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Reports written by Susan
Wels
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Images produced by Matt Tulloch | |||
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Tuesday, August 18, 1998
"The coast of Ireland looked very beautiful as we approached Queenstown Harbor....We took on board our pilot, ran slowly towards the harbor, with the sounding line dropping all the time, and came to a stop..."
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 The
Nadir is nearing land. After two and a half weeks at sea, we’re
finally within sight of Newfoundland.Terra firma holds a very powerful attraction for the crew. Tonight, anticipating our arrival in St. John’s, they’re crowding the ship's bridge, scanning the grey water for shadowy land forms of coastal cliffs and hills. Suddenly, at 10:00 p.m., we see the blinking beam of Cape Spear lighthouse through the fog, and then the lights of a small city gleaming in the cleft of hills. Everyone is strangely quiet on the bridge as we approach the coast. Now the red and green lights of a pilot boat appear, and the pilot, John Wakeham, comes aboard to guide the Nadir into St. John’s narrow harbor. We slow to four knots, then three, as we pass Esso oil tanks and the steep rise of Signal Hill, where Guglielmo Marconi received his first transatlantic wireless transmission in 1901. |
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 The
Nadir’s captain, Michel Houmard, shouts orders as he
maneuvers the ship deftly into port. At 10:45 p.m., the Nadir pulls
up dockside, and we all crowd the rail to get a good, long-awaited look
at solid ground—as well as at the fifty people and two kilted bagpipers
who have unexpectedly arrived to greet us."We saw you on the news," John Wakeham tells us, "and we all thought the Titanic was coming in. Welcome to St. John’s," he says, the City of Legends. |
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