliff |
| February 18, 1942 is a date that will be forever | | | | side rocks of slate the rocks immortalize fossils from |
| remembered in US Naval history and in Newfoundland. | | | | over 550 million years ago. Sea clams and worms are |
| The destroyer USS Truxton and her supply ship USS | | | | just some of them visible in the rocks. A fossilized |
| Pollux ran aground at night in a blizzard. One seaman | | | | dinosaur is also resting there too. |
| was able to scale the cliffs at the shore and saw a | | | | When we returned to Golden Sands, the beach was |
| light through the blinding snow. It was one of the | | | | crowded with people. It was time for us to move on. |
| mine's lights. The people from the town came out to | | | | We spent the night at a truck stop on the TCH, ate |
| rescue the sailors awashed in the seas and freezing | | | | dinner in their restaurant (excellent food), and retired |
| to death on the shore. Lowering themselves by | | | | to the evening. |