Edward Cornwallis, governor-in-chief of Nova Scotia in the 1750s, knew industrious, hard-working settlers when he saw them — and he wasn't seeing many of them in the 2,500 emigrants he had brought to settle Halifax and establish a stronger British presence in the Canadian province.
Most of them had come because of a promise of a year's worth of free rations and were a lazy lot, he thought.
"Nothing will give me greater pleasure," he wrote home, "than to hear that your Lordships have fallen upon some means of sending over German and other foreign Protestants."
The Lordships obliged. Between 1750 and 1752, they were able to gather more than 2,000, mostly Germans with some Swiss from the Upper Rhine area, and convince them to move to the New World.
Cornwallis decided to settle them in an outpost a good day's sail from Halifax, a place he named Lunenburg in honor of George II, who was, in addition to King of England, also Duke of Brunschweig-Luneburg in Germany.
Thus, Lunenburg became one of the New World's first planned communities — settled by Germans at the behest of the British to counteract the influence of the French. More important than being Germans, however, was the fact they were Protestants and naturally opposed to any Catholics, French or otherwise. (Religion was then the definitive factor in a man's identity.)
In its first decades, Lunenburg was largely a farming community. And life there was typical of any other frontier outpost caught up in territorial struggles. No sooner did the threat of attack by the French and the Indians diminish than a new trouble arose. During the American Revolution, American privateers plundered the town.
But once those wars were put behind it, Lunenburg's fate and fortune took a decided turn for the better. Most importantly, Lunenburg discovered cod.
If you visit the town today, this is the aspect that intrigues you — Lunenburg, the quintessential fishing village. Lunenburg, the prosperous 19th-
century town that seems almost a place out of time.
This Lunenburg has a lot to offer the visitor: quaint charm, recreational opportunities, restaurants and shops. Those are things, of course, you can find in many a place in Canada's maritime provinces. But Lunenburg also offers distinct pleasures, things that can be found only there.
Chief among them:
Legacy
By the early 1800s, Lunenburg had established a lucrative fish trading business with the West Indies. Boatloads of cod returned with sugar, rum and molasses. An annual export of 25,000 quintals of codfish a year was usual, notes Brian Cuthbertson in "Lunenburg: An Illustrated History."
By 1830, the town claimed more than 15 square-rigged ships. And newspaper editor Joseph Howe paid tribute to "the virtues of steady perseverance and systematic economy" exemplified by the town's citizens.
Howe did complain about the fact that the citizens had a penchant for building homes directly on the street line instead of having front gardens and trees. But he noted that the town did have a "lively and prosperous air," with 150 houses painted in such whimsical colors as pink, red and green; three tall-spired churches; and several stores and public buildings, including a courthouse.
And that's pretty much what visitors to Lunenburg's Old Town see today.
Buildings dating back to as early as 1760 have been preserved; the streets still follow the original plan of 1754. So little change has swept through Lunenburg, in fact, that in 1994, it was declared a Canadian National Heritage District, and in 1995, it was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Neither fishing nor shipbuilding are as important as they once were. But this is a perfect place to learn about them.
The Fisheries Museum of the Atlantic, housed in a former fish-processing plant and dedicated to telling the story of the fishing heritage of Canada's Atlantic coast, is a must.
Here, you can see art and artifacts that tell the story of a fisherman's life. An aquarium shows off fresh and saltwater fish important to the nation's fishing industry. There is always work going on in the Boat Shop, where dories and other small craft regularly take shape.
A special display pays tribute to the Bluenose, built in 1921 and the undisputed champion of the North Atlantic, winner of four international schooner races and pictured on the back of Canada's dime.
Out on the waterfront, you can step aboard the Theresa E. Connor, the last of Lunenburg's dory schooners. Also ready for boarding is the Cape Sable, a steel-hulled side trawler built in 1962.
At one end of the waterfront, however, is a memorial to ships and crews that have been lost at sea, a reminder that for all the economic benefit it brought, the fishing industry is a chancy one, at best.
Lumps and bumps
As interesting and picturesque as the waterfront is, to get the full impact of Lunenburg, you must also wander through the town. If you have time for a walking tour, brochures and guides are available at the information center. Or, you may prefer to travel in style, in one of the open-air, horse-drawn carriages that offer tours.
Either way, you will see such historic buildings as the red-and-white Academy Building, built in the late 19th century and still used as a school; the black-and-white St. John's Church, erected by shipbuilding carpenters; and the wooden Lennox Tavern, built in 1810.
And you will see house after house, still painted in those whimsical colors of the past. And you will soon notice that though styles vary, many of them share the same interesting protrusion on the front, what has come to be called the "Lunenburg Bump," or, sometimes the "Lunenburg Lump."
Architecturally, you might learn, it is a variation on a five-sided Scottish dormer but extended down and out from the roof to create the lumpy frontpiece over the central doorway.
At the height of the homebuilding period in Old Town, homeowners vied with each other to create extravagant and unusual variations. As you walk or ride about the town, you will find yourself comparing their results.
Lighthouse route
Lunenburg is on what Nova Scotia calls the Lighthouse Route, a coastal drive that takes you from Halifax to Yarmouth, a four-hour drive by expressway but infinitely more interesting if you wander through some of the little coastal towns.
Lunenburg is about a third of the way between the two, which makes it a possible day-trip out of Halifax as well.
Either way, you find it is in good company. Not too far away is famed Peggy's Cove, site of the most famous lighthouse in Canada.
Even closer to Lunenburg is Mahone Bay, with its picturesque and much-photographed view of three seaside churches and a waterfront full of arts and crafts shops. Both sailing and sea kayaking are popular here. As are pirate stories.
Mahone Bay has 365 islands, and in early days it was the playground of pirates and privateers. Legend has it that Captain Kidd buried his treasure on Oak Island. But years of sporadic digging have yielded nothing.
And about 15 minutes west of Lunenburg is located the Ovens National Park, featuring sea caves carved out by the waves where a small vein of gold sparked a bit of a rush in 1861.
Throughout the summer, this area is home to numerous fairs and festivals that celebrate the many connections it has with fishing, boat-building and the sea.
And those are the connections you come to appreciate in and around historic Lunenburg. When the town was designated a World Heritage Site it was noted that although Old Town's "plan, architecture and culture are not individually unique, the high level of authenticity of all three elements together is believed to be unique in North America."
Edward Cornwallis himself would probably be pleased to see how it all turned out.
For more information on visiting Nova Scotia, call 1-800-565-8000, visit the Web site at www.exploreNS.com or send an e-mail to nsvisit@fox.nstn.ca
E-mail: carma@desnews.com