I mentioned before that my mother passed away at the end of April this year, just before her 90th birthday. With that inevitable but nonetheless life changing event, pictures from deep in the past came out.
One photo album that got a lot of attention belonged to my father and chronicled his time at a radar station on a remote island off Labrador during World War II. Ironically, this was before my father had even met my mother. Seeing, and hearing about, what the conditions were like in this barren, frozen land before much of today’s technology was even thought of and resources were scarce was an amazing treat.
In that album, there were some additional images that were not taken by my father. There was a series of post cards featuring highlights of Eastern Canada. Those I will feature in an upcoming article. One postcard that caught my eye was of a cruise ship docked at a barren harbour.
I want it to be clearly known that I would have found little about this ship if it were not for two great web sites. The Cruise People and Cruise Line History had recently published articles on the 6,893 gross ton T.S.S. North Star for the anniversary of D-Day. After being converted to HMCS Prince Henry, the same ship played an important role carrying soldiers from Canada, England and the United States across the English Channel to the shores of France. Prince Henry shuttled 3,704 soldiers across the Channel in the summer of 1944
For much more detail on the ship in both stages of its existence, click on the links in the above paragraph to go directly to the articles that were so helpful to me.
T.S.S. North Star
T.S.S. North Star was a smaller look-a-like of the Titanic with three old-school steam stacks in a line down the centre of the ship. My Dad couldn’t recall why he even had the post card and why it had its own page in the photo album. Upon further investigation, this ship played an important role for Canada and the Allies near the end of that Second World War.
Clarke Steamship Company was founded in 1921 and, with the North Star, was a pioneer of the Caribbean Luxury cruise. Before the war started, North Star spent her winters running cruises to Jamaica out of Miami, Florida. In the summer months, she re-positioned to Montreal and cruised up the St. Lawrence to Labrador.
In the 1930’s, a 11 to 12 night cruise from Montreal to Labrador started as low as $135 per person. $1 in 1935 is apparently equal to $17.39 in 2014. Therefore, the same cruise in today’s currency would start at $2,347 per person. Really, not far off from today’s standard for something comparable.
The cruise line was popular for its fine French cuisine. It was also popular during prohibition because those same anti-alcohol laws did not apply on the high seas.
As for the location of the ship in the post card above, St. Anthony is a town on the northern tip of the island of Newfoundland, not far from Labrador. St. Anthony was settled in the early 1500’s and has a current population of around 2,400. Like many towns in Newfoundland, the main industry and employer in town had been the fisheries. With depletion of the Atlantic fish stocks, St. Anthony now relies on tourism.
People travel to this wind-swept, very non-tropical location primarily to watch icebergs and whales pass by in the Atlantic Ocean. Nearby is the Viking Settlement at L’Anse aux Meadows. When the above postcard was issued, the settlement hadn’t even been discovered yet. It took until 1960 to discover this viking home that dates back to around the year 1,000. L’Anse aux Meadows was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1978. It was already designated a Natural Historic Site of Canada back in 1968.
The above post card featuring an artist’s rendering of the ship was found on eBay (selling for about $6). This postcard is dated 1938, just before North Star’s transformation into the HMCS Prince Henry.
For more looks into the past, take a look at our article on vintage Canadian postcards.
