Cape Race

Cape Race, Newfoundland

Cape Race is a point of land located at the southeastern tip of the Avalon Peninsula in 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 may derive from a cape of the same name at the mouth of the Tagus River in Portugal.

Geography

Dense fogs, rocky coasts, and its proximity to trans-Atlantic shipping routes have resulted in many shipwrecks near Cape Race over the years. Cape Race is a flat barren point of land juting out into the Atlantic Ocean. It's clifts rising nearly vertical to 30.5 m (100 ft) above sea level. According to meteorological statistics it is shrouded in fog over 158 days of the year.

Lighthouse

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 concrete tower and a light with a massive hyperradiant Fresnel lens. The original lighthouse was then moved to Cape North; it now stands in front of the Canada Science and Technology Museum in Ottawa.

Postage stamp of Cape Race, Newfoundland

History

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 one of two land-based locations that received the distress call from the RMS Titanic, the other being the Marconi telegraph station on top of the Wannamaker's department store.

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